Wilberne Persaud, Financial Gleaner Columnist

Persaud

I suggested in a previous column, the idea of open endorsement of political parties in their bid to secure the right to govern Jamaica. Business people and interest groups, by any of a number of indicators, are well equipped to adduce good reasons for endorsing a party's programme.

Those reasons, shared with the electorate would have a great chance of convincing others. Politics would be elevated to issues and not remain simply a matter of party affiliation. Like-minded individuals would follow suit creating expanded debate.

Just one case in point: Health care is moving along a path-health insurance-that appears inefficient and suboptimal based on performance in the United States. We should pay attention to this. General objectives without details for sensible decision making would succumb to informed discussion. Endorsement by interested and competent groups should render these plans transparent to the electorate.

We are 45 years old in independence. Civil debate among contending views linked to political parties' philosophy, programmes and ability to carry them out is something we strive for, haltingly.

Our political Ombudsman, Electoral Commission, and spasmodic constituency 'walk abouts' by contending candidates all seem to be efforts in this direction.

All positive developments

These are all positive developments in our political system geared in part, to preventing violence and mayhem in our political affairs.

Several reasons for advocating open endorsement of political parties by influential groups, newspapers and others exist.

As students in the United Kingdom, we encountered political party-affiliated groups - the Young Conservatives, Labour, Liberals, Trotskyites, Communists - as undergraduate students. No one ever made this a secret.

Their annual general meetings and other public sessions were advertised with great fanfare. Open affiliation with a political party was the custom.

On the contrary, on the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, party affiliation of persons seeking student governance offices is hidden. It is as if somehow links to the political parties are to be officially kept secret or frowned upon.

The strange thing though, is that everyone knows of the affiliation and the fact that the kind of campaign conducted could not be financed by any individual student. Their posters, leaflets and other campaign paraphernalia always seem too expensive to be derived from personal on-campus fund raising.

Why does this happen? I once asked a candidate for Guild President whether he had any off-campus affiliation and was told no. He came to one of my large classes requesting to talk to students. I could therefore not say if he had a party affiliation but his fellow students speaking to me afterwards all claimed he did.

Troublesome matterIs it that representational politics, (public service) has such a bad name? If so, why? Then there is the other troublesome matter. Is it good, proper, or wise to have university lecturers, academics seeking office in representational politics? We certainly would not wish one of our High Court judges to do so.

There is no question in my mind as to the ability or indeed suitability of such individuals for political office. If elected they would make good representatives of the people. But I know of no other jurisdiction in which this occurs.

Certainly not, as far as I am aware, in the U.K. or United States, at the London School of Economics or universities of Manchester, Oxford, Harvard, etc.

Do they know something we don't? Do we know something they don't? Why have we never debated the wisdom or otherwise of this phenomenon? Did Delroy Chuck consider these issues in his decision to enter representational politics?

Secondment

University academics in the U.K. and U.S. have left, on secondment or other arrangements to work with, for instance, the Council of Economic Advisors to the U.S. president, or to take up positions in central banking and the like.

They return to their universities at the end of their tenure in those positions. They go into public service based on demonstrable technical competence. Sometimes they are plucked out of academia by a political party they do not generally support but whose programme appeals to them. The idea here is to find the best competencies for a particular job, not known or demonstrated political support. Galbraith worked for Kennedy, Paul Krugman and Laurence Summers for Bill Clinton.

Finally, financial support of political parties in their campaigns - campaign financing - is a matter that should be on the public record.

With all the legislation and rules the U.S. Congress has been able to pass, it is still elusive in that country. I am not sufficiently naive to believe we can achieve this in the near future but it is something we should aim for. All these issues need to be addressed if we are to move to the next stage of political maturity.

wilbe65@yahoo.com