“GOVERNANCE is central to the achievement of many of the national outcomes articulated in Vision 2030 Jamaica.” This is the first sentence under the Priority National Outcome — Effective Governance in the Medium Term Socio-Economic Policy Framework 2009-2012 (MTF).

Most Jamaicans do not know what solutions are proposed in the Vision 2030 document or the MTF and even fewer know of the way our problems are detailed. The data can be eye-opening at times and better still, a way to combat the destructive partisanship evident within our country. Some people hold that the JLP has done nothing good for the country, merely because they are PNP supporters, while others maintain the PNP has achieved nothing just because they are JLP supporters.

Every Jamaican should be in agreement that the governance of our beloved country needs to be more effective. They experience the ineffectiveness when using some government services, when they have to deal with the courts, when they observe the law not being equally enforced and so forth.

The MTF for 2009-2012 lists three national strategies:

1) Strengthen the process of citizen participation in governance.

2) Reform the justice system.

3) Strengthen public institutions to deliver efficient and effective goods and services.

With our culture of corruption and a high crime rate that causes businesses to spend large sums of money on security, I single out ‘Reform the Justice System’ as the most important of the three strategies. It is impossible to fix problems if you do not first identify the problems, but once they are identified, the solutions must actually be implemented. The problems listed in the MTF are well known and include:

a. Delays in disposing of cases resulting in backlogs.

b. Poor infrastructure (crumbling and old courthouses).

c. Inconsistent enforcement of laws and legal processes.

d. Inadequate emphasis on human rights and adherence to international treaties.

e. Complex and inflexible court procedures.

f. Outdated and inefficient practices and procedures.

We have new courthouses that were built and still remain unused, usually because something is missing. That is the opposite of efficiency and proof of ineffective governance. Our courts seem to be making very little progress at dealing with the backlog of cases and the Jamaican public has seen far too many examples of the law not being applied equally to individuals in positions of privilege.

It is impossible to know if you have improved if you don’t first measure, but the results of measurement are not known by the general public so that they can make an unbiased assessment. Here is a breakdown from the MTF of where we are, have been, and intend to go. It might surprise you:

The scores are from the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators project and the MTF compare Jamaica to the top 15 countries from the UN’s Human Development Index. The scores range from -2.5 to +2.5.

Under Voice and Accountability Index which covers freedom of media, freedom of expression, freedom of association and participation of citizens in selecting government and policies, the average score for the top 15 countries was 1.37 while Jamaica’s 2007/Most Current score was 0.61. Our stated goal for 2012 is to “regain our best position” which is a score of 0.78 from 1996.

Under Rule of law (violation of human rights, trust in justice system, effectiveness of courts, etc), the average score for the top 15 countries was 1.75 while Jamaica was -0.63, yes, NEGATIVE! Once again, the 2012 goal is to “regain our best position” which again is from 1996, a score of -0.30.

Under Government Effectiveness Index (quality of public service, capacity of civil servants, independence of civil service from political interference and effectiveness of government policies) the top 15 averaged 1.78 while Jamaica is 0.12. For 2012, again we aim to regain our best position which is a score of 0.18 from 2006.

Finally, under Control of Corruption the top 15 averaged 1.96 while Jamaica is -0.49. Following the same pattern, our goal for 2012 is to regain our best position which happens to be a score of -0.24 from 1998.

Every Jamaican looking at this data will quickly realise that the current JLP administration has set targets that were all achieved under PNP administrations. No doubt some PNP supporters will point out the fact that Jamaica scored best for control of corruption under a PNP administration and the JLP are now working back towards that, which is a fact.

However, unbiased Jamaicans would point out three things: (1) The PNP obviously did not improve the score after 1998 (2) Two points don’t make a trend, so without the scores for 1999 onwards we cannot say if the PNP was going in the right direction, and (3) Under the PNP the score was still NEGATIVE, which certainly cannot be a good thing.

The JLP supporters shouldn’t be jumping either because the data could show that while the scores in some areas did decrease under PNP administrations, the relevant question now is what would it mean if the JLP scores were even LOWER?

Further analysis of the yearly numbers via the World Bank website, which has all the data (visit it at bit.ly/WorldbankWGI and select “Jamaica” from the drop-down box), reveals some very interesting facts about the state of governance in Jamaica.

The PNP can boast about having the highest scores to date since measurement started. However, while Voice and Accountability was 0.78 in 1996, it is a shame that it went rapidly downhill from 1997 to 2005, where it was 0.45. JLP supporters read that and crack a smile, only to stop smiling when the scores improved to 0.61 and 0.64 in 2006 and 2007, only to see them tumble again to 0.55 then 0.53 in 2008 and 2009 — exactly the opposite direction in which Jamaica needs to be going.

Government Effectiveness?

Some Jamaicans could care less about a score as they know our government is mostly ineffective, but the numbers tell a real story. The JLP supporters will gravitate to the scores between 1996 and 2002 that bounced between 0.04, 0.09 and ended with -0.01, but would they as eagerly admit that after the scores of 0.28 and 0.25 in 2006 and 2007, the scores have moved in the wrong direction with the 2009 score being 0.13? That happens to be the same score from 2003. Does that mean our Government was just as ineffective in both those years? Where is the progress we so desperately need?

If “change” is what was promised, the delivery has not yet taken place for “government effectiveness” because the World Bank report indicates that we have slid backwards since the JLP has taken over from the PNP. I hope that the 2010 score will begin a positive trend of improvement.

Rule of Law

It surprises no one that all our scores for this area are negative. We do not trust our justice system, the courts seem ineffective and we certainly tend not to trust the “agents” to abide by the rules of the country, be they police or politician.

The numbers paint a damning picture for all administrations since 1996. Our best score was in 1996 at -0.26 and our worst in 2003 at -0.53. Our 2009 score was not much better at -0.49.

This certainly gives credence to the Jamaicans who believe there is little difference between “the two Ps” and so don’t care to vote.

Control of Corruption

This is the area that most readers were probably waiting on, no doubt with sharp memories of numerous “scandals” over the years. From our best score, -0.12 in 2000, we jumped to our worst score on record, -0.54 in 2002, a mere two years later. Thankfully the score then began improving each year after, finally moving to -0.32 in 2006, only to begin to slide again. Our 2009 score was -0.44, a tiny improvement from the -0.47 of 2008.

These numbers say that control of corruption is worse in 2009 than in 2006 or 2000 but still better than 2002.

Real Change

The scores themselves should concern all Jamaicans but it is the lack of real progress that should be of more concern. We cannot expect the country to actually get better if those in power govern in a way that has us making progress and then obliterating the gains a few years later.

We need be moving in a positive direction always and these have nothing to do with the economic crisis. They are issues of political will and directly under the control of our elected officials from both parties.

To the partisans, take no cover in the data because they don’t reflect positively on both the PNP and JLP in most cases. There is some credit to be given for the years when we have seen improvements but almost all the gains were lost and Jamaica ended up in a worse position, typical one step forward two steps backward.

We have goals for 2012 and both the JLP and PNP will have to work together to ensure that the required legislation is passed and implemented to improve our scores and thus improve the country. The members of parliament are to work towards the betterment of the country, regardless of what party they represent. I can only hope they all have the political will to implement the solutions they themselves have agreed to and stop the finger-pointing since in most cases, none has done any better than the other.

As Jamaicans, we deserve “strong and accountable institutions; political commitment to effective management of the State; transparency in Government; a justice system that is accessible and fair” among other things listed in the MTF.

Until we have that, Jamaicans will continue to complain about the taxes they pay going down the drain.

David Mullings is the Future Leaders Representative for the USA on the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board. He is on Twitter at twitter.com/davidmullings and Facebook at facebook.com/InteractiveDialogue