Peter Espeut
I WANT to assure those who believe that, finally, a scandal has been exposed which will lead to someone in the Government being held accountable, that nothing like that will happen. This Government has survived without a scratch much more than a simple matter of $2 billion, and we can expect the spin doctors and the friendly media to work together to make sure that this blows over as just another nine-day wonder.
The Government and its officers have been able to evade responsibility for wasting a series of pots of money which add up to much more than two billion. I am talking about decades of missing schools and inflated contracts and cost over-runs and NetServe and furniture and highly-paid consultants (with extravagant perqs) and land give-aways and Whitehouse and much, much more. Henry Morgan would be proud! Yes, it is important for prime ministers to travel on public business, but not necessary for them to do so as extravagantly as has been reported. This particular garbage scandal is noteworthy for its size, but it is not any different in its nature to many others.
GREATEST SCANDAL
But for me, people - especially God's poor - are far more important than money. For me the greatest scandal is that this Teflon government has been able to avoid any responsibility for the carriage by government truck driven by government workers escorted by government security forces of poor defenceless street people tied by government rope into a situation of danger. As we celebrate the emancipation of black people from an evil system of torture and oppression, the Government has been able to avoid responsibility for the highest rate of police killings in the world (usually of the black and poor descendants of those slaves) and the brutal beating of its citizens during interrogation. No slave master would erode his capital in this way. And both political parties have been able to avoid responsibility for the creation and arming of garrison communities with the help of the private sector, and the ensuing spiral of violence and murder.
And as we prepare to celebrate political Independence, what excuse can be proffered for the erosion of human capital over the last 43 years caused by an education system - designed and implemented by an independent black government - which produces illiterates and social misfits. We no longer have our colonial masters to blame! Yes, the Teflon factor will make sure than no Jamaican government - present or past takes any blame or is made accountable for any of this.
What makes this garbage scandal a little different is that the JLP has a special interest in prosecuting this particular issue, since the person they most fear to face in the next general election is involved. The JLP would like to see nothing better than Minister Portia Simpson fried to a crisp; and so also would some of her PNP rivals for leadership. But that will not happen, as her camp will point out that she inherited the situation, and that it is she who caused the matter to be exposed in the first place: she called in the Auditor-General to investigate; she called in the Contractor-General to investigate; and she released the report to the public. I can think of other scandals which have gone uninvestigated, and other reports which - until now - have yet to see the light of day. Pretty soon it will become clear that if it wasn't for her, there would be no story.
WHAT NEXT?
But it is also clear that Minister Simpson had not thought it through carefully enough. What next? Demand resignations? Cancel the contracts of the genetically linked and the dear friends? Bring in the police? The DPP? It seems that for her it was enough to embarrass, and in that she has been successful. And that must not be underestimated. This Government has so far proven difficult to be embarrassed by anything. Maybe this case is special because of the special genetic links involved.
But Minister Simpson must be careful. If she presses this one too hard the whole dolly-house of political patronage could come tumbling down. It could mean an end to the feeding tree for political hacks - even in the housing sector. Even the dons might have to watch out! That must not happen, and so Teflon will be found in the right quantities. And then everyone will breathe a sigh of relief, and return to business as usual. Until the next scandal. God help us!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
