Gordon Robinson | Jamaica doesn’t have a democracy

I’ve repeatedly warned you we don’t have democracy in Jamaica.

The latest confirmation came on February 21, in Parliament, where a farcical display by Government MPs saw them using their majority to bulldoze a fourth Local Government Election postponement on grounds so diaphanous Stevie Wonder could see through. If elections can be repeatedly put off by Government dictate without consequence, democracy is dead.

So I posted this opinion on Twitter. Right on cue, obsessive JLP tribalists, anxious to worship Party over Country, claimed democracy, if dead, was killed by PNP who had also postponed local government elections for spurious reasons.

Sigh.

I’m always amazed at how divorced Jamaican political tribalists are from the lost art of reading. It occurred to none of the JLP tribalists that, when PNP did this, it was “Government”. I recognize the angst driving their finger pointing and yelling “You did it too” as rationale for wrongdoing but, again, this isn’t a PNP or JLP problem. It’s a problem besetting all Governments wielding absolute power despite not one member having been elected to any government office nor vetted for office by persons elected to represent us.

Legally, MPs are elected to represent constituents. In reality they represent their political parties only. We are active co-conspirators as too many of us mark our “X” beside the Bell or the Head having no clue for whom we are actually voting. These symbols were historically introduced, according to political historian Hartley Neita, because “Before the first general election in 1944, when for the first time every Jamaican over the age of 21 could vote, it was recognised that over 50 per cent of these first-time voters were illiterate. These illiterates would, therefore, have a problem identifying the names of the candidates for whom they wished to vote. As a result, the Electoral Office announced that candidates would be identified by symbols on the ballot papers.” (Gleaner; July 6, 2007; Political symbols and illiterates).

Eighty years later, we still use these symbols. Need I say anything more…?

In 1972, as Michael Manley’s PNP was swept to power on the tide of Jamaica’s most popular political swing (2020 isn’t even second best), one of Jamaica’s best songwriters, Glenroy Anthony Michael Archangelo (“Ernie”) Smith penned Hail the Man (recorded by Ken Lazarus) a song with strong partisan sentiments reflecting the then society. By 1976 he was describing a different society with another seminal piece:

And, as we fight one another

for the power and the glory,

the kingdom goes to waste

So, I’m sorry to have to break the news to PNP and JLP tribalists alike but Jamaican Democracy died as Jamaica was born when it accepted English imposed Westminster “governance” giving one individual absolute power to call elections at whim and the Government he/she leads as Monarch to postpone elections willy nilly.

Yet Westminster itself has long since evolved into mandating fixed election dates for UK. Without fixed election dates, Jamaica can’t be a Republic. If PM can call/postpone elections at will he’s a King by another name ruling over subjects blindly willing to “follow the leader ’til we die”.

We the people waa’ fi know

just where we going.

Right now we hands are tied

tied behind we back

while certain people if and buttin’

Where do we stand?

We have too far to go

not to really know

just how we getting there

an’ if we getting anywhere…

Election scheduling is for electorates’ NOT political parties’ benefit. Candidates must face electorates’ interview and employment process (campaign and voting). If political parties want political advantage (bless their hard little hearts) they should polish their resumés and submit to regular assessment at regular uncontrolled intervals. We mustn’t allow this dangerous wedge to be inserted into our electoral door.

In that regard I fully support PNP’s protest walkout of Parliament. But subsequent PNP bluster about JLP electoral fear is laughable. Government’s disrespect for the people it serves is obvious from its ridiculous reasoning. But PNP is as disingenuous with its nonsensical flying of “JLP fraid-a-wi” kites. If PNP actually believed that propaganda it would be organizing massive street protests against the postponement. Instead it continues to yap, yap, yap as Jamaican democracy comes under attack.

Can’t build no foundation

‘pon a if and a but.

Are we building a nation

or are we building a hut?

On February 28, Gleaner reported a similar scenario in Sri Lanka:

“Police in Sri Lanka on Sunday fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters angry over a decision to postpone local elections after the government said it cannot finance them because of the country’s crippling economic crisis.”

Oh, dear. Yogi Berra would say “this feels like déjà vu all over again!”

There’s more:

“Thousands of supporters of the opposition National People’s Power party tried to march toward the main business district in capital Colombo, ignoring police warnings…..”

Can PNP muster even ONE thousand supporters for a protest march?

This has nothing to do with JLP reluctance to face the electorate. It has everything to do with its chances of adding another Parish Council to its already impressive majority. So the excuse proffered about waiting for Portmore to be declared a Parish has the feel of a half-truth. I’m accustomed to gerrymandered constituencies but this plan to gerrymander an entire Parish is new.

This political fight over St Catherine Parish Council sacrifices the rights of every Jamaican especially in those fifteen divisions still unrepresented. I heard one excitable St. Catherine MP, in Parliament, squealing that he wouldn’t allow Portmore voters to be disenfranchised.

Has he been drinking mad puss peepee? If local government elections were called tomorrow every single Portmore resident on the voters’ list would be permitted to vote. Nobody would be disenfranchised. This must be an early nomination for the 2023 Dunce Move Award!

And don’t get me started on the affordability arguments. Both sides have put forward mindless absurdities exposing their obsessions with political propaganda over political performance. In piloting the Government’s aircraft despite it leaking fuel everywhere, Uncle Desmond said:

“The Government is sharply focused on two main things: 1) building national resilience against any further economic shocks… 2) the expansion and maintenance of strong economic growth…..

“It’s carefully considered, the position of Government, that the holding of the municipal elections at this time will carry a significant risk diverting the country from these two vital tasks… that is fully accepted.”

By whom? Not me! To tell the people you represent that any elections are economic diversions means you consider electoral assessment of your job performance an unnecessary economic luxury. This caricatures Government’s utter contempt for us and for democracy.

And if you talk too loud

and if you walk too proud

watch where you lay your head

for out deh dread, well dread!

PNP’s opposing argument was as obtuse as Government’s was despicable. PNP: Why can’t Government find economic space, in a Trillion Dollar Budget, to spend a little more than $1 billion on an election? Of course they can. Anything they want to spend our money on they will. Government just tabled last financial year’s FOURTH Supplementary Estimates making next year’s budget Jamaica’s second trillion dollar guesstimate. Attempts to conceal voting rights restrictions using budgetary provisions are as lame as Nigel Clarke’s attempt to bluff Doctors, Teachers and Police into signing on the dotted line by March 31.

Puh-leeezzzeee! The day after they sign Supplementary Estimates can be tabled and retroactive salaries paid. The day after Jamaica/USA forces stage a popular invasion of Haiti, Supplementary Estimates can be tabled to fund snap general and/or local government elections if that’s what Jamaica’s Monarch in PM’s clothing desires. This has NOTHING to do with budgets or parish designations and EVERYTHING to do with political narcissism endangering democracy.

Once again, those with eyes to see and ears to hear must KNOW there’s no true democracy in Jamaica. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear can KNOW how contemptuous Majority MPs are of the people they allegedly represent by watching the reaction to George Wright’s comedy routine after the Opposition’s justified walkout. That showcased a dangerous disrespect for Parliament and the people. Gordon House is now officially a national joke and a thoughtless conduit for dictatorial tendencies, partisan pedantry and silly sandbox scuffles.

And as we fight one another

fi the power and the glory

Jah kingdom goes to waste

and every drop of blood we taste…

A fi we own disgrace, yeah,

A fi we own disgrace.

Unless we insist on fundamental societal reconstruction, we’ll be to blame as Jamaica is left to suffer with neither real Parliament nor real democracy.

Peace and Love.

- Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.