STRANGERS IN THE HOUSE

Forty-one per cent of legislators in the Lower House recorded below-average attendance at sittings last year, with two among them attending fewer than five of the 53 meetings held, a review of parliamentary records has revealed.

A further look at the data from Gordon House showed that just over half of the 26 falling below average did not attend 20 or more sittings.

The average number of sittings missed for 2022 was 14.

Gordon House could not account for the attendance of some members at some sittings, while a few members of parliament (MPs) were marked both absent on present on some days. A request for clarification by The Sunday Gleaner last Monday was not honoured up press time last evening.

House records indicate that Prime Minister Andrew Holness attended 29 sittings last year and missed 23. The prime minister offered two apologies for his absence due to government business and a general apology for missing another sitting. Parliament, up to press time, did not say whether he was present for the December 6 sitting of the House.

His opposition counterpart, Mark Golding attended 37 sittings last year. Records show that the opposition leader missed 14. Golding submitted an apology for absence due to government business on one occasion and apologised thrice for general absence. Parliament did not indicate whether he was present for the April 4 and May 17 sittings.

The disclosure comes amid Holness’ attempts to establish an accountability framework for MPs. including financial penalties for those who miss sittings without a plausible excuse.

He suggested that the fines be deducted from the MPs’ new salaries, but academic and public commentator Dr Maziki Thame believes that the focus on attendance is misdirected.

“I think that overall, we have the wrong idea about what performance is and how to fix it,” Thame told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday.

“Political issues require political solutions and present discussions are really a kind of managerial approach that does not deepen democracy,” she added.

Thame’s point was buttressed by University of the West Indies colleague Christopher Charles, a professor in political and social psychology, who argued that under the structural arrangements of Jamaica’s political system and supporting parliamentary conventions, attendance has a minimal positive impact.

Further, Charles said attendance, by itself, does not automatically improve performance if there is no meaningful contribution to the legislative debates.

“There are MPs who attend regularly and do not contribute anything to the House, apart from cheering and voting for their political party rather than the country. Is this quality representation? No.

“There are those who attend regularly and contribute actively to the legislative agenda but some of the laws have serious loopholes. We need to modify or change the system, and choose competent representatives to seriously serve the people and, in this context, set measurable benchmarks for quality representation,” he said.

ATTENDED FEW SITTINGS

Government backbencher Lester Mike Henry, who celebrated his 88th birthday last month, missed more than 80 per cent of sittings in the House of Representatives last year, attending only three of 53.

Henry, a former government minister in the Holness administration up to 2020, could not be reached for comment.

Similarly, former opposition leader-turned-backbencher Dr Peter Phillips also attended only three parliamentary sittings.

Both are recorded as having sent multiple apologies, including because of illness, to House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple Philibert.

On Friday, Phillips, a former government minister in both the P.J. Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller administrations, told The Sunday Gleaner that his cancer treatment has kept him away from the House.

Phillips had disclosed his colon cancer diagnosis three years ago ahead of his run for Jamaica House.

“It’s mainly because it has coincided with me also getting treatment for my illness. I have got a long-term release because I have been getting chemotherapy all this period,” the 73-year-old said.

“We all have health issues from time to time and still perform life tasks,” Professor Charles said in addressing the matter. “Therefore, the deciding factor should be whether the health problem prevents the MPs from doing their job.”

There is no provision that speaks to absence because of illness in the standing orders for the House except for the forfeiture of the day’s subsistence if no notice is sent to the Speaker.

The standing order dictates that a member who is prevented from attending a House meeting should send a written notice to the Speaker.

A member who misses six consecutive sittings during a period not exceeding 21 days shall “vacate his seat in the House under Section 41 of the Jamaica (Constitution) Order in Council, 1962”.

However, that provision is subjected to the member failing to obtain due leave of absence; and within 15 days after the end of the period aforesaid to satisfy the Speaker in writing that such failure was unavoidable.

Similar requirements are outlined in the parliamentary standing orders for Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia.

Fewer missed sittings are allowed in Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis, where MPs are expelled for missing three consecutive meetings without notifying the House or Assembly speaker.

The constitutions of Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines have provisions in place for the handling of cases in which MPs miss multiple sittings, requiring that the parliament’s standing orders outline specifics.

However, a Sunday Gleaner search of both parliaments’ standing orders showed no provision for absence.

A ‘COMPLEX’ MATTER

Henry and Phillips’ prolonged absence from the House raises questions about whether political parties have put their interests before those of constituents by keeping standard-bearers in positions though they may no longer be capable of carrying out their full duties effectively.

The argument could be made that the men’s absence prevents them from performing their duties, according to Thame, but she said that there are those, too, who attend Parliament but achieve nothing.

“While I agree it is important to do managerial aspects of the roles, … politics is more complex,” she said, noting that accountability must be to constituents and not the prime minister.

She said discussions ought to be centred on the overall role of the country’s political process, whose interests are being preserved in present politics, and how attendance maintains that status quo.

“Political parties everywhere do not call by-elections they can’t win,” Charles said, referring to the issue.

“It would be nice to have Henry and Phillips – strategic seat holders for their parties – attending Parliament regularly. However, they would just vote [mainly along party lines] ... as they did when they attended,” he added.

He said legislation and enforcement of a specific timeline for by-elections, among other things, are needed.

“This action would only be a start because the major structural problems with the system – MPs have to wait very long on the ministries – that constraint on the performance of MPs would remain,” Charles asserted.

However, former government minister Ronald Thwaites, argued that an MP is paid to attend Parliament and that an MP’s primary duty is to legislate in accordance with what will be beneficial to constituents.

He said comments which suggest otherwise are “sardonic”, however true they may be.

Thwaites said that the Jamaican Constitution calls for robust participation from MPs in Parliament in the debate over laws, insisting that attendance is “very important”.

“I wasn’t elected to be a social worker or a ‘boops’. I was elected to try and represent the people of Central Kingston and to offer whatever wisdom I had to the process of government,” the former PNP MP said.

He conceded, however, that the country’s political structure made that requirement difficult to fulfil.

“I left Parliament in 2020 with 23 undebated motions that I had put forward for discussions. The Government didn’t care [about] even one of them. So I can understand an MP, let alone a commentator, saying, ‘What’s the use?’” he said, adding that questions are answered at the convenience of ministers and the agenda is set by Cabinet.

“So the proper representative role of the member of parliament is severely diminished. In fact, it’s contemptible the way it is,” said Thwaites.

NO BENCH WARMING

For government legislator Morland Wilson, who was the only parliamentarian to attend all 53 sittings last year, the “test” constituents set for him require that he attends as many sittings as possible.

“I was voted to go to Parliament, so I don’t miss Parliament,” Wilson told The Sunday Gleaner.

A first-term MP for Westmoreland Western, he said that his constituents depend on him to return from Parliament and give a summary of the proceedings and debates.

“It’s quite difficult … . The notion that people have out there is that in representational politics, you make laws and that that is not really a big thing; what you should really do is look at welfare, road, light, water, and sending their kids to school. But our main function is to go to Parliament and pass laws that will help to guide and develop the country,” he said.

“So because I know that it is my duty and that’s what I’m elected for, I ensure that I don’t miss Parliament because, again, that is the only place I can get things done for the constituency … . It’s very, very critical for us to be in Parliament, not just to sit there, but to see how we can leverage support because we know that there are competing priorities,” he said.

Still, some of Wilson’s colleagues in the Lower House have been recorded as being more absent than present.

Government MP James Robertson missed 37 sittings when compared to the 15 he attended. Apologies were submitted for another seven sittings. The record for one sitting was not available up to press time.

Robertson, the parliamentary representative for Western St Thomas, told The Sunday Gleaner that a health condition caused him to miss the sittings.

The government backbencher disclosed that he was born with one kidney, and since the coronavirus pandemic, decided “with everybody’s” knowledge to skip sittings.

“I pay attention. I miss no votes and I am the most aggressive and successful member of parliament of the last 10 years in getting benefits for my constituents. West St Thomas is the largest recipient of taxpayers’ expenditure in the last decade and will continue to be as long as [I] am member of parliament,” he said, citing collaboration with government agencies and ministries.

He said those collaborations have yielded a highway, a new water system, an urban town centre, and a bridge in Mahogany Vale.

“Our CDF (Constituency Development Fund) is handled in a manner that is exemplary. I don’t need a job description. I don’t need to be told like a child. I answer every single NGO and resident – JLP (Jamaica Labour Party), PNP no P – myself 24 hours a day.

“You think people must dress up in tie and warm bench? Back bench is back bench. I deliver no policy. I never took this job for salary, and if you ask anybody, I never leave a real need unserviced in my constituency,” said Robertson.

Dr Andrew Wheatley, who in 2018 resigned from the science, energy and technology portfolio following the Petrojam scandal, missed 33 sittings and attended 18. He sent nine apologies for absences. Parliament, up to press time, could not say whether he was present for two sittings.

The Sunday Gleaner was not able to reach Wheatley for comment.

Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications, and Transport Daryl Vaz missed 33 sittings last year and attended 17. Four apologies were offered for his absence due to government business, while he submitted 10 apologies for general absence. Parliament did not say whether he was present for three sittings.

The minister told The Sunday Gleaner on Saturday that he would verify the information this week before commenting.

Meanwhile, opposition MP Hugh Graham missed 31 sittings and attended 17. There was no recorded apology for his absences. His status for five sittings was not provided.

Efforts to reach Graham, the MP for St Catherine North Western, for comment were unsuccessful.

CRACK THE WHIP

Former PNP councillor Sylvan Reid believes MPs should be sanctioned for missing House sittings just as he was three years ago.

“I don’t see why they shouldn’t be subjected to the same or similar [treatment] … . We are local; they are central government who handle more money and have more responsibilities, I would believe, and are at the highest level of the Parliament.

“So, I believe that they should be held accountable just like local authorities who are held accountable,” he said.

Reid, who was the local representative for the Salt Spring Division in the St James Municipal Corporation, and Gladstone Bent, who was the PNP councillor for the Catadupa Division, were expelled after missing three consecutive monthly meetings in March, April and May of 2020.

Reid told The Sunday Gleaner that he is diabetic and was absent because of issues related to that and the threat associated with COVID-19. Seniors were among vulnerable people advised to stay home at the time and gatherings were not encouraged.

He said Bent, a senior who is visually impaired, was also ill at the time.

“They took away all powers. I do not get paid. The mayor is to assume duties in the division, but as you see, it is not happening. Nothing is happening in the division. This is like three years now,” he said, adding that the move was “all politics”.

Reid said that he did not challenge the ruling because there were only a few months left before the then constitutionally due local government elections. The polls have since been repeatedly postponed and are yet to be held.

“But I will be back,” Reid said.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com