IT IS indeed the silly season and as our political leaders prepare for general election this year, we hope that the issue of good governance is placed at the heart of their campaigns.
In our experience this is the season when political parties go on the hustings and in the past, some of our leaders have made some unfortunate utterances. This newspaper recently reported a speech by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson in which he warned the opposition Jamaica Labour Party against launching its month-long anti-corruption campaign.
Mr. Patterson reportedly said that previous JLP governments had a lot to answer to on the matter of the disappearance of public funds. He made specific reference to money allocated for road work in Manchester, which he said, went missing before the 1972 elections.
There are two issues here. If Mr. Patterson was aware of public funds that went missing, did his government not feel it had a duty to identify the culprit or culprits and bring them to justice? Did they even try to ascertain what really happened? Of course it's never too late to put the State apparatus in motion to apprehend those responsible for gobbling up what seems like an obscene amount of taxpayers' money. The road in Resource, Manchester, was constructed at a cost of $10.5 million.
It is full time that governments recognise that they hold fiduciary powers in trust for the people. That recognition carries with it, among other things, a duty of punctilious accountability.
Second, is Mr. Patterson suggesting that it is a defence to the opposition's charge of corruption against his government that a previous government was also corrupt? In other words "what's good for the goose is also good for the gander?"
There was a time, long ago, when an uneducated electorate would have applauded Mr. Patterson for his "clever politicking." Those days are gone. Mr. Patterson's recent utterances offer little comfort. There is a deep feeling of revulsion against the politics of self-aggrandisement and even deeper anger at partisan agendas. And our politicians wonder why there are so many uncommitted voters.
