http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20061015/focus/focus2.html
Published: Sunday | October 15, 2006

Criticise the People's National Party (PNP) and you are a Labourite. Call the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to book and you are a socialist. Yet partisan politics is a fact of life in most countries.

Places like Scandinavia seem rather dispassionate about parties. But watch any U.S. political show and it's obvious that Americans, for instance, are scarcely less tribal than Jamaicans. Though at least they have buried the 'Support my side or I'll kill you' mindset that occasionally flares up here.

Incidentally, why do the media keep harping about a return to 1980-style political violence? Our last two election campaigns, 1997 and 2002, saw no spike in the murder rate. And while acknowledging that real problems like entrenched garrisons remain, the Carter Centre Report on the 2002 elections lauded our progress. "Much has changed in Jamaica over the past five years as this mature democracy has further deepened and embraced an era of openness and accountability."

Whatever P.J. Patterson's other failings, he pushed through many overdue political reforms. The Electoral Office of Jamaica and the Electoral Advisory Committee and the Ombudsman were created with real independence and power. So we now have referees who can call 'time out' and separate the combatants when tempers get too heated.

'Youthful exuberance' may have caused Andrew Holness to 'dis' Bishop Herro Blair recently. But the crucial point is that after cooling down, Mr. Holness felt compelled to apologise for his behaviour and explain himself in the media. In 1980 angry disagreements between candidates usually ended with cries of "Mek we get more gun!".

Now police say there are real problems in places like Mountain View and Olympic Gardens. These troubles may not be fundamentally political, but there is suspicion that unscrupulous politicians are manipulating angry young men for nefarious ends. Both party leaders need to intervene personally and crush the snakes in their nests.

Yet it is irresponsible for media commentators to extrapolate developments in notoriously murder prone areas to the rest of the nation. 1980 was 26 years ago. 2002 was four years ago. Considering the structural improvements in our political system, why should we regress three decades rather than keep on improving? But if the press keeps telling the country 'We're going to have a bloody 1980 style election!' it might well create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Finally, a smoking gun

Now back to Trafigura. After years of rumours of high governmental corruption, we finally saw a smoking gun - three $10 million cheques from a foreign company doing business with the government lodged to the PNP-connected CCOC. I thought all media practitioners who treasure Jamaican democracy would rejoice.

Alas, I failed to reckon for political fanaticism. Personally, I don't care about JLP or PNP. What matters to me is a healthy democracy in the country I live in and love. And since an unbiased press that highlights government transgressions regardless of party is indispensable for this, I naively thought the media would turn wholesale on all those connected with CCOC. But incredibly much of the press focused on red herring distractions instead of condemning blatant corruption.

Whoever brought the cheques to light contravened banking secrecy laws! So what if they exposed massive governmental misdemeanours which would otherwise have gone unpunished? It was a criminal act and Bruce Golding should resign as an accessory to the crime! How dare the Opposition Leader behave like a public watchdog and bark loudly at government misconduct!

The real solution

Anyway, the argument went, this is a campaign finance matter. The real solution is proper party funding legislation, perhaps something like the marvellously successful Parliamentary Integrity Act. Yet was the PNP taking money from Trafigura - despite it having a contract with the government renewable yearly - any different from Jamaica accepting USAID support?

Who cares if the public knows nothing about the Nigerian oil deal - which is intended to benefit Jamaica and not Trafigura - and has no idea how much oil we get, what price we pay, or what share of the total proceeds we receive? Or that the US$585,000 'donation' or 'commercial transaction' is over three times the $170,000 Jamaica has earned from this oil in the last 18 months? It's all much ado about nothing!

And who says the CCOC cheques were bribes for past services rendered or future services? Maybe Trafigura - who last month dumped raw toxic waste in the Côte d'Ivore (formerly Ivory Coast) to save US$300,000 processing costs - was seized by a sudden fit of generosity. "To save a few bucks elsewhere we caused eight deaths and sent 72,000 to the hospital. But Colin, we like you and your party friends so much that we've flown down unasked to give you US$585,000 with no strings attached".

Incredibly many commentators actually defended the nonsense above. No wonder a friend moaned to me on Monday that he was ashamed to call himself a member of the press. He was shocked that so many colleagues seemed prepared to sacrifice journalistic integrity on the altar of party fanaticism. Had they no sense of shame or love of democracy?

Equating the exposure of multi million-dollar government corruption with the CCOC cheques being made public is akin to likening murderous armed robbery with shoplifting. Without democracy there is no rule of law, and the surest way to destroy democracy is unchecked corruption.

Principle prevails

But truth will out. In free countries the voices of principle always prevail over the soul-selling apologists. And the Jamaican media can, with some truly disgraceful exceptions, hold its head high.

Which is more than our government can say. Colin Campbell may be gone, but who can believe anything Bobby Pickersgill or Phillip Paulwell or A.J. Nicholson says again? When Mr. Pickersgill exclaimed "You think we would sell the country for $30 million?" it made me wonder just how much he would sell it for - $300 million? Though even the 'chicken feed' written to 'Colin Campbell' might have saved the life of the baby who allegedly died for lack of a steriliser at Jubilee Hospital.

Cabinet members who have said nothing on the issue - such as Omar Davies and Peter Phillips and Maxine Henry-Wilson - still have public credibility. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller either knew about the skullduggery or was kept in the dark by her advisors. While it would suggest she is out of touch, I prefer to believe the latter. But why her deafening silence?

In August Jamaican Government officials met with Trafigura executive Claude Dauphin. He is now in an Ivory Coast jail on charges of poisoning and breaking toxic waste laws, a crime highlighted by the BBC before CCOC accepted Trafigura's $31 million.

No self-respecting country would allow anyone connected with this blood money bribe to remain in public office. Norman and Busta must be weeping. And why are honest churchmen not condemning government officials accepting illegally obtained funds from suspected murderers? An armed robber who gives back the money is still guilty.

What is our vision of democracy? What kind of country do we want Jamaica to be? A Nigeria of rampant entrenched corruption where government is about sharing spoils and not improving the lot of citizens? A one-party ruled Cuba where those who question government official actions end up in prison? A Zimbabwe where all criticism of the government is vilified as race and class propaganda? Or a nation where corruption is punished, officials obey laws, and freedom of speech prevails?

If our democracy crumbles, 'dog nyam all of we supper' - black, white, rich, poor, JLP and PNP. And as the old but unavoidable cliché goes, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.