Trevor Munroe | Breaking Jamaica’s good governance drought

On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 9, I watched much of the proceedings in the House of Representatives on the public broadcasting channel. In that sitting, our prime minister announced that much of Jamaica was experiencing rainfall shortage amounting to a drought. With graphic charts, Prime Minster Holness illustrated that almost five of every six constituencies were experiencing drought-like conditions and that this situation required the government to take special measures to reduce the harmful impact of the dry weather.

Earlier, in that same sitting, to my eyes, another dry spell in the parliamentary climate was evident, confirming a drought in good governance now deeply affecting the Legislature and the Executive, two of the three branches of Jamaica’s democratic system. This dry spell, in that meeting of the House, related to the Government completely ignoring the principle of Responsiveness to the citizenry. Completely ignored was the insistence by the Parliamentary Opposition, the leadership of important sections of the Church, the Civil Service Associations, the Trade Unions and Civil Society Organisations, including NIA, JFJ, the Advocates Network, etc, that the Speaker’s autocratic, unprincipled letter, publicly disciplining the clerk, should be withdrawn and a public apology issued. The Government’s response so far has been to use its parliamentary majority to shut down any discussion of the issue, much less rectification of this unacceptable conduct.

ABUSE OF AUTHORITY NOT ISOLATED

Was this a one-day dry spell in good governance, no one could speak justifiably of a drought. The reality is, however, that this abuse of authority is not isolated. Dry spells are becoming more evident in the diminishing observance of basic principles of good governance, namely: responsiveness, accountability, transparency, citizen participation, consensus-oriented decisions and equity in adherence to the Rule of Law.

• Hence, in February, with neither consensus nor adequate consultation, the Government used its majority to trample on a 45-year-old Convention of bipartisanship in making changes to Jamaica’s electoral administration arrangements. This was the unprecedented unilateral approach to subsuming the Office of the Political Ombudsman into the Electoral Commission of Jamaica. This recalled, as NIA and others pointed out, and as confirmed by a former ECJ chairman, Professor Errol Miller, the dark age of tribal manipulation of Jamaica’s Electoral System, including partisan drawing of constituency boundaries.

• Similarly, another dry spell in July 2023. With scant regard for the spirit and, arguably, the letter of Jamaica’s Constitution, the Government used its majority to unilaterally amend, with neither prior notice nor consultation with the Opposition or Civil Society, our fundamental law in extending the tenure of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

• On another level, the Auditor General’s 2023 annual report pointed to arid weather in respect of the Rule of Law. That report indicated that diverse ministries, departments, and agencies were in breach of the Financial Administration Act and the Public Bodies Management Accountability Act. They were in breach of the reporting requirements that would allow proper assessment of whether billions of dollars of public funds were being spent effectively and in accordance with budgetary stipulations. The Gleaner’s headline on January 21 appropriately summed up this situation ‘Trillion dollar accountability crisis’. Similarly, the vast majority of public bodies continue to defy, with impunity, the law requiring such agencies to report annually to the responsible minister and through that channel, to the Parliament, and to the Jamaican people. In that regard, the last such annual report from NEPA was 10 years ago. As such, we the public are chronically deprived of the lawfully stipulated means to know what this body and others are doing and to hold them to account.

• Along the same lines, infringing on the public’s right to transparency, in November 2023, the Speaker ruled that the long-standing practice of the Parliament receiving as soon as possible, reports sent from the Office of the Auditor General and the Integrity Commission, was to be curtailed. This ruling has so far stood despite strong and widespread objection from the citizenry and from the Parliamentary Opposition. Arguably as well, and in the face of as yet undisclosed advice from the Attorney General.

• To make matters worse, until recently, the public could look forward to a ‘rainy season’ every three months in respect of transparency. This was reflected in the publication of quarterly contract awards by government bodies, for the provision of services and of public works. This disclosure has ceased. The public is now in the dark in respect of who gets which contract, with what level of justification, to provide which works and what services, and for how much of our public money.

• Of concern, in this context, is that institutions designed to provide an independent check on Executive power (e.g., the Office of the Public Defender and the ECJ) remain vulnerable to assault amending the relevant legislation by simple parliamentary majority vote. The intention in the relevant law to give these bodies constitutional protection remains unfulfilled.

• Public trust and confidence in our system continues to be undermined by governments’ failure to implement important commitments. As such, there remains no action to fulfil the promise of public education on constitutional matters to enable meaningful citizen participation in the critical process of Constitutional Reform. Solemn promises to pass legislation to help catch corrupt ‘big fish’ (e.g. the Unexplained Wealth Order) and to facilitate greater effectiveness in apprehending ‘violence producers’ (e.g. the Enhanced Security Measures Act) have not been met. Such breaches of promise aggravate citizens distrust and fuel citizen frustration in exercising the right to vote as well as utilising other means of citizen participation.

THREATENING DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

Overall, the worsening good governance drought is now threatening citizens’ democratic rights and is requiring special measures from all of us to break the growing climate of autocracy. I suggest that these urgent measures must include:

• The intensification of greater collaboration among citizens’ bodies and civil society organisations interested in preserving and deepening our democratic rights and freedoms. This should include more joint press conferences particularly calling for the reversal of unacceptable governmental breaches and ultimately aimed at the rebuilding of a coalition of civil society organisations.

• Members of the local business community and our international development partners who stand for integrity, against corruption and for good governance principles, must do more to support capacity building and multimedia initiatives to promote public awareness as well as assertiveness in standing up for Jamaica’s democracy.

• Identification and encouragement of existing well springs and tributaries, however small, of integrity amongst the Government’s back bench MPs, in the Opposition, among leaders of public bodies and in the Cabinet itself to mitigate and reverse climate change in the direction of ‘democratic backsliding’.

The third branch of government, the Judiciary, and the fourth estate, the media, shall need to be called on to play important roles in exposing as well as reversing wrongdoing, especially within the Executive and Legislative branches of the state. The weeks and months ahead, as Jamaica draws closer to a general election, have the potential both of aggravating adverse conditions as well as of providing opportunities for advancing good governance. Each of us, in our own space, must seize such opportunities for advancement in our personal and in the public interest.

Professor Emeritus Trevor Munroe is the founding director of National Integrity Action. Send feedback to info@niajamaica.org or columns@gleanerjm.com