Selecting a Cabinet: character matters

Robert Buddan, Politics Of Our Time

Portia Simpson Miller has shuffled and upgraded her spokespersons' council. It has been renamed a shadow cabinet. This was expected as we enter an election year. The 20-person council has been compressed into an 18-person shadow Cabinet. Some important rotations have taken place. This is an important part of the Opposition's preparation for power.

The spokespersons' council was a good idea. It is something the PNP had done before. Michael Manley had named a Spokesperson's Council prior to naming a shadow cabinet leading up to the 1989 elections. The idea is to give opposition members a chance to study portfolio areas, provide critique and offer alternatives, and to give younger and newer MPs, especially, a chance to prepare themselves and demonstrate their skills.

The council was a reservoir from which to draw a shadow Cabinet, and ultimately the Cabinet of Jamaica. I remember a former Cabinet member saying he had never been given any preparation to work in the executive when he found himself in one. The spokespersons' council, if I recall Mrs Simpson Miller correctly, was indeed to be a nursery, especially for the younger members of parliament, who showed potential. It was an opportunity to encourage them to learn and gain confidence and competence.

Shadow cabinets are obviously important. Michael Manley, I am told, always challenged his shadow Cabinet colleagues in debates on policy matters, making sure they were always thinking.

crucial times

The next Jamaican Cabinet will be more important than ever, considering the times we are living in. But selection will not be easy. Cabinet selections must reflect available policy-management skills in Parliament. It should reflect internal party democracy such as balancing representation of the regions across the country. It must pick what skills exist from a small Parliament, or rather, the majority in that Parliament, however marginal the majority is. It must select from who can be trusted with the confidences of Government. It must be sensitive to popular expectations.

Then there is the influence and preferences of power brokers and power elites, and even foreign governments. Powerful financial sponsors in finance, business, commerce, tourism, agriculture, the security forces, education, health, and so on, and their associations often have their preferences for who should be 'their minister'. Leaders must also select the best persons to represent the Government's priorities under the particular challenges it faces at the time. Cabinets can only approximate the ideal mix.

One WikiLeaks cable captures this. Speaking of Golding's first Cabinet, it said, "He has not been able to have a Cabinet of true loyalists because of the need to satisfy other elements of the party in the distribution of power and portfolios." Those "elements in the party" could have been power brokers representing the power elite of business, the media, party regions, constituencies, youth and women's organisations, even foreign interests and God forbid, even a 'don' or two.

Phillips and Shadow Cabinet

I think Peter Phillips' position in the PNP's shadow cabinet reflects many considerations, too. He has the management experience and skill for the senior portfolio of finance and planning that he has been given responsibility for. His selection reflects considerations of internal party democracy. He demonstrated sizeable and broad delegate support in his two challenges for the party leadership. In fact, for someone who probably still hopes to lead the party, it is good thinking on Mrs Simpson Miller's part to expose him to the critical finance and planning portfolio, considering the times we are in. It is also good for party democracy. Many leaders try to destroy persons seen as rivals or potential rivals out of mean-spiritedness, insecurity or paranoia. Mrs Simpson Miller clearly suffers from none of these afflictions.

The truth is that Peter Phillips has never suffered for challenging for the party leadership. He has long been a member of the spokespersons' council (without portfolio), is chairman of the party's important communications commission, and director of its vital national campaign committee. He has never been held back or marginalised. Now, he sits in the shadow Cabinet in a key position. He himself has said that he wants to 'mash down the lie' that there is division between himself and his party leader.

In a relatively small Parliament with a very big job to do, it is vital that there be experience in the cabinet. We have seen what lack of experience can do under this JLP Government. Few Cabinet members had prior ministerial experience. The world had changed enormously since the last time the JLP formed the Government (in 1989), and the way Government works had also changed significantly. Their arrogance has run ahead of their experience.

It was important, I believe, for Mrs Simpson Miller to keep Phillips, Omar Davies, Bobby Pickersgill, and Roger Clarke in the shadow Cabinet. Cabinets work as much by conventions as by rules. Experience means knowing the conventions and how they work. There are unwritten conventions that apply to the Cabinet itself, interministerial relations, prime ministerial-ministerial relations, ministerial-public administration relations, and Cabinet-parliamentary relations. These are built upon 60-odd years of Jamaica's Westminster-Whitehall government. It is not for the inexperienced, whether the old or the young, to jump into without some skill and appreciation for the complexity and sensitivities of the governmental process.

Character Matters

Trust is also a key characteristic in order to keep Cabinet confidences. The party or governmental leader has to trust his or her colleagues and appoint a team that can practise good collegial relations. We have seen what happens when there are insinuations that privileged information shared with ministers reach alleged criminals. In this age of leaks, whether ministerial leaks or WikiLeaks, and the ever-present danger of ministerial indiscretion and misjudgement, trust and confidence at the very highest levels of government are harder to secure.

This is even more so when top policymakers are under high-level pressure and even under implicit threat from power brokers and the power elite who want to know what is to be divested; what new taxes are being discussed; who is getting what licence; if any financial bailout is forthcoming; what loopholes can be left in legislation to exempt them; who is going on what foreign delegation; who will be appointed to this board or that board; who is available for a private chat; and all kinds of insider information and situations from which they can benefit.

A Cabinet needs persons of strong character. It is character and experience that ultimately counts, not age. Younger members must use their apprenticeship to build character and policy skills.

Our leaders are or should now be aware that foreign powers, too, have a keen interest in the selections they make to a Cabinet, shadow or otherwise. We know from WikiLeaks that foreign embassies have expressed their views about our choice of Cabinet ministers. We also know the power they have. They can revoke a visa or simply refuse to grant entry to their country to those they don't like. The best defence against them is sound character. Policy-management skills and character should matter the most in Cabinet selections.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.