Louis E. A. Moyston | Time for effective local government in Jamaica

So, the Government announced the date for the local government elections of February 2024. While the governing party is actively denying that it is busily giving away “sweeties” to entice voters; the People’s National Party (PNP), like ants, is all over the place. Of course, the PNP would like to repeat the history of 1986 – the first time an opposition party captured the leadership of the local government. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is also aware of this history and would like to prevent history from repeating itself.

What I cannot hear from both political parties is their perspectives on local government that has been through so many changes. Recently, the minister of agriculture lauded the JLP as the party for local government, but then again, like many young politicians, Floyd Green has no clue about the history of local government in Jamaica or the role of the JLP in the parochial government system.

The time has come for new discussions on conceptualising a new approach to local government and its critical role in rural development. I learnt an important lesson from the great German thinker, G.W.F. Hegel, that in making change it is important not to destroy all the elements of the past; and that what can be redeemed must be treated accordingly and put into creative use. I say this to make the case for the restoration of an effective local government in Jamaica.

The British have been governing for centuries and have tested and tried this important local government institution. Why have we destroyed our established local government? The centralisation of local government in Jamaica has unleashed severe adverse consequences in rural Jamaica. In many countries people have access to their local government leaders, as opposed to those from central government.

There is a saying that “all politics is local”. We need to redevelop the concept of local government with new areas of responsibilities, including playing a pivotal role in rural development, as well as ensuring equity in the spending of taxes and other resources in the rural parts, as opposed to the disproportionate spending of all taxes collected in the Corporate Area and tourists towns.

STRENGTHENING THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM

In recent months Councillor Charles Sinclair (JLP, Montego Bay North East division) has expressed belief that strengthening the country’s local government system will allow for better representation at the municipal level islandwide. This is an important call coming from the government local representative and it is a position that the PNP representatives should explore and embrace.

According to the article ‘Sinclair wants stronger local government’ (May 13, 2023), the councillor argued that giving municipal corporations more teeth in the handling of the people’s business will evoke a higher level of trust and dependency from the citizens in each parish … and that the conversation surrounding local government reform has still not borne any fruit, as the municipal corporations are still being limited in their actions.

I recall the effective role of the parish council and Public Works Department (PWD) in St Thomas during my boyhood days. The distribution of water and garbage collections was carried out in an efficient and reliable manner. The PWD had sub-branches that allowed it to have current research on matters concerning road repairs and maintenance, floods and river training and worked on walls in the sea to prevent erosion, especially in the area of Roselle coast.

The PWD repaired potholes as well as keeping the “water tables” clear and clean to prevent flooding of the roadways. In other words, because of the strong parish council and PWD presence on the local scene, local administrators were able to keep their “fingers on the pulse” and treat the warning indicators before they become major problems.

Someone had this idea that it would be cheaper to centralise both the parish councils and the PWD and govern everything from Kingston and St Andrew. Can the people on Maxfield Avenue effectively observe and manage problems related to the country’s infrastructure in the rural parts?

It is important to understand that much of these rural infrastructures were build years upon years ago. More than often most of the resources collected are spent on infrastructures in the Corporate Area and tourist towns, and not just the taxes but even the distribution of water. Look at the Yallahs River and the adjoining communities that are out of water, but yet the water from St Thomas is piped to the Corporate Area while neglecting the local communities. The local government in St Thomas should also be in control of mineral mining – currently limestone and river sand.

TAKE ON NEW RESPONSIBILITIES

A robust local government is also important in the process of democratisation, and by having increased people’s participation in policy decision making process. It must also play the important role in ensuring effective allocation of tax resources in the rural parts, as well as the inspiring of the well-needed trust between the people and their political leaders.

It is time for local government to take on new responsibilities in public services, health, education and public education and the economy. There is also the need to upgrade the quality of leadership at the local government level in order to prepare that form of government for its new role, and that is, its participation in rural economic, social and political development in the quest to rebuild and strengthening rural communities that will contribute to the construction of a Jamaica developed, strong and free. It is most important for the PNP councillors to unite with the JLP local representatives on this issue.

Is there anything about a resurgent local government that is related to the current discussions on constitutional change? Also, there is a problem with members of parliament who are constantly missing in action and who in a general sense do not have any plan for the development of their constituencies.

The resurgent local government must be able to inspire self-reliance, community mobilisation and civic participation for social, economic and political development in the rural areas. What I am aiming at here is a process of the decentralisation of the strategies for national development by ways of rural development.

There is the need to combine the self-reliance strategies with the direct role of the local government in the economy. It must be able to assist with land reform, science literacy campaign for the everyday lived experience; and also seek technology application projects-assembling of an array of instruments. An example of this idea was that Robert Lightbourne telephone factory in Yallahs, a most significant venture that had far-reaching positive impact on many lives of the town, parish and beyond.

The new local government must play a leading role in assisting in marketing both locally and globally the export trade. Most of our major cities have port access and this is an advantage to restore the old “spirit” of production for both local and export. The issue of direct foreign investment is not about creating development of this country, but increasing wealth. Nothing is wrong with that but we as a people, with the leadership of our political leaders, must begin to think about the direct role of the State, central and local, in national development and wealth creation.

The time has come for new ideas about politics and economics.

I admire how in the distant past science put to one crop created so much wealth. It was this wealth creation that built the modern-day Britain-industrialisation, progressive economic and political changes for modern-day Britain.

I know we can do the same at the local level with the application of science to natural resources and the many agricultural products. We have to inspire real development and transformation of Jamaica and its people, with the local government playing a most effective role in rural administration and development.

Louis E. A. Moyston, PhD. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com