The Jamaican take on British systems
Dear Editor,
Jamaica will never experience meaningful and sustainable economic growth until it is able to address the problem of corruption, particularly in governance.
We will have to adopt the form of separation of powers practised by the United States, where there is substantial separation between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. We practise the British form, where there is too much comingling of the three and not even the judiciary is truly independent.
The British structure works for Britain, because the British has a tradition grounded in honour, and Shakespeare underlines this tradition through one of his English characters saying, “My honour is my life, both grow in one, take my honour and my life is done.” Further in this context, in English Law, only a limited amount of agreements are required to be evidenced in writing, and so most do not, relying on parties honouring agreements. We certainly do not have this tradition to make the British form work for us as it does for them.
Another area of British culture that we have not adapted well is the value of time. Most of our people certainly do not know the value, mostly disregarding it and speaking of ‘Jamaica time’, meaning never on time. Here, we need to practise British culture, which is underpinned by the respect for time. The British movie, Around the world in 80 days, where the Englishman went around the world and came back for his board meeting on time is an example. The lack of respect for time, particularly since Independence, is reflected in existing and increasing bureaucracy that inhibits economic growth to too great an extent.
It is not only bureaucracy, it is the lack of management in the public sector, where too many public servants say that they do not do today what they can do tomorrow, and then tomorrow never comes. They go to work late, take extended lunch times, and sometimes even leave early for the day. This is not the case in the private sector, but the government service suffers so much from poor management.
Owen S Crosbie
Mandeville, Manchester
oss@cwjamaica.com
