PRIME Minister Bruce Golding wants to introduce 'time limits' for holders of the office of prime minister as a means of curbing the natural tendency of power to be "addictive".

No one could seriously quarrel with the prime minister's observation about the nature of power. It is firmly rooted in evidence across cultures, ethnicities, political systems and historical periods. The issue for resolution before Parliament takes a final decision on the proposal, is whether the suggested remedy will cure the Jamaican manifestation of the addiction.

In Parliament Wednesday, Mr Golding introduced a bill to amend the Constitution to limit to nine years the duration that someone can hold the office of prime minister; the time could be longer if the person is reappointed in the ninth year.

The proposal would fulfil one of several campaign promises made by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the run-up to the 2007 general election and the prime minister ought to be commended for seeking to keep a promise.

People's National Party (PNP) president Portia Simpson Miller said the Opposition would not support the bill because it was unnecessary, unwise and unsuited to our Westminster-style parliamentary system.

The Government side wisely agreed to accept her suggestion and defer further debate to give more time for public scrutiny. The delay will enable Parliament to make a more informed decision and hopefully reach consensus one way or the other, so that whatever is decided can have bipartisan and public support and not be subjected to subsequent hauling and pulling across the parliamentary aisle.

As the debate develops there are two basic questions on my mind: Should time limits for prime ministers be at the top of the governance reform agenda? Is it the appropriate remedy for the addiction that the prime minister wants to avoid?

On the reform agenda, Mr Golding had delivered on promises to have Opposition members of parliament chair several committees to oversee the work of the administration. And he has started a process to reform the libel laws and initiate 'whistle blower' legislation. These are positive.

Some other promises have not fared as well. Section 1.7 of the JLP 2007 election manifesto, 'Appointment to sensitive posts' stated that a JLP government would, "Require that appointment to sensitive posts that are critical to the delivery of good governance to be approved by a two-thirds (2/3) majority in each House of Parliament thereby requiring consensus between the Government and the Opposition.

"These include Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal, Director of Public Prosecutions, Public Defender, Contractor General, Judicial Services Commission, Police Service Commission, Public Services Commission, Governor of the Bank of Jamaica."

These were, and are laudable goals. But they remain unfulfilled. In the case of the BOJ governor it is worth noting that former governor Derick Latibeaudiere was dismissed because the prime minister said he was in receipt of an "unconscionable" salary package. The numbers were disputed by the former BOJ head and have not been challenged by the prime minister or Finance Minister Audley Shaw.

Here was an opportunity to make a model appointment. Instead, a year after Brian Wynter was appointed governor under the old system the country still does not know the salary package, despite a raft of questions from former finance minister Omar Davies. This makes a mockery of transparency and good governance talk.

More urgent reforms than 'time limit'

It should also be recalled that the prime minister made more recent reform promises as he apologised for misleading the country on what he knew about the hiring of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips to lobby the US administration not to press for the extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke to face gun and drug charges in the United States.

The business, trade union and civil society coalition which pressured the prime minister to change his position on the extradition request insisted that Mr Golding must follow through on some 14 reforms, including a governance structure where leadership considers itself accountable; appointment of a special prosecutor to fight corruption; introduction of laws to regulate political party financing; establishment of 'fit and proper' criteria to determine who can get government contracts; and imposition of criminal sanctions for breaches of the award of contracts.

These are far more urgent reforms than legislation to limit the length of time someone can exercise what Mr Golding himself correctly described sometime ago as the "awesome power" of the office of prime minister.

In any event, the imposition of term limits cannot, by itself, avoid the descent into addiction to power. To address that issue the focus must be on how that power is exercised.

In almost 70 years of fashioning democratic governance in Jamaica we have made considerable progress: we have firmly established representative government; there is public confidence in the electoral system; losers accept the outcomes of elections even after the occasional reluctance to do so; retired prime ministers and other leaders stick around after demitting office. They are not reluctant to go for fear they will be jailed or killed for abusing power or looting the treasury. These are not insignificant.

But there are serious problems because the political system and the citizenry at large have been more preoccupied with the institutional forms of democratic governance than its substance and temperament.

The tribal nature of the political process makes give-and-take nigh impossible. Many of us, leaders and followers alike, find it difficult to disagree without being disagreeable; we find it difficult to see anything good from 'the other side' or to see anything bad from 'our side'. This will begin to change when our leaders not only make the occasional nod to consensus but show that they can work together on key national issues while retaining the differences that keep competitive politics vibrant.

Equally, the Dudus-Manatt saga has demonstrated how things can go horribly wrong when political considerations corrupt some administrative processes, for example when the office of solicitor general gets deeply involved in what Mr Golding insists was a party political initiative.

And Mr Golding has to be constantly reminded of his promise to break the links between politics and organised crime and dismantle garrison communities.

Far more than term limits, the country needs a different kind of political leadership where party leaders resign after losing one or two elections. That would be an antidote to addiction!

Essentially, a culture of accountability would be an effective way to deal with addiction. So far, the culture is that political representatives and their leaders engaged in, or alleged to be involved in serious wrong-doing, will only demit office if they are convicted under the criminal law. That's the attitude of people who have come to believe that they are entitled to public office rather than seeing it as an opportunity to serve as long as they maintain public trust.

kcr@cwjamaica.com

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  11 comments

  5 comments

  0 comments

  23 comments

  0 comments

  2 comments

  5 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  1 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  1 comments