A matter of trust

By Donald Reece, GUEST COLUMNIST

On November 25, the UK Guardian carried an article titled 'The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy'. Naomi Wolf, author of the article, captures the feelings of the '99 per cent' (at Occupy Wall Street) that there is a concerted effort by all top officials, from the White House and National Homeland Security down, to dislodge these seemingly uncoordinated campers protesting the role played by Wall Street in bringing about the present disastrous economic situation.

The journalist records the thinking of the protesters that would seem to implicate the legislature and the banking system favouring the few, namely the one per cent. This, one could infer, is the result of laissez-faire capitalism.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters articulated a number of points that call into question the honesty of government institutions. One of their agenda items is "to get money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process."

When I read this, my thoughts immediately projected on to our Jamaican political scene, specifically the forthcoming general election.

It is a known fact that the National Integrity Action Forum and others have been encouraging the contenders from both major political parties to reveal the names of donors who would contribute to their campaign activities. Arguments against this disclosure from representatives of both camps (cf. The Gleaner, 25/11/11, p. A3) seem to ignore the fact that perception can be more damaging than the realities themselves. Worldwide - and Jamaica is no exception - institutions, including the Church and politics, no longer enjoy the implicit trust of the people, with the sole exception of diehard followers.

If politicians are serious about true transformation of things socio-economic and political, they must convince the independent voters of their (politicians') integrity and serious objective of eliminating, or minimising, corruption. We cannot bury our heads in the sand.

Therefore, the bobbing and weaving around the declaring of personal assets and the revealing of funds contributed for election campaigning will only leave many critical thinkers convinced that special-interest groups will, ultimately, determine the future of the country, not for true transformational nation-building, but for their own vested interests. Neither political party can afford to have that perception of patronage and corruption hanging over its head.

At the recent round-table discussion sponsored by The Gleaner and the Centre for Leadership and Governance [25/11/11], Kay Osborne, general manager of Television Jamaica Ltd, hit the nail on the head: "There is a toxic culture of political patronage which needs to be put to rest. It is patronage coming from the large contributors to political parties and coming from the people and institutions that marshal voters ... . Those two forces influence the policies that Government focuses on, the projects it takes on, and the resources it spends [cf. The Gleaner, 29/11/11]." Good governance is thus undermined.

The reality is that both political parties are already carrying enough perceived baggage, e.g., the Trafigura and unresolved light bulb scandals for the People's National Party (PNP), and the Dudus extradition fiasco and the recent JDIP scandal for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). The trust level is way low!

Could not a declaration of politicians' assets and the revelation of major donors for campaign funding help to raise the level of trust - at least among the independent voters? They are the ones who will be determining the outcome of the election since, according to the polls, both political parties are supposedly neck and neck in the race to the finish line.

And to make matters worse, both the JLP and the PNP show utter disdain for the electorate, for with the election being so imminent, they have failed to publish their respective manifestos to tell us how they intend to move this country ahead through the murky waters of socio-economic and crime crises. Are we to 'buy puss inna bag'? Surely, the trust level does not allow for that kind of Christmas surprise!

The Most Rev Donald J. Reece is president of the Jamaica Council of Churches. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.