Peter Espeut | From whence shall come our hope?

You could see it coming. Only 59 per cent of registered voters turned out in 1944; the optimism at Independence brought out 73 per cent in 1962. Things were not all that great for the majority, and the socialist promise of “Better mus’ come” brought out 85 per cent in 1976; better did not come, and 87 per cent voted out the People’s National Party (PNP) in 1980. Things have gone downhill since.

The election boycott by the PNP brought out less than three per cent of registered voters in 1983, and also brought an end to the see-saw two-term syndrome; the PNP beat the unelectable Seaga-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) four times straight, each time with fewer voters turning out. A blip of a 61 per cent turnout brought back the JLP in 2007, the last time a winning party gained more than 30 per cent of registered voters. The turnout at the last election (2020) was 38 per cent, with the present government winning the support of only 21 per cent of the electorate.

Recent opinion poll results show support for both parties falling even lower. Can we call a situation where more than 60 per cent stay away from elections a democracy? When a party wins with less than 20 per cent of the registered voters, does it form a government by the people, of the people, and for the people? At what point will the Jamaican people become ungovernable? With our extraordinarily high murder rate, and widespread disobedience of our COVID-19 and traffic regulations, has this already happened?

NOT HEALTHY

This is not a healthy political situation, and nothing on the horizon suggests an improvement any time soon. Each successive government outdoes its predecessor in (discovered) corruption scandals; who knows how many more remain undiscovered?

The political system both our major political parties have created is one in which they take turns dividing the scarce benefits and spoils among their dwindling cadre of supporters. Both major parties collude to make political corruption harder to detect and even harder to prosecute.

You would have thought that with dwindling electoral support, one party or the other would break ranks, and promise to make the declaration of the assets of politicians and public servants open and available for the public to see, to show they have clean hands. But this would contravene the very reason so many of them are in politics in the first place. Unless there is a game changer, expect the present corrupt system to be in place for a long, long time!

You would have thought that the Jamaican private sector – whose political donations are the lubrication that keeps the corrupt political machine turning over – would demand that their contributions not become dirty money supporting political garrisons and thugs, and electoral fraud; but they seem to be satisfied that they are getting their money’s worth. These are the folks who get the firearm licences, and the plum board appointments, and some sort of indemnification from prosecution, no matter what chicanery they are discovered to be involved in.

You would have thought that the Church, which preaches hell fire and brimstone for select sins, would demand repentance from their members caught with their pants down in political corruption scandals, or spousal abuse; the Jamaican Church has always been too close with the powers that be to speak truth to power. And the Church is made up – after all – of men and women with the proclivities and weaknesses of flawed men and women.

FAIRLY PESSIMISTIC

So, from whence will come our salvation? I am fairly pessimistic, but in the final analysis I can’t throw up my hands in the air, and moan that all is lost, and wail that there is no hope at all. I ask myself: from which sector of Jamaican society may we expect to find the seed – the potential – which can grow into the game changers?

It seems to me that for all her faults – and there are many, I know – the Church has within herself the ethos and the mission to be the agent of change. From the Church have come Bartolomé de las Casas, Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, and Desmond Tutu. The message of the gospel has the power to radicalise those that understand it and interiorise it. And then things cannot remain the same!

But then from within the Church have also come those who created and perpetuated for so long the dehumanising system of chattel slavery, and the genocide of indigenous peoples, and the holocaust. Quietism and pietism can malform consciences, and turn people in on themselves. That is where we are now in Jamaica, with the Kevin Smiths and the prosperity gospel evangelisers capturing the hearts and minds of so many.

Maybe the divine intervention called for by so many to reduce murder and crime, and educational deficits and corruption, will take flesh in those who claim membership in the Body of Christ. He who bought and brought liberation from sin for so many of us can inspire us to work hard to liberate our fellows from the effects of sin.

The day the Church changes the hearts of her many members in the private sector to redirect their donations towards the sustainable development of our nation and our people, is the day we will begin to transform our corrupt political system, which cannot lead us where we want to go as a nation. Then and only then will ethical people offer themselves for public service, and the hundreds of thousands of decent Jamaicans turn out to vote.

The Rev Peter Espeut is a development scientist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com