Douglas Halsall, Guest Columnist
HISTORY IS being created even as we speak, as the two political parties simultaneously seek to replace their leadership - one willingly, one perhaps less so.
With all the apathy that has characterised the Jamaican political landscape in recent years, we must never lose sight of the fact that one of these two persons will ultimately become our Prime Minister, assuming awesome if not frightening powers and will, more than any other single person, organisation, or perhaps even force, affect the quality of our lives in a most direct way, thereafter. The other will become Leader of the Opposition: a significant position within our system and an important safeguard in the protection of our democracy. Ability and integrity are, therefore, imperatives, if our best interests are to be protected and enhanced in a world that has become far more competitive and complex than ever before.
For us to define 'ability', however, we must first define the role of the Prime Minister and the characteristics most likely to achieve success in this post-modern era. It is only after so doing that we can even begin to decide who would be most suitable.
Are we looking for a Michael Lee-Chin type or a Professor Trevor Monroe, and if it is a mixture that we seek, what are the proportions. Whether we like it or not, we have entered the era of Corporation Jamaica and only rapid growth in the economy, within the context of a competitive world, will furnish the resources that are urgently needed to address crime, education and health.
COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT
We need as our next Prime Minister, the person most capable of leading in this environment. Love may be a good consideration but hardly valuable in the contract we should be negotiating for this job. Of equal importance is a re-examination of the structure. Is our current structure facilitative or is it an impediment? Good people with bad organisation, in a competitive environment, equal failure. But who among the aspirants would put this thorny issue as a plank on his or her platform. Aren't ministerial posts already promised? How then could an aspirant propose a change to this anachronism?
But the overwhelming majority of us Jamaicans will have no input in this flawed selection process anyway. Our system circumscribes our prime ministerial selection to the party faithful, rather than being inclusive of the vast reservoir of talented and perhaps more competent Jam-aicans, thus compromising our best chance of success in this uni-polar, dynamic, capitalist world, in which entrepreneurism is at least as important as intellectualism.
GREATER POTENTIAL
In addition, the process seems to value those within the party "who have paid their dues" and have never challenged the status quo, or who fit a particular and now anachronistic stereotype, more weightily than those with the greater potential to become our best present day "get things done" Prime Minister. The system is more set to reward than to elevate based on merit. And with no term limits, God help the young, brilliant, competent and ambitious political aspirant, but more so us the citizenry, if the position falls into the wrong hands as there are very little checks and balances.
The process for selecting these two persons, which is fairly similar in both political parties, deserves serious scrutiny, and in so doing one will quickly realise that in addition to the foregoing deficiencies, a real and present danger to our democracy exists, that is far more ominous. One hardly needs to go further than to consider the fact that our Prime Ministers are not elected by the Jamaican people: instead they are party leaders selected by party delegates a relatively small group, who are neither representative of, nor do they represent the Jamaican people.
CORRUPTION
Now that we are in the selection season, we are hearing of 'tainted money' and 'non-existent groups'. With the drug culture being as pervasive as it is in Jamaica today, and corruption being almost institutionalised, imagine how relatively small an investment 'the big man' would need to make to buy out or to put it euphemistically to pay some 'legitimate' expenses for a few thousand delegates or, for that matter, to pay up dues for as many illegitimate or non-existent groups as are necessary to get his man elected!
The opportunity for men of ill-will is glaring, and among delegates, like among most other Jamaicans, there is much economic need. It is said that there are only two inputs to dishonesty opportunity and need. If one wishes to add greed, there is certainly enough of that to go around.
Let us ask our two departing leaders, as a parting gift, to collaborate and, once and for all, free Jamaica from this clear and present danger. There must be a better way. Otherwise, let us put the prime ministerial post on a separate ballot so that all eligible voters can participate. Why should we have to join a political party to vote for our Prime Minister?
And in this increasingly competitive and entrepreneurial global village, where the concept of sovereignty is fast disappearing, and where the revenues of some transnational companies dwarf the GDP of many countries, why should we inhibit our chances for success by shackling ourselves to an outdated system that inhibits us in assembling Jamaica's best team?
