National Heroes’ Day 2013 has come and gone. Those of us with jobs will return to work after the pomp and pageantry associated with yet another vestige of colonialism. As is customary on National Heroes’ Day, the Governor General handed out national honours and awards at King’s House to those Jamaicans who have contributed to nation-building in one way or the other. A nation paused to remember and pay tribute, especially to our seven national heroes who struggled and fought against the odds for us to have a voice and a role in determining our future.

Our national heroes sacrificed a lot. Without a doubt some paid with their lives for us to have a better standard of living than what they had. However, the older I get the more I am certain that our political leaders have failed us by still adhering to a model of democracy and governance which has excluded the will of the majority of the Jamaican people from the general decision-making process of government.

Sadly, our democratic process is one in which once an election is over with, and a political party is confirmed as the winner by the Electoral Office of Jamaica, there ends the consultative process with the ordinary man in the street until the next election. Without legislation to address campaign finances we clearly have seen where special interest groups with financial backing can and have swayed the electorate, many of whom are not significantly better off than their grandparents were during the period of discussions surrounding nationhood and Independence.

This can’t be what democracy is all about. In fact, I don’t think that our founding fathers and mothers, who fought the British in the various Maroon wars, had this in mind for us, especially since we are still enslaved and shackled under a new system of slavery in the guise of democracy. The skin colour of our colonial masters now resembles that of ours, and because of this very fact many of us are not readily aware of what is happening or going to happen to us.

Was this what our forefathers had in mind when they negotiated for our political independence? In gaining political independence in August of 1962, the society inherited many of the trappings of the colonial mother Britain, one of which was the system of governance. The Westminster system of governance has failed the majority of the Jamaican people. What is the Westminster system about? The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Unlike most other democratic systems in Europe and the United States of America, which are based on the principle of power separation, the Westminster system of government is characterised by the way in which powers are merged. The historic counter-balancing structure between the Crown, the House of Lords and the houses of Parliament gradually receded with the establishment of the constitutional democracy.

The rule of parliament developed into rule of the House of Commons and, with the arrival of political party-based democracy, was transformed again into government rule over the House of Commons based on an overall majority. The term parliamentary sovereignty, therefore, has become synonymous with sovereignty of a centralised British government.

As a critic of the Westminster model, I am of the view that it lacks the necessary counter-balances to check the executive branch of government. This lack of checks and balances in the Westminster system has given successive governments in Jamaica the green light to make decisions that are not in the best interest of the country. Under the Westminster system, once a government is in power their primary concern is how to win the next election and remain in power indefinitely. We are all too familiar with this in Jamaica. There is hardly any room for a difference of opinion from that of the collective voice of the Cabinet headed by the prime minister. This can’t be good for any country, more so a developing country.

Supporters of the Westminster model emphasise its efficiency and its ability to make decisions quickly, without being blocked by other institutional powers, and that a sitting government is not readily forced into compromise, which provides voters with clear alternatives, and its internal systems of correction which are capable of forcing the resignation of the prime minister and early elections. We clearly have reached the point now that, after more than a half-century of political independence, we need to widen the scope for a broader representation, from all sections of the Jamaican landscape, to partake in the process of governance. In order to do this we need to rid ourselves of the Westminster system and find a more consensus-based system of governance.

Our political leaders today are certainly not made of the same dynamism and enthusiasm as our forefathers, or else they would by now move to replace this non-progressive system with a fairer more inclusive, and just one. Why should we continue to have a system whereby members in the Upper House of Parliament or Senate do not face an electorate, yet they are a part of the law-making process in the country? Why do you still need a Senate, especially in a time of austerity, when we could easily abolish the Senate?

One alternative is to abolish The Queen as head of State and become a republic and institute the proportional representation (PR) system of government.

Proportional representation is a type of electoral system which attempts to match the proportion of seats won by a political party with the proportion of the total vote for that party. Such a system would clearly manifest the wishes of the Jamaican electorate more so than the first-past-the-post system which we currently use. Another advantage of the PR system is the revolutionary move it would have in breaking the cultural exclusion of third parties in the political process, and thus allowing for greater representation in the House of Parliament.

In moving towards the PR system of government not only would we be allowing more access to the political process for all Jamaicans, but we would also change the divisive and destructive political culture of the State. We would also eradicate a significant percentage of corruption associated with politics. Additionally, we would build teamwork and cooperation, and just imagine the message this would send to the wider society.

A most fitting tribute to our national heroes would be to ensure that most, if not all Jamaicans have a voice in the political process. And this can only be achieved by putting in place the necessary legislation to abolish all remnants of colonialism, thus engendering the proud legacy our forefathers left for us.

Somehow I don’t think we will get to that system in which our political leaders realise they are servants of the people and not the other way around. I do hope I am proven wrong! From history it appears that our politicians are not in the business of loosening their grip around our throats; it would seem they are more for consolidating power in the hands of the few than trying to improve the lives of the many.

Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and/or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com