EDITORIAL - Councils should justify existence

Jamaicans are being asked to vote in municipal elections in a fortnight's time. Four hundred and seventy-eight candidates will contest 228 seats in the 13 parish councils plus the Portmore municipality.

For most people, the elections will be a deep yawn. So, far fewer than the wretched 51 per cent of registered voters who cast ballots in last December's general election will turn out. Most people just can't find a reason to bother.

Jamaicans, the voter turnout in national elections indicate, are increasingly apathetic towards politics. But even when they don't vote and stay aloof from the process, most people have a sense that there could be something of worth in what takes place at Gordon House. Elections cause the formation of the Government, and the elected parliamentarians are necessary to vote for the passage of laws.

Most of us, however, don't know what the parish councillors do. Rather, we don't perceive that they do much that is worthwhile - except, perhaps, as factotums for MPs and constituency caretakers in their respective parish council divisions. This means, primarily, that they act as conduits for the distribution of the limited amount of political pork that is still available to the minority of persons who remain invested in the political parties.

Few, if any, of these local governments have conceived and/or articulated or implemented a coherent programme for their parishes, apart from recited statements about democratic devolution and the empowerment of communities. In other words, after two decades of talk about local reform, little has changed.

If anything, local government appears to have regressed. This, largely, is symptomatic of the national politics, and the failure of our political parties to evolve.

There is not a sense that they have contrived a modern architecture, with a larger vision of themselves in the state and their role within it. The parties remain vehicles for winning and controlling power, primarily in the interest of distributing privileges to key members of the gang. Local government is one of the cars chugging along as part of this outmoded locomotive.

Largely meaningless

The great shame of this, especially in the context of the imminent parish council elections, is not only that the process is largely meaningless, it is not cheap.

For instance, approximately $2 billion is allocated to the operation of local government, including nearly $700 million for the direction and administration of the system, most of which is direct salaries. Another $420 million, perhaps, goes to paying pensions. In other words, wages and salaries and related expenses, plus pensions, take up more than half the allocation.

The 228 councillors, and former councillors, gobble a fair chunk of the system's wage and pension bill. Yet, few Jamaicans would believe that taxpayers get value for that money. It is not impossible that they, and this newspaper, could be wrong.

That is a matter worthy of discussion in the context of the coming elections. In that regard, this newspaper invites councillor-candidates to make public and coherent cases, to their local constituents, and the national polity, for their continued existence and hold on public resources.

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.