Daniel Thwaites | Observing buy-elections galore

News of the impending resignation of Pearnel Charles Sr was a shock to me. Didn’t Pearnel Jr just declare that his great dream was to sit in Parliament with Daddy? Well, the resignation wasn’t shocking to an anonymous “senior political source” quoted in The Gleaner story this (Friday) morning.

Clearly, Mr Anonymous knows things the rest of us don’t. Perhaps he’s a white t-shirted “observer”, just innocently canvassing while this important internal sorting takes place.

But really! Let me touch on that. I’ve seen the apology from Patricia Duncan-Sutherland, but c’mon! That kind of behaviour is a serious violation and it deserves more than a rap on the knuckles.

Often the vote is all the common man has, because he’s not writing to the newspaper or screaming into the telephone to a talk-show host. He’s going about his business and hoping one of the top-a-top people don’t sheg him up. The system doesn’t give him many choices, but it does allow him to register his feelings every four of five years. And that’s the likkle privilege that you want to disrupt?

I was among those actually buying into the PNP’s protestations that they were staying out of the buy-elections based on a principled refusal to see taxpayer funds squandered. When I first heard that the party wouldn’t contest the buy-election I was very sceptical, but then I read the press release and found that they were making some decent points.

But the white t-shirt “observer” manoeuvre kinda mash-up dat story. I don’t quite see how a “principled” refusal to participate translates into an opportunity to canvas on the election day. It robs the official line of credibility.

But the PNP’s foibles to one side, this follow-up buy-election in Clarendon North East would have actually made their point even more abundantly. The country’s expensive electoral machinery is the prime minister’s plaything.

Word is that St Ann North East might be the next buy-election target as the administration rather cynically revs their machinery. That would take the charade and make it a full-blown travesty, even though that’s the seat where a legitimate argument could be made that a by-election is warranted due to the MP’s ailments.

Anyway, since Pearnel Sr is retiring, I want to take the opportunity to beg for a reform. My humble proposal is that Pearnel Sr be the last Speaker of the House drawn from the elected benches. His tenure has been less than stellar, and that’s not even just because he has gone deaf. That will happen to the very best of us, even one as full of vigour as Pearnel once was.

By the way, we should appreciate Mr Holness’ great sense of humour in appointing a deaf Speaker. OK, maybe not “deaf” deaf, but certainly “hard-ah-ayes”. I rate Andrew for that move. The other side could be hollering till the roof was raised … Pearnel not hearin’ a ting! It’s right up there with the genius PJ employed when he appointed the great O.T. Williams to preside. For O.T. only spoke in florid Jamaican poetry.

WESTMINSTER SYSTEM

But now it’s a joke that’s gone too far, for too long. The trouble is that in our version of the Westminster system we’ve pretty much dispensed with the idea of the political impartiality of the Speaker. That idea works better in some places than others, but in Kingston it hasn’t the slightest foothold. And that’s especially so with someone like Pearnel Sr who is undoubtedly dealing with the well-known reality that in our dotage we have vivid memories of our youth. In his youth the PNP literally locked him up!

Anyway, look at the British way of doing it:

“Speakers must be politically impartial. Therefore, on election the new Speaker must resign from their political party and remain separate from political issues even in retirement. However, the Speaker will deal with their constituents’ problems like a normal MP.”

That’s not happening here. The party system in Jamaica, coupled with the relatively small number of parliamentary seats, is designed to turn otherwise sensible people into vituperative hateful fools. Even if you don the neutral white observer t-shirt and say, more nicely, that the party whip is just too strong, the result is the same. Each side scurries to circle the wagons at the slightest provocation, the leaders lord it over their minions, and any signal of independence is generally dealt with swiftly, decisively, and mercilessly.

It’s why, by the way, the more I’ve neutrally observed Everald Warmington, who I used to call ‘Crazy Uncle Everald’, is the more I’ve come to admire him. He has that instinctive feistiness and stubborn don’t-give-a-sheggery that is a necessary piece of preserving some independence.

The Speaker, I propose, should be someone drawn from the wider public, perhaps someone with some claim to national renown and capable of commanding respect. I propose that we place a non-partisan (or at least non-hyper-partisan) individual so that the quarterly spectacle of the House dissolving into cussing is brought under control.

Suitable candidates could be chosen by poll or by an election suitably supervised by white t-shirted observers. My hope would be that, say, Reneto Adams might make the cut. A lot of the nonsense would stop immediately. And if it cost a few MP lives it would trigger more by-elections and all the roads in the constituency would be repaired, bridges would be built, and health centres upgraded. It’s a win-win.

But Reneto, even if he would accept the post, is choosing to go down the authoritarian route. That’s not the only way to go. Imagine retired Senior Superintendent of Police Radcliffe Lewis in the post. It would be a joy to watch Parliament and listen to that master of phraseology. I believe JIS would achieve some stellar ratings.

Or how about Shebadda? That would be the absolute end of cussing and screaming, and even of low-level grumbling in the House, and everybody would settle down to business right away. Because if ‘Shebby’ decide fi deal wid yuh, that’s it! Yuh DONE!

But these are just ideas about personnel, and I’m sure if it was thrown out to the public even better ones would filter up. And if that reform was the upshot of this crazy buy-election spree on the taxpayers’ few dollars, it might even be worth it in the long run.

- Daniel Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com