PM needs to stop scoring own goals

CLAUDE ROBINSON

Sunday, June 26, 2011

PRIME Minister Bruce Golding and the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have a way of shooting themselves in the head. One of these days they will score a direct hit, not just the superficial wounds they have inflicted so far.

The observation was inspired by Mr Golding's bird-shooting vacation with contractor YP Seaton which, at best, was another display of terribly bad timing and poor political judgement by the JLP leader.

A day after tabling the report of the Dudus/Manatt Commission of Enquiry in Parliament Mr Golding went off on a one-week vacation to Paraguay with Mr Seaton and other friends for what the country was later told was a regular bird-shooting exercise -- a pastime not uncommon among some upper-income, high-status Jamaican men.

At the time of the announcement, the country was not told that the prime minister would be paying for himself and his son. That was later revealed by Information Minister Daryl Vaz only after a political controversy over allegations that the trip was financed by Mr Seaton. The minister even showed reporters a copy of the cheque for $730,000 drawn by Mr Golding on his personal account.

The payment date on the cheque is June 14, five days before the matter was brought to light in a newspaper article, so it is fair and logical to conclude that the cheque was a legitimate reimbursement of expenses and not an 'afterthought' to dampen down the controversy and squelch calls for an official probe.

Accordingly, I accept Mr Golding's word that he paid his own way and that the vacation package was not a gift from a large contractor who has benefited hugely from government contracts. However, there are troubling questions which will not disappear merely by revealing details of the financial arrangement.

First, the prime minister and his handlers should have been aware that the arrangement would have generated negative perceptions at a time of deep public disquiet over the handling of government contracts, especially the US$400-million Jamaica Development Infrastructure Project (JDIP) financed by a Chinese Government loan and administered by China Harbour, a Chinese construction company. Mr Seaton and his construction company, YP Seaton and Associates Ltd, are the sub-contractors on the project.

Further, data released last week by Contractor General Greg Christie show that YP Seaton and Associates have won 35 government contracts totalling $2.7 billion between May 2001 and November 2010. Seventeen of the contracts, amounting to as much as $2.3 billion of the overall sum of $2.7 billion, were entered into since October 1, 2007, that is, since the Golding administration took office.

Ignorance or arrogance?

Why did Mr Golding and his advisers not see the controversy coming and take the necessary pre-emptive measures to avert it? Why didn't they foresee that a vacation with one of the largest beneficiaries of government contracts and the JDIP would raise questions? Was it not the same prime minister who, just a week earlier, had to announce that he would appoint an independent expert to oversee expenditure under JDIP in the face of high costs and questionable value?

At the post-Cabinet media briefing last Wednesday, Mr Vaz reportedly took "full responsibility" for how the prime minister's vacation arrangements had been handled, conceding that he would not use the same approach in the future.

At issue now is whether the wrong approach was used because of ignorance of the fundamentals of political communication in the age of transparency or whether it betrayed a mindset that is not sufficiently caring of public perception. Was it a display of arrogance and the corrosive influence of power?

The mishandling of the vacation arrangement also suggests that Mr Golding and the team around him have learned nothing from the Manatt mess, or they are drawing the wrong conclusions from the mild rebuke they got from the commissioners.

It would be unwise of them to be lulled into a false comfort zone merely because the high-level political leaders in the administration and the JLP have been largely vindicated by a spineless commission who ignored the evidence and misrepresentations presented to them and concluded that no one should be held accountable for what the commissioners described as "inappropriate" or "unfortunate" behaviour.

Mr Emil George and his fellow commissioners obligingly shied away from the really fundamental question they should have addressed: Did the prime minister, directly or indirectly, corrupt agencies of the State in furtherance of the narrow interest of his party and in defence of a reputed don in his constituency?

Instead, they made determinations about constitutional matters that properly belong to the courts, and they offered irrelevant recommendations about separating the Ministry of Justice from the chambers of the attorney general. That was not on their 'to do' list.

But rather than taking comfort from a friendly and expected outcome, the prime minister should pay attention to the verdict of the people as captured in two polls reported last week.

The Don Anderson/CVM polls (conducted May 5-23 after the hearings but before the report) showed that 47 per cent believed that somebody should be asked to resign for the mishandling of the US request for the extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke. Of these, 61 per cent felt that Mr Golding is the one who should go, while 33 per cent believe that Attorney General and Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne should be the one heading for the exit.

In the Bill Johnson/Gleaner poll, conducted May 28-29 and June 4-5, some 60 per cent of adult Jamaicans felt that Mr Golding in his evidence either lied outright or attempted to mislead the commission. He was only slightly better than Miss Lightbourne, as 63 per cent believed that she lied or attempted to mislead.

These are big numbers that cannot be wished away simply because they are not accompanied by street protests. As an experienced politician, Mr Golding knows that the proverbial 800-pound Manatt gorilla is still in the room.

Civil society and business groups, including Jamaicans For Justice and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, last week joined the chorus of individuals and organisations criticising the commissioners for being weak, inconclusive and illogical. Also, the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) has served notice in Parliament that it wants a debate on the report. The Government will be hard pressed to deny it the opportunity.

In these circumstances, the prime minister must show that he understands that people do not want the same old governance where leaders do not feel a need to be held accountable.

At one level, this means pursuing the agenda of reform that Mr Golding outlined at the height of public disquiet over the Coke affair. Civil society demands for greater accountability will intensify after Manatt, not lessen. And the pressure must be on the PNP as well.

Without such accountability, the prime minister's other major agenda items -- tax reform, reform of the public service and economic revival -- have no chance of succeeding. Accountability in government is job one. Absent this, the result is that more people will continue to lose faith in politics.

To focus on these issues, Mr Golding should stop inflicting wounds on himself; or, to use his own metaphor, he must stop scoring own goals. That's a sure way to lose.

kcr@cwjamaica.com

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PM needs to stop scoring own goals