Gordon Robinson | Greetings grumpy old man

I’ve been penning these weekly columns for 16 years in an unconventional, often satirical, mostly arcane style.

I felt safe being weird because I convinced myself nobody cared. After all, everybody knows that, if you want to hide something in Jamaica, put it in writing. However, in 2023, because I care, I became extra focused on a constitutional reform agenda I’ve been promoting for 30 years. Why? Because I apprehend Government is about to squander Jamaica’s last chance at equitable social reconstruction; at freedom from mental slavery; at independence from political tribalism; and at national progress by gambling on an illusory constitutional reform process apparently designed to ensure no reform and zero change.

I informed readers (both of them) on December 31 ( Three Score and Ten), that my 2024 focus was “on forcing fundamental constitutional change. Jamaica must convert its first-past-the-post-does-as-it-likes governance system into one of transparency, accountability and inclusion no matter what narcissistic political leaders want.”

In the New Year my first Sunday column took Government to task for its transparently bogus constitutional reform exercise. There’s no discernible intent to so much as tweak the rotten governance system that, for 60 years, waged war against accountability, transparency and democracy. I expected to be like a tree falling in the forest that nobody heard.

Did I make a noise?

Mebbe I did! A reader with extensive experience of Jamaica’s political history responded to me by e-mail. The response was so poignant; so heartfelt; so telling; so profound; so drenched in patriotism that I feel obliged to reproduce it in full:

“Greetings Grumpy Old Man:

Reading your column this week, I am forced to ask what has happened to the Constitutional Committee’s promise to have a public forum in Kingston. If it has happened – as it seems to have done in two other locations around the island. I have missed any announcements on social media, though I am an avid user of all digital communications. Where is the loud public campaign that should be educating the population for us to make such a very major decision?

Instead, the social media are flooded by posts and photos by every single MP, every day, promoting everything they are doing and saying, any and everywhere. The PM posts several photo and voice messages every day on a multitude of topics: crime, domestic violence, the houses he is giving away, the guests who visit him, the constituency tours he makes, etc., etc., etc. I scroll past them and the rebuttals by his PNP opponents, hoping that one will touch on the Constitution, the urgent need for which we are reminded of by the equally frequent posts about our King, his Queen Consort and his dysfunctional ‘royal’ family.

I was glad to see you remind us of the proposal many have made that the new Constitution should create a system in which the Head of Government and Senators are elected by The People, for The People. I also agree that Cabinet members should be chosen from outside Parliament. It is unwise that we appoint Parliamentarians who offer to be the very best representatives of their Constituents for actions and decisions relating to their lives then a Cabinet chosen by the winning Party gives them full-time jobs as Ministers handling national responsibilities that have nothing to do with the lives and communities they swore to represent. How can a representative of an impoverished Constituency, with poor housing, social and medical services and education, be a proper person to be a full-time CEO of – say – a tourism ministry catering to visitors staying in luxurious hotels, villas, cruise ships and attractions based al over the island? Will he not be fully distracted by his Ministerial job, to be able to attend just as fully to his Constituency job? How can an MP of a city Constituency adequately run a Ministry of Agriculture covering farms and farmers island-wide? Or any other such Ministerial post for which his only professional experience is a mainstream job or a university degree?

Ministers of Government should be appointed for their competence in the area they are to manage and should be interviewed publicly by Parliamentarians, to prove they are the best for the job, before being appointed. Then they must report to the same Parliamentarians and the Public at regular intervals, to ensure they are doing a good job, or else be removed. At present, there is no way we – The People – can supervise them or complain when they do not perform. They should work with guidance from Permanent Secretaries, who must be credited for the professional competence they have gained over years of service to have gained that level of experience in Government procedures. But politicians find that proposal ‘ridiculous’, as it would take away their undemocratic power to make decisions based on their ideas vetted by their fellow politicians in their political Cabinet meetings. They demand Permanent Secretaries approve whatever they decide to do using the Budget they have given themselves via Cabinet. All power rests in the hands of the politicians not The People.

This should not be so. It’s undemocratic.

This is how we, The People, get the bad, privately-made decisions we don’t like, such as the one that has changed Devon House from a fine example of a historic Jamaican Great House and urban public leisure spot into a restaurant for tourists. Another is the recent decision to remove the Air Jamaica airplane tail at Palisadoes, the last remaining emblem of a national business Jamaica was proud of, leaving us with a promise of a ‘museum-to-come’ and the inevitable multi-coloured, multi-million-dollar plastic letter sign like the ones that decorate Montego Bay and Negril.

These undemocratic decisions are some of the reasons why we need a new Constitution that takes such action out of the hands of a chosen, privileged few. We, The People, want to discuss Constitutional changes like this. You are right, ‘Grumpy Old Man’, to say that “both political parties [are] pretending to squabble over items that don’t affect their stranglehold on political power but coming together on policies that keep citizens as disconnected from government’s accountability and transparency as possible”.

I agree with you, ‘Grumpy Old Man’, for insisting that we want a change of The Old System, as we change the Constitution that Britain has burdened us with since slavery and colonialism. The politicians who are going to debate the ideas Ms. Malahoo and her team have come up with don’t want any changes that will affect the cushy system they now operate under. The scandal about motor car purchases that brought down the last Speaker is just one example of the cushy life they want to preserve.

We, The People, are tired of the old system which is why we don’t bother to vote any more. Under the old system, the 30% of the electorate that votes are the Party followers on both sides who benefit financially from the politicians and attend their political conferences to vote them into power again and again. We can’t keep doing the same old thing and hoping for new results.

Give The People a really NEW Constitution.

Best regards

One of The People”

Can I get an Amen?

Except for Norman Manley, one of a kind, unless compelled, no political leader takes any action having the slightest chance of reducing his/her power. So Andrew Holness, while in the political wilderness and anxious to return to Jamaica House, promised term limits which should be a priority of any reform of Jamaica’s colonial constitution. Instead, eight years later, he starts a fake constitutional reform process that excludes any discussion resembling power reduction or sharing.

And he’s running for a third term.

Mark Golding won a bruising contest for PNP President decided by an elite group of 3,000 odd “delegates” and immediately promised all members would vote for future Party Presidents. Over three years later the only change is his term as PNP President was extended from one year to two years.

What’s the matter, people?

Solidarity, solidarity!

Everybody wants the same thing, don’t they?

Everybody wants a happy end….

Everybody wanna work for a living.

Everybody wants their children warm.

Everybody wants to be forgiven.

They wanna shelter from the storm.

Look at me, I ain’t your enemy.

We walk on common ground.

We don’t need to fight each other.

What we need, what we need

Solidarity, solidarity

Wake up people. Stop the petty political cass-cass. Listen to Black Uhuru. Time come for solidarity in a movement for real constitutional change. Or we can continue painting fellow Jamaicans orange or green (no black; no gold) while selling our souls to political tribalism so politicians can rotate power.

Peace and Love.

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