Garth Rattray | Great expectations versus reality

I was intrigued by an undated video snippet of a little boy carrying out an impromptu interview of our prime minister. It began like this. [Little boy] “Umm … is your work, your job of being a prime minister easy or difficult?” [Prime Minister] “What do you think?” [Little boy] “I think it’s very difficult.’” [Prime Minister] “You’re correct”. This was followed by mutual laughter.

The prime minister went on to say … “But, no, it’s … it’s not an easy job. When you’re prime minister everybody’s problem becomes your problem, yeah, and if you are a prime minister that people believe can do stuff, then everything is going to be placed at your feet. Ahm, so, in a sense your success becomes your own challenge eh… because people believe that you’re not doing enough based upon what they think you can do and what you have achieved in the … in the past. So, I find it very amusing on social media, somebody drops in a pothole and says, Andrew Holness look at the pothole!”

“Ultimately yes … you’re … you’re responsible, you have to make the policies work; but the truth is Kaleb, that it is a difficult job, you can’t please everyone. But you must be focused on what it is that you have set out to do and try to achieve those things while at the same time giving everyone a listening ear, you won’t be able to respond to everybody, but you must at least have the system in place to scan the environment to hear what everybody is saying. You find a quiet place, and you make a decision, and once you’ve made a decision, that is what you’re going to do … and that’s leadership.”

I am not a political animal. But even if I were one, I know that I am one of the many people who do not have the make-up to be a prime minister. It must be an extremely difficult job; the responsibility alone would finish me off. I abhor stress and that job is nothing but stressful. However, several things jumped out at me during that interview, and they gave me an insight into why some things are just not working out … and will never work out unless they are approached in a different way.

WHAT POLITICIANS SAY

First, the great expectations that people have of politicians have been caused by what politicians say when they are actively or passively campaigning. Political campaigning must never be confused with advertising. In advertising, there is an expectation of ‘poetic licence’… the freedom to depart from the facts of a matter in order to garner interest in a product. We can ignore, take or leave a product, but politics involves choosing people who will affect all our lives and the lives of future generations in serious ways.

Consequently, nobody wants politicians to vary from the truth when they are trying to woo the citizenry. However, the reality of life is that, in order to enter office, politicians must get elected; and to get elected they must make promises. But politicians sometimes make wild assertions about what they can and will do if they are elected, the electorate is often disappointed because most political promises are not met. Politicians forget that politicking and romancing are very similar. In both arenas, you must keep doing whatever you did to get someone if you want to keep that someone. And in romancing, people expect that there will be fealty to them and not to something like a political party.

This, from the Northwestern Institute for Policy Research “Campaign promises are central to representation and accountability, where candidates use promises to attract voters and fulfilment of those promises is used as a rubric for success.” This is where the problems begin, when reality sets in, people become disappointed. Promising that we will be able to sleep with our windows and doors open at night and then seeing our fellow citizens being killed day in and day out makes people lose trust in our politicians on many levels.

LOSE TRUST

People lose trust in their word. When people do not believe what their leaders are telling them, there is a huge problem. People will not adhere to whatever laws (rules and regulations) exist because they will make up their own rules and regulations that suit their particular circumstances in life. That’s called anarchy.

When political promises are not kept, people will also lose faith in the ability of our leaders to be effective in whatever they need to do for the sake of our nation. Politicians need to come to the realisation that they are being judged (assessed) more on their failures than they are on their successes. No nation wants leaders whose promises are less dependable than New Year’s resolutions.

Obviously, no leader is expected to do everything, but a good leader must ensure that there are mechanisms to hold others accountable. In Jamaica, there is so much inefficiency and corruption that many government agencies are performing like independent, mini states. Consequently, every now and then it is made public that they overstepped their bounds regarding how tax dollars are spent.

Everybody must be held accountable. Ultimately, you and I … all the citizens are the stakeholders. Their needs to be overseeing bodies to which the various government entities must submit to unscheduled auditing of procedures and finances. Then, potholes will be fixed, and various municipalities will do their job efficiently and without the influence of corruption.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com