Munroe urges action on talked-to-death legislation
Published:Tuesday | June 22, 2010 | 12:00 AM
University professor Trevor Munroe is urging parliamentarians to fast-track legislation to cover the registration and financing of political parties.
And he is getting the full backing of election watchdog Citizen Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE).
According to CAFFE, the recent events emanating from the Christopher 'Dudus' Coke extradition matter, including the fallout over the engagement of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), provide a critical opportunity for accelerating reform.
Munroe has set out an ambitious timeline which, if followed, would see laws requiring the registration of political parties and the disclosure of their financing in place before the annual conference of the People's National Party's (PNP) in September and the JLP's confab in November.
This would force a tell-all on just how much they spend on annual meetings and the source of the millions.
"I suggest to you that the system of political party funding and campaign financing in Jamaica is at the heart of endemic and institutionalised corruption in our system of government," Munroe told a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum.
"I think we should require the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) and the Parliament to enact these proposals into law by the end of July," declared Munroe.
"I say this because this area is the one in which, on careful reflection, there has been the greatest gap between words and deeds, between talk and action," Munroe said.
Time to act
He noted that it was in May 2002, while serving as a government senator, that he moved a resolution, which was agreed to on both sides, for a regime to be established for political party funding and campaign disclosure.
"In the eight years since then, there have been throne speeches by governors general saying that in the legislative year there is going to be campaign financing and political parties' registration legislation.
"There have been commitments by prime ministers and opposition leaders. There have been consultations and conferences ... but nothing has happened," declared Munroe.
He argued that the country needs the legislation if it is seriously to begin tackling corruption.
"This is no longer a business of chat, chat, chat. We need a deadline," said Munroe.
But both the ECJ and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), which are leading the development of the recommen-dations, appear to think that it is unlikely that the legislation can be ready before year end.
"The kind of timetable that Professor Munroe talks about, I think, is good, but I don't know if it is realistic because we, in fact, don't have anything on the table as yet," argued Janet Morrison, head of the PSOJ Justice Reform Committee.
She told the Editors' Forum that sample legislation from the United Kingdom has been abandoned because it was found to be a bad fit for Jamaica.
"I think even the September deadline .... is not enough time for us to put together legislation that would suit everyone and meet all the urgent issues we are here discussing," Morrison said.
In the meantime, CAFFE has launched a campaign-finance monitoring programme as it urges political parties to sign off on the ECJ's recommendations.
According to CAFFE: "Both political parties need to sign off on the ECJ's recommendations, expedite the passage of relevant legislation, and publish a timetable for the establishment of a code of conduct for parliamentarians, parish councillors and political candidates."