We are in the full throes of a general election campaign to elect the next government of Jamaica. These elections have become so routine that we are likely to take them for granted, not recognising how important they are to our way of life. We have seen what successive governments have been like in Jamaica since Independence in 1962. The paradigm shift to a mature political process and sound economic progress has eluded us. On the eve of the 50th year of that Independence, we are faced with a general election in the context of a global economic crisis and all we can hear from the platform of both major political parties – one of which will form the next government – is the traditional tracing, name-calling and one-upmanship instead of a clearly reasoned debate on the pressing issues of the day.

The people are clearly not deserving of this, yet it is the people themselves who have to insist on the emergence of a sense of rationality and common sense in our politics. If they do not insist on this and are prepared to accept the drivel that passes for politics, then they will truly deserve what they get. If they wish to be treated with respect from political platforms, they must demand it. They are the ones who cheer on the nonsense that comes from many a political platform. Many are willing to be bought by a “Joshy” or a “Nanny”, and I hear that in some places the insistence is on a “Shearer”. They will hang out of buses putting their lives and others at risk. They operate at a level of low self-esteem characterised by a rabid self-denigration by allowing themselves to be bought for a curry goat or a drink of rum. Let it be clear that the propensity to be bought is not only relegated to the lower social strata of the society. Those who are in a position to make big contributions to political parties are at another extreme of the spectrum of buying and being bought. The immorality that accompanies the price being paid for a curry goat or drink of rum or pound of saltfish is no different from that which attends political favours being given through waivers and lucrative contracts. The truth, inconvenient for some, is that political vote-buying runs the entire gamut of society.

The politicians who buy votes are no more self-respecting than those whom they buy. Damion Crawford was right in a recent platform declaration that he will not be prepared to buy a single vote. If he and the younger ones who are emerging in our politics can stick to this and evolve certain moral core principles in the way they conduct themselves, then our political future may yet be rescued from the Babylonish captivity in which it has been held by a fading bunch of politicians too wedded to the paradigms of the past to change. And change we must, or we will only continue to wallow in self-pity. There can be no economic renaissance in a country where a people’s self-esteem is so depressed, where self-assertiveness is so absent and where there is such moral insensitivity to what our pronouncements and actions are causing to other people’s lives.

Both political parties have made utterances from their respective platforms that leave a lot to be desired. There have been half-truths and obfuscations uttered as facts in order to score political points. As the political hustling thickens, there will be more of this. People can sign political codes of conduct until their fingers get red, but all of this will amount to nothing unless people are prepared to police themselves; are prepared to be self-accountable for their own utterances and actions. There is just so much that the political ombudsman can do. It seems, in any event, that some politicians regard the office as a mere irritant at best and as irrelevant at worst. If self-accountability is relevant to high self-esteem, then we must esteem our opponents highly, or we can only but try to sully their reputation. We are seeing the latter on too many a political platform and we would urge those who have basic self-respect to cool it.

In the meantime, the Trafigura “duppy” continues to haunt the PNP. Its resurgence after Halloween could not have come at a worse time for that party. Not when the party is in the thicket of a general election campaign and anything negative can have deleterious consequences for its prospects in that election. One can well understand the reason for the party’s lawyers wanting to have the hearings held in camera, the suggestion being that an open-court process will infringe the constitutional rights of their clients. But the judicial process and the search for truth and justice cannot await the exigencies of a political process. If this should be the case, then justice will be held hostage to political ideology. In a free democratic society this cannot be the case. Furthermore, the Trafigura matter, like the Manatt/Dudus affair which was held in the bright glare of a sunlit city, is one in which the people of Jamaica have more than a passing interest. Constitutionally, they are entitled to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and the people should not settle for less. Those who take oaths to uphold truth-telling in the search for justice should also not settle for less.

stead6655@aol.com

www.drraulston.com