Parliament, get to work!
Published:Sunday | January 22, 2012 | 12:00 AM
With all but one opposition senator, a new Parliament was sworn in last Tuesday with pomp and circumstance and much cross-party conviviality. Then the legislature immediately went on recess for a week with the first working meeting set for this Tuesday, nearly a month after the general election.
This is part of what is wrong with the business of government in Jamaica. We have a lazy Parliament. This newspaper, in its editorial last Wednesday, called for 'Waking up a dozy Parliament', which has "an average of 50 sittings a year, for perhaps three hours a session and the passage of 25-30 pieces of legislation annually. A while back, UWI political science professor Trevor Munroe provided us with some comparative data on sittings of parliaments around the Commonwealth. Here is a selection:
COUNTRY 2006 2007
Australia 68 68
Canada 114 115
Ghana 140 140
India 74 74
Kenya 86 86
New Zealand 86 91
United Kingdom 143 151
And our Parliament has a lot of work to do. More than 100 bills have been left behind by the last Parliament at various stages to be passed into law.
Contrary to the popular view of the member of parliament as constituency godfather doling out bits of assistance, the constitutional role of Parliament, the legislative arm of government, is simply, to "make laws for the peace, order and good government of Jamaica". Measured against the "peace, order and good government" of the country, successive parliaments have not been a great success.
In our 50th anniversary, it is time for our Parliament to shine. The prime minister ordered her Cabinet ministers and the rest of the executive to get to work right after their swearing-in. The Parliament, too, needs to get to work in serious fashion. The leader of government business and the leader of opposition business in both chambers, and the prime minister, opposition leader, speaker of the House and president of the Senate must set the pace and facilitate the work.
One immediate step which needs to be taken is the honouring of Section 55 (1) of the Constitution. As I discussed at length in last Sunday's column, the prime minister is committed to the rule of law. Section 55 (1) says: "... Any member of either House may introduce any bill or propose any motion for debate in or may present any petition to that House, and the same shall be debated and disposed of according to the Standing Order of that House."
The government backbench and the Opposition have been virtually gagged from initiating bills or motions or petitions. The legislative agenda is controlled by the executive. But it is precisely in the capacity to propose bills, move motions and make petitions that the MP is a real representative of his constituents in the 'House of Representatives', and the senator can make active personal contributions to governance from the Chamber of Wise Persons.
It was more than a little painful to hear the de facto minister of information, Sandrea Falconer, herself a senator, describing the Senate only as a "review" chamber. Constitution 55 (2): A Bill other than a Money Bill may be introduced in either House, but a Money Bill shall not be introduced in the Senate." And as 55 (1) makes abundantly clear, the introducing can be by any member.
MP Ronald Thwaites, now in the executive as minister of education, used to complain bitterly, both in the Parliament and on his radio talk show, about the near impossibility of backbenchers being able to table matters for debate. Now that he has been deservingly elevated to the executive, he should not, like Pharaoh's Chief Butler, forget Joseph in prison after his own release which had been predicted by Joseph in the interpretation of his dream.
The old legislative agenda could not be accommodated in the scanty sittings of the Parliament, and bills languished, sometimes for years. A vibrantly expanded legislative agenda accommodating initiatives from the people's representatives who are not in the executive will need plenty more time - and other resources.
The Parliament should be immediately set to work on the Budget. Yes, I said the legislature, not the executive; not the minister of finance. The MP hardly has any more important duty than participating on the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament. "No taxation without representation!" was the birth cry of parliamentary democracy 796 years ago as the English nobles confronted King John at Runnymede in 1215 AD.
While it is the minister responsible for finance who shall "cause to be prepared annual estimates of revenue and expenditure for public services during the succeeding financial year", these estimates must "be laid before the House of Representatives" to be voted on (Constitution Sections 115 & 116). Rather than the House having control of the Budget, to an extraordinary degree which is certainly against the intent of parliamentary democracy and the Constitution, it is anonymous and unelected technocrats in the public service who have that control.
Begging budgetary support
And even within the Cabinet, a single minister, the minister of finance, has extraordinary and dangerous dominance of planning and the Budget. Other ministers and the heads of their public-service agencies must go cap in hand to beg budgetary support for their policies and programmes.
Ronnie Thwaites, again, has complained bitterly and often about the fashion in which the minister's Budget is foisted upon the Parliament for blind approval with little time for careful study or meaningful feedback which the designers would not take into consideration in any case. The badly named Budget Debate does precious little to influence direct policy and is largely of oratorical value.
Parliament must assert its authority to shape revenue and expenditure and to influence the direction of public policy as directed by the law of the Constitution in this new era of the rule of law. The collective wisdom of the people's representatives in this particular parliamentary cycle must be vigorously applied to the critical fiscal problems faced by the country and which deeply affect the lives of their constituents: the debt burden, the Budget deficit - the gap between expenditure and revenue, and the tax system. The representatives must assist in conveying to their constituents the limits upon public policy to provide public services.
The World Bank, in its biannual Global Economic Prospects released last week, is urging the Caribbean and other developing nations to start planning for a major slowdown in global growth this year. In its techno-speak, the bank said, "Weaker global growth, uncertainty arising from the euro-area debt crisis, slower growth in China, and a policy-induced deceleration in domestic demand are weighing on growth prospects," for the Caribbean and Latin American region.
The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank's sister organisation, echoed its warnings about the dangers which slowing trade and uncertainty about Europe pose to emerging markets.
When a prime minister is pleading with private-sector companies to add one person to their payroll simply to create jobs and ease unemployment, the collective wisdom of Parliament is needed more than ever to deal with the economic realities confronting country and citizens.
The Greeks were back to protesting last week over impending new austerity measures as international debt inspectors returned to their stricken country to resume examination of the country's reforms. That country has recently formed a government of national unity to deal with the matter. We had better learn how to collaborate between Government and Opposition in the Parliament in the national interest. A strong degree of latitude for individual parliamentarians freed from excessive party control will do more for collaboration than any negotiations between the leaders ever can, or ever will.
Although we are talking austerity, a functional Parliament will need more space and more resources to get its job done. Led by media, there is a great deal of public scepticism about spending on Government. We want good government without the attached price tag. The country urgently needs a new Parliament building, large, beautiful and aesthetically pleasing in an open and spacious location as a national monument. Parliamentarians, particularly those outside the executive, need aides and research assistance and space to get their work done.
The reform of governance, for which there is broad national consensus, will not happen without a substantial reform of the legislature in function and in support resources.
Martin Henry is a communication specialist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and medhen@gmail.com.