MANY Jamaicans hold a dim view of politicians, insisting that they cannot be trusted to stay away from corruption, and this shows no sign of abating as the nation nears another day at the polls.

“Forty-eight per cent of Jamaicans who were interviewed stated that they could not find a single Jamaican politician (who) they could trust to stay away from corruption. That is, not use public funds for the benefit of self, friends and family,” said Dr Herbert Gayle in a report on recent findings of his Snapshot Study.

“Honesty does not live here anymore! They are all corrupt,” said one respondent quoted in the study.

Data for the survey was collected between July 6 and 14 and included a sample of 240 people from both rural and urban areas, including St Mary, Westmoreland, St Thomas, St James, and the Kingston Metropolitan Region, notably Kingston, Portmore and Spanish Town.

Respondents included 30 rural males aged 18 to 34 and 30 rural males aged 35 plus; 30 rural females aged 18 to 34 and 30 rural females over 35; 30 urban males, between 18 and 34, and 30 urban males over 35; 30 urban females, 18 to 34 years of age, and 30 urban females 35 and older.

According to Gayle, mature respondents (those 35 and older), particularly males, were most likely to declare that politicians were corrupt. In fact, 22 or 73 per cent of mature males from urban areas, and 20 or 67 per cent from rural areas said they think Jamaican politicians are corrupt. An equal number of females from rural and urban areas, aged 35 and older — 16 or 53 per cent — felt the same way.

Thirteen or 43 per cent of urban males between 18 and 34 years old shared their sentiment, as did 11 or 37 per cent of rural males in the same age group. An equal number of females from rural and urban areas — nine or 30 per cent — aged 18 to 34 were of a similar mind.

“Some of the mature respondents blamed the PNP (People’s National Party) for allowing the ‘corruption to escalate to a point where the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) now see it as normal’. Everything now they just point to what the PNP did rather than do better. They are both the same’,” the report on the study said, quoting a respondent.

“One rural male suggested that ‘they should all ‘canna cross it’ and end up in St Thomas Pond’. He was being humorous, but gravely serious,” commented Gayle, an anthropologist of social violence and host of the NewsTalk 93 FM talk show The Complete Picture, for which the research was done.

But, as though that were not bad enough, the study — which sought to have Jamaicans identify politicians they consider honest (not corrupt), credible (not habitual liars), hard-working, bright and/or a public servant — found a number of people who could not point to one leader as holding any of those qualities.

“Ten per cent of the sample, even after being prompted, could not find a single politician in Jamaica’s current crop that had a single leadership quality,” Gayle noted in the report.

“These 14 urban and 11 rural persons expressed complete disgust with the country’s politics and its politicians. Some went as far as describing today’s politicians as ‘thieves’, ‘scum of the earth’ and ‘filthy’,” added the University of the West Indies lecturer.

Jamaica’s politicians have, in recent times, been hit with one blow to their image after another — from the dual citizenship saga, which forced some of them to resign as members of Parliament before seeking legal re-election, to last year’s invasion of Tivoli Gardens by the security forces, which left more than 70 civilians dead and several others injured.

The Dudus/Manatt Enquiry that resulted from the Tivoli invasion — done in a bid to weed out former community strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, now awaiting trial in the United States for several alleged criminal offences — has also served to blacken the images of some politicians.

After weeks of testimony, televised live across the nation, some Jamaicans were said to have been left with the impression that the truth of the circumstances surrounding Coke’s extradition, which led to the invasion of Tivoli, remains a mystery.

Still, politicians had to contend with sometimes shocking revelations concerning their conduct, which were brought out in the leaked US diplomatic cables made available through the non-profit media entity WikiLeaks.

Yet, all may not be lost for the island’s leaders.

According to Gayle, “The good news is that 57 per cent of respondents could find one to five persons to fit three to five of the qualities — an indication that more than a half of Jamaicans do not feel our politicians are beyond repair”.

“We not hopeless yet, at least we can find persons who are bright and work hard. They may not be honest, truthful and selfless, but most politicians aren’t anyway,” the study quoted a man in the 35-plus age group as saying.

Forty-seven or 38 per cent of Jamaicans identified politicians they consider held all five leadership qualities — from honesty to credibility, to being hardworking, bright and a good public servant. Sixty-five, or 53 per cent identified leaders they consider to hold four of these qualities, while 23 or 19 per cent could identify leaders they consider to have at least three of the five qualities. Fifty or 40 per cent could identify leaders they say held only two of these qualities, while 30 or 24 per cent could identify leaders with only one of the qualities.

As reported in last week’s edition of ‘Pulse of Jamaica’ in the Sunday Observer, two JLP politicians emerged at the top of the heap.

Among the top-ranked politicians — identified through the creation of a matrix of the five core qualities selected by respondents in order of importance, and, by choosing the distinctive top-performers of each group — are the JLP’s Dr Christopher Tufton, the current Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, and Andrew Holness, the current Minister of Education. Jamaicans identified them both as having all five core qualities.

Opposition PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller was identified as having four of the core qualities — honesty, credibility, being hard-working and a public servant. Lisa Hanna, the PNP Member of Parliament for South East St Ann was also deemed to have four of the five key qualities — honesty, credibility, being hard-working and brilliant.

KD Knight, the attorney considered by many the people’s champion in the Dudus/Manatt Enquiry, also of the PNP, was deemed to have two of the qualities — honesty and credibility. So too was the PNP’s Dr Peter Phillips, who was deemed hard-working and brilliant.

Meanwhile, prime minister and head of the JLP, Bruce Golding, and the PNP’s Dr Omar Davies, the country’s former Minister of Finance, were identified as brilliant.

Phillip Paulwell of the PNP and Karl Samuda, the JLP’s former Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, were identified as hard-working.