By Dr. D.K. Duncan, Contributor "There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads unto fortune. Omitted, all the voyages of their lives are bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat - we must take the current as it serves or lose our ventures".
-- William Shakespeare
UNTIDY AS the final phase of the process of accommodation between the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and its former chairman Bruce Golding has been, it nevertheless presents a real and positive opening for those who propose and/or support fundamental changes in the political culture.
SEPARATION OF POWERS
The JLP/Golding Memoran-dum of Understanding (MOU) of Wednesday, September 25, 2002 has once again put on the front burner some of the fundamental issues related to constitutional reform. In the early days of the origins and development of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) these issues took centre stage. Chief among these issues was the SEPARATION OF POWER.
In the Jamaican context this would mean that voters would have a separate vote to elect Members of Parliament (MP) to whom the Prime Minister and the Cabinet would have to report. The Prime Minister or President would be elected separately by the entire electorate. No member of the Cabinet (Executive) would be selected from the Parliament (Legislature). This separation of functions and the separate exercise of power between Ministers and MPs is at the heart of the methodology through which this principle would be implemented. The NDM had proposed the same two-year timetable in its 1997 manifesto. It was also one of its commitments made at its founding conference in 1995. In the 1997 general election, the NDM failed to successfully mobilise a significant sector of the electorate to support this principle through the ballot box. However, when this issue was put to the same electorate through the medium of public opinion polls the response to the idea was very positive and a majority one.
FAILED ATTEMPTS
Attempts to get these fundamental issues agreed on in the Constitutional Commission of 1994-1995 were unsuccessful. Carl Stone had also made detailed recommendations on the same separation of powers issue in his 1991 Report on Parlia-mentary Responsibilities. Trevor Munroe and the New Beginning Movement (NBM) had appeared before the Constitutional Commission in 1994. These same ideas were rejected. A proposal for an INDICATIVE REFERENDUM to climax a State sponsored Public Education programme on the issues surrounding Constitutional Reform was agreed on by the Government in 1995. Peter Phillips had the Ministerial responsibility. This programme has not been implemented.
WHAT IS NEW
The willingness of the JLP to specifically take this issue to its delegates in a more profound and democratic way - with a leading spokesperson who has a profound understanding of its promise as well as its limitations is new. For a party that in its origins and development operated with an authoritarian leadership - benevolent or otherwise - this also represents a potential for a change in the culture of the party itself. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has up to the recent past subscribed to the existing Westminster System. They have from time to time proposed variations to the model. The opening arising from this MOU represents a possible breakthrough in the voluntary use of a traditional party with a significant support base, to lay the basis for a multiparty system-thereby facilitating the deepening of the democratic process. In this regard the Society is once again challenged to respond to the message and not the messenger. A corollary of this main issue - "THE SEPARATION OF POWER"- is its nexus with another critical issue-the "CONCENTRATION OF POWER". A resolution of the first can go a far way to facilitate a solution for the second. If the JLP/Golding MOU provides a real opening for even a more widespread discussion of these two issues, then Jamaica can only benefit.
CONSENSUS ON
POLITICAL TRIBALISM
Whether the JLP wins or loses the next elections will not materially affect the potential for change. Both traditional parties have already signed off on agreements embodied in the "National Consensus on Crime". This document identified five fundamental root causes of crime and violence. Three of these speak directly to the national cancer of political tribalism. If the discussions of these issues can be put early on the post-election agenda, then the long promised Indicative Referendum on Constitutional Reform may become a reality. Separation of Powers and the reduction of the concentration of powers in the hands of the Prime Minister are two issues with a direct linkage to the solutions posed by the problems of political tribalism.
It is important and useful that these issues become part of the "COVENANT", "PLEDGE" OR "CONTRACT" with the Jamaican people before Election Day October 16, 2002.
SHORT TERM ADVANTAGE
In the short term the JLP election machinery on the ground will benefit from this additional flow of "political adrenaline". In the nature of the dialectical process the Golding entry into the election campaign will also provide continuing energy to the PNP. This will be definitely reflected in the media campaign. From the standpoint of a party suffering from a self- inflicted process of demoralisation linked in part to the anticipated negative poll findings on party standings- Golding's return could be to the overall advantage of the JLP.
TIMING
The actions of several forces which have led to this conjuncture, one could argue, justifies the timing. What are some of these forces and what has brought about their convergence.
1. The PNP has pointed to, and some elements of the electorate have expressed genuine concern about the depth of leadership in the JLP.
2. The question of succession has also arisen from the wider electorate against a background of concern for the age and health of the leaders of both parties.
3. The anticipated publication of an increase of the PNP's lead over the JLP in the Stone Polls has created concern among the rank and file of the JLP. Many of them have been calling for Golding's return for sometime. This was an opportune time by them to renew this call.
4. It is a public secret that the young JLP activists largely represented by the G2K group have for sometime favoured the return to the JLP leadership of Bruce Golding. It was the G2K at one of its seminars and Pearnel Charles at his fund-raiser who gave Golding his first public platforms some months ago.
5. Big Capital represented by the financiers of the political system do not like to knowingly back losers. In the final stages of an election campaign significant funds are needed and requested. These funders usually express positions- even where their contributions are not conditional. There is "speculation" that some of those who fund the JLP have expressed the view that a Golding return would assist the JLP's electoral fortunes. This implies that funders would feel more secure that their stakes are protected setting the stage for an increase in financial contributions.
Some pragmatists argue that "Politics is the art of the possible". It would seem to me that the creation of possibilities have a lot to do with understanding of timing. To get to an airtight agreement with the leadership of any political party is to deny THE JOURNEY while "hugging up" THE DESTINATION. It would represent a denial of a democratic process which many people support- with accent on the process. If this is where Golding can now make his contribution- more power to him. Let the rest of us find our own niche. According to the Jamaican adage- "One one cocoa full basket".
No doubt there are more forces at work, some sinister, some cynical, others hopeful, others patriotic or nationalistic, some even self serving.
Untidy as the final process of the JLP/Golding reconciliation might have been, the nation's interest supersedes faulty tactics. These failures are not strategic. If we take even one more step closer to the implementation, rather than talk, of fundamental changes to the negative aspects of our political culture the country will be richer for it. The tide in the affairs of Bruce Golding is once more at a flood. He must take the current as it serves or lose his and possibly our ventures. As the saying goes -- "A ship in a harbour is safe but that's not what ships are built for" "one love one heart".
