SO it is scandal season again in Jamaica, and I am not referring to the popular US television show. I am speaking of the recent drama starring defiant board members of the National Housing Trust (NHT) and the supporting cast of the PNP-led Government and their usual sycophants. Much like the Stevie Wonder song Pastime Paradise and its remixed version Gangstas Paradise by rapper Coolio, so too can we Jamaicans sing our own version because weve been spending most our lives, living in a Scandal Paradise. Tell me who of them will come to be? How many of them are you and me? Desperation, resignation, subjugation, frustration, incapacitation, exasperation, infuriation are some of the recurring emotions evoked in Jamaicans as a result of these all-too-frequent scandals. The scandals to which I refer are not the personal dalliances of political figures, such as cheating husbands or wives. I am instead referring to the misuse or misappropriation of public funds, nepotism and cronyism (benefits, debt forgiveness, land deals, contracts for the politically connected), and the list goes on and on. Theyve been wasting most of their lives, Glorifying days long gone behind. Government corruption, or more specifically, financial gain to the party faithful has a long history in Jamaica and is certainly not limited to one political party. The phenomenon has seemingly escalated in recent years. This was described in a 2005 article where the author states: A remarkable difference between the PNP of the 70s and of the 90s is that the scandals shifted from maintaining political power (Spy Robinson) to plain economics (Furniture Scandal). The article suggests that a land deal in 1989 signalled the beginning of this shift and apparently set the tone of things to come. It goes on to state that: The scandals have spread from government to quasi-governmental bodies without shame; no accountability only excuses like youthful exuberance as in the NetServ Affair. (Marsha Gordon, paypereditor/artman/publish/article_49.shtml) Power and the money, money and the power, Minute after minute, hour after hour. I performed a cursory Internet search and was able to find several examples of newsworthy political scandals since the mid-1970s. It should be noted that this list and the economic impact to Jamaica has been discussed in various fora over the years. The list is not exhaustive and we should remember that all episodes are not created equal. However, it is clear that over the years Jamaica has been lurching from crisis-to-scandal-to-crisis, rinse and repeat. Tell me why are we so blind to see? That the ones we hurt are you and me. The questions we must ask ourselves are: How do we break the cycle? How do we enforce transparency? How do we ensure that individuals are held responsible under the law and are held accountable for their betrayal of the public trust? What solutions can be found? In my opinion, two key issues surrounding the NHT scandal are the lack of transparency and apparent immunity from facing consequences. One obvious solution would be to find ways for the public to enforce transparency since this is not going to voluntarily come from the government. The media also has to be more proactive in ferreting out similar instances of mismanagement of public bodies. And, established media should not be the only ones applying pressure. There are tech-savvy Jamaican entrepreneurs who can use existing and available public information to create web platforms that can allow the public to monitor if their tax dollars are being appropriately used. This could be a good opportunity for a crowd-sourcing project that brings well-intentioned individuals together using resources such as the Freedom of Information Act to create websites that provide factual information products such as social network maps of individuals and companies that benefit from sole-source government contracts. This would improve the ability to follow the money. Of note, a website that provides information on infrastructure developments and their environmental impact was recently launched in Jamaica (developmentalert.org/jamaica). This could serve as a model. Lets start living our lives. Living for the future paradise. Jamaicans have been publicly calling for a peaceful revolution, a revolution that will lead to a change in the status quo. Any such revolution must be supported by fact-based information that can lead to constitutional reform. Since it appears that (based on our electoral history) we will continue the cycle of swapping black dawg fi monkey, we should at least find a way to chain up di dawg and cage up di monkey for our nations sake. Peter E T Edwards, PhD, is a Jamaican marine scientist, environmental economist and policy analyst. jamaicaobserver/columns/Scandal-paradise_18049402
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 10:00:35 +0000
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