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EDITORIAL - The shedding of dons
Published: Sunday | November 6, 2011
Published: Sunday | November 6, 2011
We suppose that Mr J.C. Hutchinson is deserving of commendation for being forthright in admitting to past scandalous behaviour.
Perhaps, too, that Jamaicans should be grateful to the parliamentarian for having, even if unwittingly, unveiled to the public the seamy underbelly of the country's politics and the unreasonable roles that parliamentarians, of their own making, are asked to undertake. Indeed, these are matters that are deserving of serious, mature debate in the campaign for the general election for which the country is now preparing.
Perhaps, too, that Jamaicans should be grateful to the parliamentarian for having, even if unwittingly, unveiled to the public the seamy underbelly of the country's politics and the unreasonable roles that parliamentarians, of their own making, are asked to undertake. Indeed, these are matters that are deserving of serious, mature debate in the campaign for the general election for which the country is now preparing.
Mr Hutchinson is the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) member of parliament for North West St Elizabeth. But he is under pressure from some of the JLP's supporters in the riding, who demonstrated at his constituency office last Thursday.
Their claim is that Mr Hutchinson, one of those MPs who rarely speak in the House, is a poor representative. According to this group, he has, in three consecutive terms - he was previously in the House in the 1980s - achieved little for their communities. So, they want someone new as the JLP's standard-bearer in North West St Elizabeth.
What is curious is how Mr Hutchinson chose to hit back at his detractors. They want to hold on to an old style of spoils-based politics, to which he, until recently, subscribed, with 'dons' as middlemen and arbiters. He wants to move on.
At least, that, to this newspaper, is a fair interpretation of what Mr Hutchinson said in those grinning television images:
Said he: "I have told all my don men that money cut off now." He added that he is now on a programme to care for "the sick and the cripple".
Said he: "I have told all my don men that money cut off now." He added that he is now on a programme to care for "the sick and the cripple".
ending garrison politics
The concept of the don in Jamaica's political parlance is of enforcers who help to corral votes, push back challenges and through whom politicians channel taxpayers' resources to supporters. Much of it is siphoned from infrastructure projects and that greasy vat of political pork, euphemistically called the Constituency Development Fund.
It is good, assuming what we perceive him to be saying is indeed the case, that Mr Hutchinson would want to break away from this type of politics, which is more typically identified with a riding not Mr Hutchinson's, but in urban, inner-city communities.
In fact, Mr Hutchinson's retreat from dons, and presumably the kind of politics they represent, resonates with Prime Minister Andrew Holness' call for an end to zones of political exclusion, referred to as garrisons, and his invitation to the opposition leader, Mrs Portia Simpson, to walk with him through his constituency of West Central St Andrew, which has many of the characteristics of a political garrison. Mrs Simpson Miller has hesitated, placing conditions on any acceptance.
She should reconsider her position, and Jamaica's thinking middle class, which for too long has accepted its disenfranchisement by the political establishment, should insist that she does. Indeed, breaking down these garrisons and the reintegration of these communities into a functioning Jamaican state is critical to the re-enfranchisement of the thinking middle class.
Ending constituency hostage-taking of communities by parties liberates both, and ends the pressure on politicians to be dolers of social welfare, thus allowing them to be representatives in a state that sets the broad parameters within which people can master their own development. That a reformed Mr Hutchinson would be discovering this is liberating to all.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
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