Peter EspeutI NOTICE that the JLP is calling for clarification between the roles of Local Government and Central Government, and for more responsibilities to be given to the Parish Councils. During the 1980s the JLP government systematically emasculated the Parish Councils, taking away many of their areas of responsibility. Now that they control most of the Councils and the KSAC, they are calling for more power at the local level. Does this signal a sea change within the JLP? Or is it just hypocritical opportunism?
As I have written several times over the last decade and more, I believe in a stronger and deeper role for local government as a route to deepening democracy in Jamaica. The roles of the MP and Parish Councillor indeed overlap, and local government reform will not take place until Parliament itself is reformed as a part of constitutional reform; but neither the PNP nor the JLP when in power have really been prepared to do that.
For me, reform in our governance arrangements must be based on the Principle of Subsidiarity, well accepted worldwide in management circles. It is time we treat political governance as a management task rather than as distribution of scarce benefits and spoils, or "How to start poor and end up rich".
PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY
Simply put, the Principle of Subsidiarity states that no function which can be exercised at a lower level should be exercised at a higher level. This is the basis of the participatory approach which has become so powerful in development thought in the last few decades, the trappings of which are creeping into Jamaican parlance. It is now common to hear about identifying "stakeholders" and fostering "grass-roots participation" and "community policing", all of which find their justification in the idea that there are some tasks which citizens do better themselves, and therefore they should do them. If governments take those tasks on, they will be done inefficiently if at all. And there are tasks best done by Local Government which Central Government will do badly at best.
That, of course, is not the principle which guides our governance arrangements. We operate by the principle of superiority where persons at a higher level usurp the functions of those below them. Members of Parliament constitute the Legislative arm of government; their primary role is to make laws which will favour their constituents. But Cabinet, the Executive arm of government, has largely usurped the role of the Members of Parliament. All legislation is introduced in Parliament by the relevant Cabinet Minister or Parliamentary Secretary, and members of the House rubber stamp them after cursory debate. Private Members' Bills have a hard time even getting read in the House. The Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel which drafts the legislation brought to Parliament should really be called the Office of the Cabinet Counsel, for in fact it serves the Cabinet rather than the Parliament.
Since Cabinet has usurped the role of Parliament, MPs have usurped the role of Parish Councils. It should not be the business of a legislator to fix roads and to see that drains are cleaned; that is the role of the Parish Councillor, who operates at the local level. It should not be the business of legislators to name school boards or give out farm work tickets or to decide who gets work or contracts. This system is in urgent need of reform.
Local Government cannot be seriously reformed until the Parliament is reformed. Parliament needs to come into its own as the body that legislates so that the people may be properly represented; and Parish Councils need to come into their own by addressing parochial issues; and local communities should address local issues. That will be true democracy!
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE
If Parish Councils are to deal with matters such as roads and drains and planning permissions and the like, they should have the power to raise local taxes, a power right now only possessed by Central Government. This is a constitutional issue. For Local Government to increase, Central Government must decrease, must devolve real power on the Parish Councils and the KSAC. This sort of reform is unlikely in Jamaica, as our Central Government (either PNP or JLP) would never relinquish significant power to Local Government. MPs seek to protect their power base by personally supervising the distribution of political spoils to those who would vote for them. They know they can't allow their political fortunes to rise or fall based on their performance in Parliament, which has been reduced largely to bench-thumping. Many are notoriously late or absent from the House, and it is not uncommon for MPs to leave after their names are entered in the roll as present. I believe that the JLP mayors and councillors should extract as many concessions from their party ideologues in writing from now, as once the JLP gets a majority in Parliament, they are likely to revert to their anti-local government ways of old.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Executive Director of an environment and development NGO.
