EDITORIAL - What role for the PNP's Integrity Commission?

In so far as we know, P.J. Patterson, the former prime minister, holds no formal office in the People's National Party (PNP) except, perhaps, his designation as a life member and, if it hasn't changed, as a trustee of the party with two other persons, one of whom is dead.

But Mr Patterson, who was president of the PNP for 13 years and led it to three consecutive election victories, has significant influence in the party. He is a highly respected elder statesman.

So when Mr Patterson speaks to and/or about the PNP, you can expect that his voice carries weight - as it would have when he spoke in Runaway Bay, St Ann, last weekend. He endorsed Lucius Thomas' candidacy on the PNP's ticket for the constituency of North West St Ann in the next general election.

Mr Thomas is a former commissioner of police. We, on that authority, presume that he is a good and decent man, with no fundament rents in character or personal integrity, nor has done anything in his public life that would disqualify him as an electoral candidate, nor from membership of the legislature.

But there is something about a public endorsement of Mr Thomas by a significant figure such as Mr Patterson - as well as other declarations by senior party officials about other candidates - that sits uneasy with the objectives of the Integrity Commission launched in the summer by PNP's current leader, Mrs Portia Simpson Miller.

The commission is chaired by Bishop Wellesley Blair and includes two non-party officials who have rendered outstanding public service - Daisy Coke and Cedric McCulloch. Its PNP members are Burchell Whiteman and Fredrick Hamaty, both respected for their integrity.

It is to be assumed, therefore, that when the commission adjudicates on whether a person meets the criteria for standing in an election, that examination would be honest and thorough. The question, however is: At what point in the process does this happen?

Issues of transparency

Just recently, for instance, Peter Bunting, the PNP's general secretary, was harrumphing about the success of the party in selecting the majority of its candidates for the general election due in 2012. In another instance, party bosses have reiterated the selection of Basil Waite for the North East St Elizabeth constituency, despite the agitation by supporters of the displaced Kern Spencer.

Few, if any, of these prospective candidates, we believe, have been adjudicated upon by the Integrity Commission with regard to whether they are fit and proper. Or, if any has been, the public has not been told, leaving unresolved the issue of transparency that was raised when the commission was formally launched in the summer.

It seems to us that on the current trajectory, the prospective candidates will begin to appear before the commission near the time for the election. By then, most will already have been endorsed by the great and good.

They will receive cursory attention and obligatory unction from the commission. A façade will have been achieved and the process will have been contrary to Mrs Simpson Miller's assertion that "this is neither a publicity stunt, nor is it a baseless activity".

We'll be gladly proved wrong.

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