Norris McDonald | Can poor people get economic justice under ‘crony capitalism’?

“Everybody talking about peace

But no one talking about justice

… I want equal rights and

justice!”

– Peter Tosh

For Black people of Africa, Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean, the issue of proper management of government is of extreme importance. It is even more important because our political detractors like to point to the failures of political leadership in all levels of society.

We hear many racists, and even some of our own people say, “black people can’t manage themselves”.

Is this true?

Efficiency, good government, and the use of the national budget to improve people’s lives are what people expect. And people have a right to be very critical of their government for any potential failings.

Irrespective of where people live, once they pay their taxes and work hard to help create wealth, they want to know that they will get a fair shake of the cow’s messy tail!

But to take this to another level of saying, or agreeing with any neocolonialist argument, that we can’t manage our affairs, may be akin to saying that “we were better off under colonialism”.

This is not a stretch.

Whether we like it or not, there are many black people, even among the middle class, who harbour a neocolonialist mindset.

This issue is of importance because of the recent issues in which Prime Minister Andrew Holness was forced to address issues of political conflict. In this sense, our societies make a clear distinction between any alleged failings of our leaders and the general racial characteristic and acumen of our people.

The mistake many of our leaders make, and Mr Holness is not alone, is thinking that good management means that we have met and passed some wonderful targets set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

And here again, in the wake of the Usain Bolt scamming, we see another matter that has put Jamaica in the world’s spotlight.

Why would any politician fall into the trap of an unfortunate self-inflicted wound?

CRONY CAPITALISM

It may be small comfort but it is not as if American and European societies are lily-white. I think the ‘mother of all corruptions’ starts in their banking system, since it is they who work, ‘bank in glove’, to stash any illicit funds that are transferred from the developing nations.

Then we have the Western political leaders who work overtime to overthrow governments and install corrupt leaders that serve their international agenda.

If there is any political sense of misguided relief, remember that former French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to prison for bribery and influence peddling.

And now we have the sitting French President, Emmanuel ‘Le Petite’ Napoleon Macron, under investigation for grave acts of potential corruption.

Many big American bankers and businessmen have been prosecuted for bribery and fraud.

Western corporations, especially those in oil and gas exploration, mining and extraction, have found themselves in legal hot water for bribing or attempting to bribe governments in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere.

Money laundering worldwide have landed many American and European banks in financial hot water.

America takes political corruption to the very extreme. There, military contractors, big oil and gas, banks and pharmaceutical companies can willy-nilly, literally by senators and Congress, person using all sorts of underhanded tricks.

Crony capitalism is the selfish promotion by politicians of themselves, their families, and friends. Some may well deem it as their entitlement of political service.

Russia and China are not immune either. So, we see that corrupt political behaviour can occur anywhere.

Does this make it morally right and acceptable? Of course not!

Why is it then that there are global corruption indices that unfairly single out Black countries and not the corrupt white world?

Where we think a problem exists, we must address it and not fall into the mental trap of self-hatred and ridicule. Is that what we want? One would certainly hope not.

EQUAL RIGHTS AND JUSTICE

Therefore, the key issue, in my opinion, is to make sure that all requirements for good governance are met by our political leaders.

Indeed, all leaders ought to follow any benchmarks and norms that have been established to promote good governance.

Don’t you think it is cynical that ‘belt-tightening’ measures make the poor get poorer, the rich get richer, and politicians become perceived as newly rich?

My friends, political corruption, or the perception thereof, is something that all political parties, civil society and the business community must unite to address. If not, it will breed greater cynicism towards politics and may well help to create further lawlessness among the youth.

The mortal danger to society, therefore, is that political despotism and crony capitalism is bad, and we ought to be guarded against it. The additional risk we face is that people’s confidence in their government, in democracy, and in the rule of law can be undermined by perceptions of poor governance.

The issue is not political or ideological purity. It is one of being called to national service and, therefore, there is a reasonable expectation that political leaders must strive to do their best to serve the people.

My dear friends, if you are itching to ask me if economic justice is possible under capitalism, then please go ahead.

The way thinks stand, I just don’t think so.

I think such cravenness, if and where it exists, or is perceived to exist, may well be a gross betrayal of our struggle to gain political freedom.

I know this is another issue, but let’s at least agree for now that, given the political, racial and class structure of society, it is truly naïve to expect fair play and justice to be achieved under capitalism.

The challenge we face, in the final analysis, is to see how we can eliminate fraud, waste and mismanagement in order to make the national budget become a progressive instrument to be used to improve people’s lives.

That is just the ‘bitta’ truth!

Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, political analyst, and respiratory therapist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorris@yahoo.com.