Who really benefits?

Richard 'Dickie' Crawford, Contributor

It is amazing how our political parties and our Parliament can come together quickly and seemingly effortlessly to maintain their power over the people. It is quite a different thing when there are proposals and policies for them to come together to give power to the people, which they say is the lifeblood of their existence, their reason to be in politics and to be exemplary public servants.

This is so apparent once more after examining the responses from members of Parliament (MPs) Everald Warmington and Robert Pickersgill over a proposal from the EAC on electoral reform. As usual, Mr Pickersgill would have us believe that "we are in the wrong jungle" to be advocating more power to the people through an independent, constitutionally entrenched Electoral Commission for Jamaica. Mr Warmington considers it to be a case where "we would be giving them a blank cheque", supposedly to fill in the amount, and that would be dangerous indeed.

Sacrosanct issue

Mr Warmington says he is answerable to the people of South West St Catherine and no one else. Mr Pickersgill says it is a sacrosanct issue for the Cabinet to have total control over the affairs of the state, including calling and changing the dates of elections. Fortunately, we now are hearing the truth surrounding their outlook and beliefs.

If only the right to vote could be considered more sacrosanct than Cabinet control of the electoral process, why not support any and all well-thought-out proposals to make it so?

Yes, Mr Warmington, the people vote for you and 59 others, but under what circumstances? Are they influenced in any way to vote, or is the right to vote an independent, individual right of the voter free from any undue influence, threat, or pressure? Where does the money come from for the 60 MPs to go out, or deputise people to go for you and canvass or influence, coerce, threaten, or intimidate voters to vote for you?

And after the elections, who really benefits in Jamaica - the people who voted for you, the Parliament that was 'voted for', or the financiers who gave the money to make it all happen? Let us do a poll and see what the citizens say on this issue.

Of course, Mr Warmington and Mr Pickersgill have exposed the hollow, self-serving outlook and invalid arguments of the Parliament on this matter of electoral reform, as this is the same Parliament which, while pronouncing on constitutional clauses concerning their personal power over the people, are part of a House with members who should not have contested an election in the first place, and perhaps some who should not be sitting in the House based on the same Constitution which they quote from so eloquently.

Interestingly, all the unnecessary expense and the economic, political, and legal fallout over the mishandling of the dual-citizenship cases would have been avoided if the ECJ had the power and clear authority to determine who is qualified to contest an election in Jamaica.

Some people may become confused or taken in by the mutual, effortless agreement of the prime minister and leader of the Opposition to discuss this troubling concern of Mr Pickersgill's and Mr Warmington's over the proposals from the EAC. The majority of us must, however, ask the question, how come this does not happen when it is necessary:

To fight crime and politically linked criminality in the country?

To have addressed the constitutional breaches of dual citizenship and membership in Parliament?

To agree on an economic strategy to lift the country out of continuous sacrifice by the people and towards economic development and prosperity for all instead?

To stamp out corruption and give the Office of the Contractor General the necessary prosecutorial powers to do so as requested?

To pass the Charter of Rights, which was completed some 11 years ago?

To implement the justice-reform proposals and clear up the backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases in the courts?

To give citizens, particularly farmers, the titles to their land so that they can develop their own lives and incomes?

To pass the amendments to the traffic laws to save lives which were requested from 10 years ago?

The time for delusion, the old politics, and double-talk is over. We must resist the arguments and the attempts to continue to control and negate our rights and freedoms.

One of the most significant developments now is the proposal for electoral reform, the registration and rights of political parties, and campaign financing. The ECJ has done a tremendous job in cleaning up elections in Jamaica, but our support is necessary in order to complete the job. We have to improve the electoral system and begin to build a real democracy in the country. Democracy begins with elections - free and fair - and that means free from any special interest controls.

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