EDITORIAL - Get the thugs out of politics

They are hailed and venerated and called honourable before their faces. But that is just Jamaican 'anancyism' - the fine art of the cynic.  The truth is that more than any other class of persons, surveys consistently show that Jamaicans hold politicians in low esteem.

Politicians, for the most part, are believed to be divisively tribal, willing to do almost anything - including instigate violence - in their bid to command power and resources, to be corruptly used primarily to their personal benefit and the benefit of limited numbers of the tribe.

They may not always have the evidence to meet the burden of proof required in the courts of law, but Jamaicans have not lightly arrived at their conclusions about the political class. Many of them live in the zones of political exclusion that we call garrisons, and observe, and are often victims of the hard men and women of violence who intimidate, injure, or kill to win the favour of a cynical political boss.

Put baldly, it is so, and notoriously known to be so, that politics and crime are intertwined in Jamaica. Murder and mayhem are part of the currency of many in the political process.

It can't continue like this if Jamaica is first, to halt its slide, and ultimately, reverse the course that is leading the country - whose democracy is already under severe stress - into being a failed state.

Leaders must do more

In this regard, leadership matters.

In the first instance, those at the helm of the country's political parties, in particular Bruce Golding of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and Portia Simpson Miller of the People's National Party (PNP), must do more than make pious statements about their abhorrence of political violence and corruption. They must be willing to turn their faces hard against the thuggish and the corrupt - including those who may be suited, well-spoken, and reside at desired addresses - notwithstanding the supposed political skills and savvy such persons bring to the parties.

But more important, the political parties must establish the institutional arrangements that will help to filter out those who would help to purchase their way to power, or believe that political and policy arguments should be buttressed by muscle.

The PNP has made a small first step. It has established an ethics committee, the members of which are largely external persons, that is supposed to administer "fit and proper" tests to prospective election candidates. The party has also published its annual accounts.

We insist that the JLP must follow the PNP on these fronts. But both parties have to refine the ethics committee model as it has so far been instituted by the PNP.

For instance, it is untenable for, say, a prospective candidate to be selected by the constituency party, approved by the centre, and then go before the ethics committee, whose 'decision' then goes back to the centre for ratification - or rejection.

Moreover, since political parties - whose reason for existence is control of the apparatus of the State - can't claim to be private clubs, their internal workings, including ethics committees, must be open to greater public scrutiny. Jamaicans should know, too, who makes financial contributions to the parties, and in what amounts.

Mr Golding would do well to announce the JLP's adoption of such policies when he speaks at the public sessions of the party's 67th annual conference today.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.