Kristen Gyles | Voting for parties or people?

Jamaica’s two major political parties engaged in a series of two local government debates last week. As it turns out, the debates were, more or less, an opportunity for both political parties to do some more campaigning, and not by introducing anything new for our consideration but by engaging in some of the usual finger-pointing and stone-throwing. Debaters on ‘Team JLP’ (Jamaica Labour Party) tried hard to convince us that we have been living in a prosperous town called ‘Paradise’ and that life has been great since 2016 when they were successful in the last local government election. Debaters on ‘Team PNP’ (People’s National Party) tried equally as hard to convince us that we have been living in a harrowing hell.

One debater asserts that the government has constructed new markets and has refurbished old ones, and immediately after, in the same debate, a debater from the other side asserts that the markets are filthy and stink. One asserts that the government has been replacing numerous aged sewage lines and not long after, an opposing debater alludes to markets and roads being overflooded with sewage.v

WON’T HELP

If there is no consensus at least on what the reality has been over the past few years, or on how it has changed, how can we brainstorm good governance approaches and debate them? The average Jamaican knows how they feel about the performance of local government in their area by now, and where they don’t, a debate two weeks before the election won’t help them. A debate solely for the purpose of reminding us of what has happened over the past election cycle is useful only for an amnesiac.

The PNP says they have a new vision for local government. It would have been good to have the debate surround a moot or motion on the need for structural changes to the current local government framework. What is this new vision of the PNP and why is it better than the status quo? Instead, what we got was a rehashing of the past eight years.

So, the debates gave very little food for thought but served as a good campaign tool, I guess. Perhaps, the better debate team will end up with a few extra votes for their party on election day. And after watching the second debate, this is somehow what left me uneasy. Was I being invited to vote for a political party or for a political candidate?

Clearly, we don’t stage a political debate with three political agents on each side, for the purpose of hearing about the plans our divisional candidates have for our individual divisions. The format of the debate betrays an expectation for Jamaicans to decide on a winning party, not to bring us any closer to evaluating the better candidate for our respective divisions.

The debate was just one of the many indicators that councillors, mayors and other local government personnel are placeholders for their political parties, the heads of which are really the ones calling the shots.

Campaigning on both sides of the political divide has surrounded numerous issues that have nothing to do with local government and instead relate to governance issues and policy changes at the national level. For example, allusions to the country’s untamed crime rate and the skyrocketing of prices for consumer goods have nothing to do with local government, yet this has been a prominent feature of much of the PNP’s advertising. One advertisement circulated on social media by the JLP, on the other hand, lists ‘building STEM’, ‘building connectivity’ and ‘building tourism’ supposedly as evidence that it should be given control of local government. What’s the relevance to municipal governance?

PROMINENT THEME

The Government’s public sector compensation review has also been a prominent theme leading up to the election. The Government reminds us that they have granted the largest wage increase to public sector workers in the history of Jamaica. On the other hand, the PNP says the Government has given security guards only ‘pittance’ while giving ‘themselves’ a wage increase of over 200 per cent. Again, what’s the relevance to municipal governance?

Further, why does it seem that so much of the campaigning is being done by the party leaders themselves and other prominent members of the parties and not the actual candidates?

Frankly, most of the campaigning so far has been party centric. We are not hearing from our actual councillor-candidates (either within our divisions or on media platforms) anything about what they plan to do within their specific divisions, or why we should vote for them. Perhaps the strategy of hiding behind the party is a covert way of admitting that they will only function as puppets for their parties.

Either way, we should all by now be familiar with the runnings of Jamaican politics. Without the backing of the mighty JLP or PNP, what will you achieve independently? Is this why 45 per cent of respondents in the early February RJRGLEANER Don Anderson poll indicated they would not consider voting for an independent candidate?

Unfortunately, it seems political candidates do not get to enjoy independence. So, in actuality, we are voting this year, and next year, for our preferred political party and not for our preferred candidates. We are voting for parties and not for people. And if that is the case, there is hardly any reason not to have our local government elections and general elections at the same time. The expectation in relation to both elections seems to be that we will be voting for a political party and not for a political candidate, so why have the Electoral Office of Jamaica waste over $1 billion out of the national purse on administering each of the two elections separately, both for the same purpose of crowning a winning party?

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com