Campaign donations and state funding

Franklin JOHNSTON

Friday, December 02, 2011

CORRUPTION cannot happen without the complicit MPs. It is the fruit of a nexus of some MPs and contractors of the state. Some in the House control our taxes and others on the outside facilitate the spend. The spoils are too great, controls on politicians too lax, the taxpayer too stressed, so corruption thrives. No party wants to reveal donors and this may be the courtship of corruption. To the corrupter and corruptee this is a test; if they click and secrecy prevails, game on! Disclosure colts the game. The state's spend of $1.5 trillion is skimmed from gully work or high-tech procurements and the skim is massive. In bonded stores workers used to dip their towels in vats to steal alcohol. They squeezed it outside and this skim was a quart of lethal liquor. Secret donations yield a contraflow of contracts and some of the skim may become donations. It comes full circle!

Mr Bunting is right: disclosure may embarrass some donors. The ECJ is naïve. Choosing an MP is entry-level democracy and is undermined by secret donors. Thus it starts and may grow through an MP's term. Full public disclosure is our final goal but we need a working hypothesis for now. The ECJ can't get full disclosure. Will we leave empty-handed? No. Professor Miller gave them a $10-million spend cap so what is the quid pro quo? Not even one concession from JLP or PNP? We must pressure them and the ECJ. We want an increment of disclosure now. Prof Miller and Dr Thompson must go back to the bargaining table now. Do they understand politicians? What is their strategy? If at first you don't get your wish list try for a lesser goal but don't give up! Failure to envision and fight every inch on the path to the final goal means advantage politicians! It's not over just because party leaders say it is. They got a generous cap and we must get something too!

Goal

What's our goal? We want economical elections. I am shocked at the comments by some young candidates as the ECJ increased their spend cap by over 200 per cent - massive! Candidates (not counting party HQ) will spend some $1.4b for our 1.3m votes. What hard times? Madness! This skim - reflows from $1.5 trillion Cabinet spend - is the core donation. Campaigns are costly because parties make them so. UK constituencies average 80,000 voters - we 20,000. They have many times our land area to cover, yet no party buys election cars; one-to-one contact and new media are the key. Some say, "Can't work here, we illiterate." So who runs education? UK candidates run up and down tower blocks, go house-to-house on cold streets, man a phone centre in the evening while ours drive up and down creating noise, visual and air pollution. We want free and fair elections and this can't be bought with big cheques, only with many widows' mites. As we did not do battle the British "drip-fed" us emancipation - end slave trade, apprenticeship, "full free!" - a gift. Parties use "Bucky Massa" tactics on us today. Let's make war for disclosure and end the undue influence of the rich, contractors, foreign firms and governments in our politics. No more Trafigura. Libya, Taiwan, Japan's cash for whaling affect us and Caribbean states. If parties have no cash to buy cars - so be it! Let our candidates walk the constituency, knock on gates, use new media and listen to electors - it's affordable and the right thing to do!

Legal, illegal donations

Which donations are legal? Those from Jamaicans and locally registered firms - end work permit for donation scams. From Jamaicans abroad -- but only if they send it through a bank - end posse money influence. All donations over $5,000 in value to be fully recorded - vehicles, cash, equipment, services, etc. Gifts under $5,000 may be anonymous but still recorded.

Which donations are illegal? Those from foreign people, firms, governments and from any state body or agency funded over 40 per cent from our taxes; for example, some NGOs.

Disclosure

I propose the following disclosure process to regulate the system.

* Parties must voluntarily send the list to the tax man for this election. Inland Revenue is 150 years old and its custodial role works. It keeps income, expenses, who owns what and our wages secret. We trust them with donation lists! Prof Miller, JLP, PNP raised the funds cap to $10m so they can do this to show good faith to voters - our quid pro quo.

* From 2013 the tax czar may send the list to the OCG based on national interest.

* From 2014 the OCG should have equal rights as the taxman to the list.

* From 2016 disclosure based on a request under access to information law. If a party can't get its act together before 2014 - tough. Let the chips fall where they may!

* State funding to modernise political parties. This is controversial because in our gut we feel it is wrong, but hear me out. What should we fund? And why? Our taxes must not fund campaigns or politics work. But as we get most MPs through parties we must ensure that this path to Parliament is open, ethical and fair. The state should fund KPMG or PWC to review, set up systems, write manuals and audit good practice in candidate selection, records, etc, and see that data is stored properly so historians have authentic material. No more spin, "he say, we hear"; we want the minutes and the files so scholars can tell us facts. History is not hype! Selah!

Jerk

Reggae Reggae jerk sauce's Levi Roots (Keith Graham) is a good entrepreneur but odd. In the case brought by his friend Tony Bailey, High Court Judge Pelling dismissed all claims - the story of his grandmother's secret recipe was false; the credibility of all parties questionable. Levi "regards the truth as an optional extra" and was called a "barefaced liar" in court. The ruling, "There is nothing special either about the ingredients or the methodology of making them a sauce" is a lesson to us. Pelling said, "Mr Roots attempted to explain these untruths away as marketing... "; he lied to investors. It is now harder for a Jamaican entrepreneur to gain investor trust. You think your product is unique? Only patents can tell. Exporters now have to be squeaky clean and pray the claims and content in the bottle are proven. The Scientific Research Council must get money to help innovators develop their ideas and export ethics. This case was a pyrrhic victory. Levi with his millions kicked down the ladder after his climb. His friend lost. Jamaica lost big time! Stay conscious!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK.

franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com

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Campaign donations and state funding