LETTER OF THE DAY: Show us the proof
Published:Saturday | July 31, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Editor, Sir:
The recently announced pact between the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP) on the feature of the upcoming by-elections in Western Hanover and North East St Ann should not go unnoticed.
On nomination day for the last general election, Ian Hayles of the PNP and Shahine Robinson of the JLP presented themselves as being eligible for election to the Jamaican Parliament. They duly received the majority votes in Western Hanover and North East St Ann, respectively, on election day.
The legitimacy of both 'members of parliament' were subsequently challenged in the Supreme Court on the ground that at the material time they were prohibited from being so elected by virtue of their holding dual citizenship of another sovereign state. However, both persons have vehemently denied the claim of illegitimacy, with Mr Hayles going as far as to contemptuously broadsiding the Court of Appeal by lumping its preliminary ruling against him as "politics in Jamaica". Strangely, there has been no rebuke from the PNP for this uncharacterisation of its history and commitment to the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.
Despite the fact that the matters are sub judice, and notwithstanding the grave consequence for our democracy, both political parties have interrupted the judicial process dealing with the status of both Hayles and Robinson, allowing them to continue to sit and vote in the House of Representatives until the holding of by-elections. To add insult to injury, the country in general, and the constituents in Western Hanover and North East St Ann, in particular, are being asked to embrace 'elections' where those who do not support one-candidate races have no democratic recourse through the party political establishment.
Were it not for the decadence of our political culture and the vacuum in which its leaders exist, Jamaicans would not be asked to accept this masquerade for duly constituted elections. But as long as the Government continues to grope at good governance and respectability, and as long as the Opposition continues to dim and underperform, we should expect more of the filth.
Rejecting the proposed polls
I lend my voice to the call for the rejection of the proposed polls. Civil society should stand up and declare that the agreement is not consistent with the call for change. Indeed, the prime minister's huge credibility deficiency is a function of honesty and/or truth and the lack thereof. Therefore, since Mr Hayles and Mrs Robinson have sworn and denied being dual citizens in July, 2007, let them and their respective parties now show proof that they spoke truthfully. If they cannot do so, we should roundly ask for their withdrawal from the process, even as we maintain the call for the prime minister to step aside for misleading the country.
An election with one candidate is like a race with one runner. There can be no true, acceptable winner where the PNP and the JLP abdicate their responsibilities to the electors. The loser will be Jamaica, condemned to more of the disfigurement that represents our state of governance. The cost excuse is shallow, for as we must spend money to fight crime in our society we must also bear the cost associated with fighting slime in our politics.
I am, etc.,
DELFORD G. MORGAN
Attorney-at-Law