Should House seats go up or down?
published: Wednesday | March 24, 2004

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I BELIEVE that if an islandwide poll was carried out today, we would find that hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans are against increasing the membership of the House of Representatives. In spite of this, not one of the 60 MPs has said even a mumbling word against the recommendations of the Electoral Commission that the number should move up to 63 or 65. Not even one out of 60 has managed to mention the concerns of the over-burdened taxpayers, nor the relative fruitlessness of the kind of representation we are now getting. This is clear evidence that the present system is fundamentally flawed.

Some argue that there is a law that says a political constituency should not exceed 35,000. However, this law is not a shackle that cannot be removed. What we need are conscientious lawmakers genuinely prepared to make progressive changes in the people's interest. Instead, we have in the House of Representatives two political parties obsessed with the desire to get a majority of the seats, and shaping every act and utterance to suit that objective.

The result is that representation of the party takes precedence over representation of the people; and in the absence of dramatic change, this will continue whether we employ 60 or 65 MPs. The quantity does not matter if the quality is low and the cost too high.

I am, etc.,

KEN JONES

alllerdyce@hotmail.com

Kingston 8

Via Go-Jamaica