Walker, Buchanan, Gordon-Webley: Let fair play be seen to be done

Thursday, November 03, 2011

JAMAICANS who are able to remove the politically tribal scales from their eyes, would quickly welcome persons of the calibre of Mr Danville Walker offering themselves for public office.

It is extremely unfortunate that the prospect of Mr Walker seeking to enter representational politics has engendered the current brouhaha.

But just as well, because we might be able to learn something out of it that could help us to liberate ourselves from this confounded mental slavery in which we are so desperately trapped.

We have complained long and hard as a country about the paucity of effective, hard working public servants of integrity to serve as leaders. When we do find one, as in the case of Mr Walker, the commissioner of customs and former head of the Electoral Office of Jamaica, intelligent people would cheer. Except that any and everything in Jamaica is subject to our polarising party politics.

Having said that, however, we believe that there is a valid point that now that Mr Walker has made his decision official, he should resign from the position of commissioner of customs. Reports have suggested that he is on the way to doing that, as he prepares to run with the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)

In the case of Mrs Joan Gordon-Webley, the executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) and Ms Camille Buchanan, the director of Caymanas Tracks Limited (CTL), we expect no less.

In that respect, new Information Minister Arthur Williams Jr could do with a lesson in public relations. Even if the letter of the law does not require their resignation, the public perception is that politicians almost always use their position to feather their party's nests.

Mr Williams argues that there is no conflict of interest in Ms Buchanan and Mrs Gordon-Webley holding their government-paid jobs while contesting a seat for the ruling JLP.

But Jamaicans know very well the practice in which "Parson christen him pickney fus". What is there to stop either lady from using her considerable advantage in these entities to hire party faithfuls and channel contracts to supporters over those not known to support them?

We agree that this case is not dissimilar to the one facing the People's National Party's Mr Vando Palmer who started campaigning for a Manchester seat in 2007 while he was the high profile communicaton manager of the state-run National Works Agency. In fact, One could argue that Mr Palmer had an even more lowly position on the totem pole than Ms Buchanan and Mrs Gordon-Webley.

Mr Andrew Holness, the new prime minister has an excellent opportunity to signal the new politics he speaks of by taking a position that such public employees must resign once they start campaigning for a seat.

In the way we say justice must not only be done but be seen to be done, let fair play be seen to be done. More importantly, these are the kind of things we will have to do to restore faith and belief in the politics of our country.

Allowing the status quo to prevail will only deepen the cynicism and cause Jamaicans to lose hope that a new day is dawning.

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Walker, Buchanan, Gordon-Webley: Let fair play be seen to be done