Bruce Golding’s Cabinet is not set up for economic growth. For 18 years genius Bruce planned his “dream team” Cabinet. Did he say, “I need lawyers, doctors and a ‘shed load’ of trade union men to run a $700-billion economy in crisis?” Is Cabinet an accident? Or just nepotism and payback? It’s like Butch saying, “I am going to open new hotels so I need trade unionists to make them profitable.” Bruce was good in Opposition – God bless him! He inherits an ailing economy in a crimefest yet he appoints a nest of BITU men. What’s he thinking? What track record, skills and talent do we need to grow?

Abroad, top politicians are grabbed by big firms after leaving office; not here, as expertise is not found in Cabinets. Which one would you hire to run UWI as Harvard or LSE does? Our campaign finance study is revealing. Do you know motor car and gas to run elections are paid for with union dues taken from workers’ wages? Trade unions have a sordid role in politics. Union donations constitute a major transfer of wealth from the working poor to the lazy poor and politicians. BITU union men are dominant in Cabinet and since growth, management or production is not their forte, why so? The workers’ movement is dead as leaders have left to seek fortunes in politics.

We are in a mess but the ECJ is now active. Professor Miller needs help; how can he sort out when the politicians to be sorted sit on the ECJ? The mongoose is in the chicken coop. The ECJ’s proposals are usually approved by Parliament for a reason. It is a mirror; the politician on the ECJ looks in and sees his parliamentarian visage – one coin, two faces. Please email Prof Miller your ideas on campaign financing before October 29 on eac@cwjamaica.com and let him try to sneak them past the embedded politicians.

Politics is a billion-dollar industry. A party spends hundreds of millions on a campaign and the candidate is a sole trader with a turnover larger than the majority of businesses and it’s all money we give them. The difference is that politics has no standards, controls, accountability or customer service. If a business treated us as most politicians do, it would have no customers. Still, financing is pivotal to elections so we need to set rules to control politicians and make them take responsibility. Think about the following:

* We have one politician for every 2800 people and for every 4.2 square miles, including Blue Mountain bush. We have too many, but they convinced Prof otherwise.

* Politicians are allowed to collect money from citizens; give no receipt, not even a promise – police would lock down Cash Plus or a Ponzi man! They take our money and do not account to us. Is this a matter for the FSA? Fair trading? Consumer protection?

* No politician wants to be held accountable. They fight us down to keep donations secret. How much goes to his bank account? The campaign? Idlers? To buy votes?

* The party is so twisted it uses a garbage campaign process and we must believe it produces clean MPs. Few emerge with their principles intact, so choose wisely!

* Politicians put party before nation, law or virtue and a minister will do things in the party’s interest even to the detriment of the national interest – ask Omar Davies!

* A party does not call the police when a member commits a crime in the party. It is hush-hush; he slinks off, joins another party or starts his own and is at home in the pigswill.

* Voting is important, but it’s in the campaign that the deals are made. So when the JLP asks the ECJ to run party voting this means nothing. The campaign is the thing and ECJ must regulate how they are managed, funded and run; the party and candidate must be accountable in law for everything that is done. Here are some things which will help:

(1) An ECJ of nine independent members in perpetuity, in which three retire by rotation every four years. This works well with no politics and renews itself with fresh blood in the rotation.

(2) More resources for the ECJ and a progressive agenda of proactive regulation.

(3) A public grant indexed to the minimum wage. The quid pro quo is audit, disclosure to ensure tax, national security, contracts, money laundering and FSA compliance.

(4) Limits to donations and expenditures, indexed to the minimum wage – a known marker.

(5) A special regime for large non-monetary donations as these impact elections hugely. When a gully contractor sends the project vehicles and staff to work on the minister’s campaign for weeks, this donation is not recorded. Is this free and fair elections?

(6) Restrict mobile campaigning – motorcades and mass events – and shift emphasis to face-to-face and small meetings which are respectful of voters and strengthen democracy.

(7) The constituency is the key campaign. It should be for residents, run by residents and funded by residents. A constituency of 45-50k residents has 20k electors; a candidate who gets $10 from each of 10,001 electors will get their votes and win. If he gets $50,000 from two electors he loses. A candidate who relies on campaign workers and muscle from outside disses his electors and should be punished by them. He will not win. If you want to know more, read my submission to the ECJ. Stay conscious, my friend!

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

franklinjohnston@hotmail.com