Ronald Thwaites | Rabbit holes of our making

A rabbit hole refers to a confusing or nonsensical situation from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.

What a way we chase after things without considering the outcomes. We are in great haste to send King Charles packing. Hungry and largely disinterested Jamaicans are being told that there is a bill to be tabled by next month to make Jamaica a republic. This is coming from those who think they are in charge of our constitutional destiny . A minister calls it “my bill”! That’s exactly how the monarch addresses her subjects.

The trouble is that most of us don’t trust the Government’s intentions. They have already alienated us by their secrecy, indecent haste and by proposing to take away some of our rights and freedoms.

Mind you, King Charles couldn’t care less if he loses his Jamaican kingdom. It is we who are making the fuss. And what a callow fuss it is. Because the rabbit hole we are digging for ourselves will mean that long after we become a republic, Jamaican litigants will still be begging a visa to appear before King Charles’ Privy Council in London whenever we have a point of Jamaican law to settle conclusively. And those who get permission to go will have to stand in court and proclaim “God save the King”– the same King we have solemnly banished from King’s House. So much for decolonisation!

CONSENSUS?

Another rabbit hole of our making is the pretence at consensus (only weakly – sadly weakly being rebutted by the People’s National Party (PNP) members of the CRC) that the one-sided method of making critical appointments and decisions of state is to be affirmed rather than rejected, thus effectively confirming prime ministerial dictatorship and placing us on the road to El Salvador. Where are the democrats on the CRC?

When has this minority government asked the citizenry if this is the dead-end path they wish to continue trodding? The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) seems to think that they represent the height of benevolence and will be in power forever. The former is as untrue as the latter is unlikely. The power grab is a “panya machete”. Same knife which stick orange sheep now will stick green goat later.

HEGEMONY

The public mood which both parties must respect is that we don’t want one-sided appointments and ‘nicodemus’ legislative changes in our future. The new constitutional order must break one-party hegemony whether of the JLP or PNP. Is the ‘ Star Chamber’ Commission convinced of that?

The manoeuvring over how the President of the Republic is to be chosen must be a defining occasion to establish this principle. The Westminster “tradition” which entrenches prime ministerial supremacy, with an occasional nod to the leader of the Opposition, will no longer cut it in the settled climate of apathy and mistrust which is the character of political sentiment in Jamaica today.

KARL’S DILEMMA

Karl Samuda, a good and experienced minister, is awkwardly trying to stay out of the long-standing rabbit hole of illegal and unfair treatment of security guards. The present scene was entirely predictable. Years ago, my motion in Parliament to establish joint industrial councils for the private security, tourism and business process workers was scorned and ignored. These labour-intensive sectors of the economy are premised on cheap, disorganised and needy workers. There is no back money for them to get.

This administration is generally beholden to capital and needs increasing services and sometimes credit from the security companies. So Karl is constrained from intervening for the guards, although inaction will have far-reaching political consequences.

The contracts being forced upon the guards cannot be compatible with the judgment in the National Housing Trust and Marksman case. The Supreme Court will one long day away be called upon to determine if the terms are legal. Very probably, they are not.

‘WHAT GONE BAD A MAWNIN...’

Meanwhile, the security guards, who we hire to protect us, will themselves remain unprotected, at best with one-year contracts devoid of benefits past or present; at worst without work for refusing to sign. Both groupings end up sulking at a government who has taken sides against them even as they swell the already bloated ranks of the working poor and unemployed.

Once again, the representative arm, the elected ones, will do little or nothing to help the people who put them in Gordon House. And have you heard the silence of the trade unions? The labour movement, the foundation stone of Jamaican nationalism, has been neutered. Or has it castrated itself? Big up Vincent Morrison, you are the exception!

ON ACCOUNTABILITY

Last week, it was confirmed that the Ministry of Health has not submitted annual accounts for more than nine years. During that time, the health ministry has been entrusted with about half a trillion dollars of taxpayers money. Similarly, the Institute of Sports has failed in presenting accounts for almost two decades. The risk of serious fraud is the consequence.

A NO NUTTIN?

I had proposed to Parliament that if a ministry, department or agency of the State was in arrears with their accounts for more than six months without good excuse and specific leave, then they should receive no more money until they complied. That resolution elicited wry laughter in the House and was derisively discarded.

The members of Parliament don’t care. We routinely don’t read, let alone interrogate the financial reports of government entities when they are tabled.

My strong impression is that between a quarter and a third of taxpayers money could be saved or better spent each year. That’s $250 billion at the lower end of my estimate. I challenge the government, any government, to provide the evidence to disprove this contention.

It follows that, if we were to emerge from the rabbit hole of public waste, we would have the resources to relieve ‘sufferation’ and give salvific opportunity to the weakest. All without raising another penny of taxes or further prostituting the land. Achieving this should be the major preoccupation of leadership and the canons of efficient public spending should be riveted in our constitution. But that is too disruptive of the present order to happen. Instead, the King is our priority.

The rabbit holes of inbred divisiveness and arrogant one-upmanship are holding us back.

Rev Ronald G Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central, and was the minister of education. He is principal of St Michael’s College at the UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com