THE age-old belief that members of Parliament who also hold ministerial portfolios often put their future at risk by juggling both roles, came into sharp focus again during the December 29 general election.

Pressure associated with MPs being the policy head of ministries and at the same time serving their constituents is being seen as the reason for some prominent MPs losing their seats last month.

The heavy demand for the MP’s time by ministry programmes led to neglect of constituents, political analysts have suggested. It has also proved costly for some high-profile former government officials, who were upset in close election results.

The JLP government ministers who lost their seats were Robert Montague, the former minister of agriculture and fisheries, who vied for the St Mary West constituency; Dr Christopher Tufton, the former minister of industry, investment and commerce, and former agriculture minister who once represented the people of St Elizabeth South West, and Clive Mullings, a two-time minister of energy and mining, who was beaten in the St James West Central seat.

A recent study by University of the West Indies anthropologist and researcher Dr Herbert Gayle suggested that Dr Tufton was booted from his seat because he had neglected his constituents. Thirteen of 19 constituents interviewed said that they could not forgive him for, according to one, “joining the other Labourite men wid dem foolishness, and come give we water, land title and all sorts of tings at last minute after we take him to be decent”.

The Sunday Observer last week asked some politicians how they went about balancing their ministerial duties with work in their constituencies. The questions received mixed responses. Here are some of the views:

Karl Samuda (former Industry, Investment and Commerce minister and MP for St Andrew North Central)

“It is much more difficult to serve your constituency as a minister. The best service that I am able to render to my constituents was the period when I was not a minister. The process by which you serve the people is absolutely and unquestionably compromised when you are a minister of government because you never have the time and you are always distracted. You are definitely impeded.

“You get diverted, you can’t attend to the needs of the people the way you would like and although you have personal assistants and so on, it doesn’t substitute for you presence. You really serve the people properly when you are able to spend time with them. You can’t serve two masters at the same time.

“The system needs to be changed. We need fundamental constitutional reform that will provide for a member of Parliament being committed to serving his people through Parliament and not neccesarily through the executive. Once you have to deal with the executive then you are not able to give the kind of attention and service to the people.

“As long as I get the cooperation of the government in the projects that I have to get done then I have no doubt at all that the level of attention and the time that I will have with the people, attending to their needs, will be far more concentrated and will be much more in their interest than as a minister,”

Dr Horace Chang (former Water and Housing minister and MP for St James North West)

“You function better as an MP. Bear in mind that now the member of Parliament is far more involved than in the old days and one of the things that affect our system is that the MP has no staff. It doesn’t allow you the capacity to serve your constituency very well. When you are a minister you have backup staff much more, and you have the ministry that impacts your work in the constituency. That’s why the functioning minister tends to do better on average, despite a quite a few of them losing their seats this time.

“When you are a minister you are much better positioned to serve the constituency. If you fail to get in (visit) there as you should then that is your problem. You have to manage your time well. It just requires better time management like anything else. But it (being a minister) is certainly an enhancement of your position as Member of Parliament. It’s not even debatable. Its a much better position to be in to be a minister than to be a regular MP. It (time management) is an excuse for those who might fail but as a minister of government you are much better of to serve your constituency.

Mike Henry (former Transport and Works minister and MP for Central Clarendon)

“Being an MP was not affected by my ministerial duties in any way. My ministerial duties gave me only one single day in the constituency and the weekends, unless I was travelling. In that context, my mobile phone was always available to every citizen and they could go to my office in May Pen. But indeed I would say that some ministerial duties could create problems for you because all my people expected all the roads to be repaired. But of course having had an 18 1/2-year experience I could only repair one road because I wasn’t in government, and because I was in a town that aspect didn’t quite impact as greatly as it would have otherwise.

“So indeed, I integrated my ministerial duties with the constituency too and it would have helped me because I had the ability to implement immediately. So ministerially, I don’t think it would have allowed me to be disconnected with the constituents and I try to be available. It did in some ways help me in some areas because after years of neglect with no roads I was able to do a few more.

“I don’t accept time as being an issue because the aspect of life is managing and utilising your time. It is a little more difficult for persons with much larger constituencies, and I want to be fair to everyone, but it is a matter of managing time, and more importantly, sticking to the timetable.”

Pearnel Charles (former Minister of Labour and Social Security and MP for Clarendon North Central)

Being a minister of government highly complemented my constituency representation. It gives you an opportunity to be the centre of things, an opportunity to know what is what, what resources are available, and exactly what you can do for your constituency. It opens to you any avenue that is available that is discussed at Cabinet meetings. Those are some of the positives.

“Some of the negatives are that you have to spend so much time supervising that portfolio and so you are not always in the constituency sharing with the people, and you will hear that you are absent from the constituency, more present in the office of the portfolio, and more dealing with the national issues rather than constituency issues. The various issues that I had to deal with are not neccesarily constituency based; employment is national, PATH (Programme of Advancement through Health and Education) is national, NIS programme; all of these are national issues and have to be discussed on a national basis. It is a disadvantage because people will say that you are a good minister, you are doing well for the country but you are not doing well for the constituency. Because you have to prioritise your constituency will get left depends on what is happening.

“But the positives outweigh the negatives because I get to balance my constituency with other constituencies and to use my knowledge of the system inside the Cabinet to know exactly what can be done for my constituency. So the positive does outweigh the negatives.”

Lisa Hanna (Minister of Youth and Culture and MP for St Ann South East)

“Sometimes this takes away from your political representational work so in a way maybe it is a blessing in disguise so I can continue to represent the people of South East St Ann very well.”

Ian Hayles (Minister of State for Agriculture and Fisheries and MP for Hanover West)

“It is a balancing act that I haven’t been able to balance just yet because the personnel are not in place just yet. It is not an easy one; I am at the Ministry of Agriculture working and at the same time I have to be taking calls from my constituency.

“I want to ensure a smooth transition where they (constituents) can still have access to their MP and to ensure that on the national scene, at the Ministry of Agriculture, I can execute the plans and policies of the Portia Simpson-led administration.

“I mean, (being a minister) will affect your MP time, there is no doubt about it but I think nationally we all have to play a role, we want to go back to our constituency, allow the people to see us every day, but at the same time one can put strategies in place to allow your constituency to still have access to you.

“One of my thing is to ensure that between the hours of 5:00 and 7:00, each evening I am open to take my constituency calls. Secondly I want to ensure that out of each week I can spend a day and a half in my constituency in dealing with the problems of the constituency. It is not easy but one has to deal with the issues.”

Peter Bunting (Minister of National Security and MP for for Manchester Central)

“That is always a challenge but we are working out the modalities of that. Essentially what I try to do is towards the weekend, from Thursday night, I have a home in my constituency and I generally go there and come back up on Sunday; that is the sort of time split. It is really about time management.”