Statecraft: the ability to govern

A.J. Nicholson, Contributor

Perhaps we should pause to consider what message Nelson Mandela, the powerhouse statesman of our time, would have had for us here in Jamaica, as he celebrated his 93rd birthday, had we sought such a message as our country prepares to mark 49 years as an independent nation.

It may be that he would point us in the direction of what Aditya Chakrabortty, writing in another context, insisted in an article posted on Monday last in the London newspaper, The Guardian: "There's a missing word in all these recent political dramas: 'statecraft' - the ability to govern."

Jamaica is about to enter its 50th anniversary year almost at a boil: the country needs to cool down. The time and opportunity to take stock is fast receding. There has to be a pause that reinvigorates; a halt, to reassure ourselves that our direction is sure, that our purpose is firm and true. Time to ask the purposive question: as we move into our 50th year, are we satisfied, on the evidence, which continues to mount, that the present administration has shown that it has the ability to govern?

We could not seriously attempt to take stock without asking such a question, could we? For, if the answer is 'no' - the direction in which the gathering consensus appears to be pointing - do we then continue on an aimless march? Taking stock requires collective insistence and vigilance that the principles and ideals that govern the science that is statecraft must be present in our governance practices and in the political drama. That, with respect, is the developmental platform from which we are obliged to proceed.

Mired in controversy

There is no principle of statecraft, Nelson Mandela would invite us to consider, were we to ask him, which obliges that the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme should be mired in such controversy and apparent conspiratorial obfuscation. There is no principle that requires that the implementation of projects under Jamaica's most far-reaching loan arrangements with an economic superpower should evidence such lack of maturity, such lack of thought, such lack of appreciation of what statecraft should mean.

It cannot be denied that, during these 49 years, there has been a stark failure to meaningfully address our infrastructure challenges. Our roads, particularly our interior roadways, have been left to become weapons of destruction - a constant threat to the life and health of the travelling public. I cannot recall that, in my lifetime, the bridges which span the Rio Minho and its tributary, the Oaks River, on the road from Chapelton to Rock River in North Central Clarendon, have ever been strengthened. There has never been any structured or steadfast effort to protect our public spaces or our public institutions.

Those of our citizens who continue to occupy the Jamaican territorial space remain constantly in danger, and visits by our relatives, friends and acquaintances from out of the diaspora are marred by their having to traverse those diabolical pathways. And the visitors do complain.

We have now been presented with an opportunity to do the right thing, to tackle these challenges guided by settled principles of statecraft, or so we thought. What is taking place is shrouded in deep suspicion. And if it is suggested that schoolchildren would have adopted a more mature approach, the children would wish to set the record straight. They would not claim maturity of approach, but they would certainly insist that there is order even to their game that bears the non-directional name of 'hopscotch'.

Collective vigilance calls for an insistence that the implementation of this programme should become a unifying rather than a divisive force in an already disunited Jamaica. We must insist, and continue to do so, before it is too late. Those who govern should be warned and advised that a partisan approach to the implementation of this programme is potentially as explosive, if not more so, as the self-centred approach of the prime minister to the now-infamous extradition debacle.

That ill-advised approach, let us recall, cost the country $23 billion, almost four-fifths of the $30 billion that the minister of finance says that is now required to satisfy the agreement with public-sector employees, which recently came to be finally respected by the Government, and for which the minister declares that we will all be obliged to hold strain. The principles of statecraft are the enemy of those kinds of approaches. The ability to govern also dictates that when those who are governed are asked to hold strain, that request must be based on solid, fair and just grounds. Those who govern must do so justly. That is the essential raison d'être of statecraft.

And as we prepare to move into our 50th anniversary year, the administration is about to enter the fifth year of its time in office. In taking stock, they certainly would not wish to fool themselves into thinking otherwise than that they chose from the very beginning to throw out of the window one of the abiding principles of statecraft: listen, take advice. When they were advised to adopt another approach to agreements with employees in the public sector, they knew better, choosing to refer to the teachers as extortionists, and the policemen and women as Shylocks.

When they were advised against the prime minister's attempts to pillory the membership of one of the commissions provided for in our Constitution, the Public Service Commission, the prime minister knew otherwise and proceeded to have them dismissed, only later to find himself unable to back up his behaviour in a court of law. And when they were warned that the challenges of a recession were upon us, we were told that the recession would usher in untold goodies for Jamaica. So, while this administration slept, other countries were toiling upwards through the night.

Avalanche of warnings

There was an avalanche of warnings relating to how the extradition request was being handled. The administration knew better, and the world watched as Jamaica slipped into a state of jitters. Sure, they would wish that dark night to just go away. The truth is that neither they nor Jamaica can escape its long, dark shadow - a cloud that hangs menacingly as the 50th year of Independence approaches.

They were warned against using the wrong approach in their attempt to vary certain provisions in the fundamental rights chapter of our Constitution, but they knew better. The Supreme Court has now set them straight, on the same grounds on which the warnings had rested. Much commendation is due to the two attorneys by whose industry the issues came to be heard and determined by the Supreme Court, the only institution constitutionally empowered to do so. That kind of industry signals much-needed bright hope for the future.

When opposition senators warned the government side not to proceed, in a rush, with the passage of legislation to do with a special prosecutor, but to set aside a special day for the whole Senate in committee to deliberate upon such an intricate piece of legislation, they knew otherwise, and went ahead to pass 'something', by themselves. Well, in more than 22 years in Gordon House, I have never seen such ragged approach to any proposed legislation, with this bill languishing in the House of Representatives for months, having been sent there by the vote of government senators alone. And what further is so sad, is that the aim of the legislation is so lofty.

The ability to govern would surely suggest that, if the elders partake of the sour grapes, that will serve to set the children's teeth on edge. Did not the head of government, some months ago, suggest to the youth arm of his party that it target certain named commentators who do not sing from the same hymn sheet as the governing party?

All of these approaches amount to a concerted attack on the settled principles of statecraft - the ability to govern. There is a common thread: statecraft requires that those who govern do not assume that all wisdom resides within their numbers. Our introspection and stocktaking during the 50th Independence year must surely lead us to insist that every future administration here in Jamaica apply that basic principle of statecraft: listen, take advice. How could the voice of the people be absent from any pretence at the ability to govern?

And it surely would not escape Mr Mandela that, for almost all of our 49 years, we have failed in the struggle to summon the courage to convince ourselves of our coming of age by removing ourselves from a final court of appeal that is housed in a country for which there is the requirement of a visa for our litigants to enter. But he would perhaps also recall that he had read that one of our former heads of government had insisted that "pure justice" comes from that court.

Small wonder then, one would think, that the majority of our post-Independence population, according to the findings of at least one pollster, would prefer to live in a Jamaica which is under British rule. Or, will we find time during our 50th year to decide that we should acknowledge and own our adulthood?

A.J. Nicholson is a lawyer and opposition spokesman on foreign affairs and foreign trade.

WHAT A ROAD!: Euton Rodney prepares to tackle a 'good' section of the roadway leading from his house in Penlyne Castle, St Thomas. The deplorable road conditions leading to Hagley Gap, Minto, Epping Farm and other coffee-growing communities in the Blue Mountains have been a major deterrent to economic development. A.J. Nicholson likens Jamaica's bad roads to weapons of destruction. - Photo by Christopher Serju