http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090322/focus/focus5.html
Published: Sunday | March 22, 2009
Kevin O'Brien Chang, Contributor

GOVERNMENT OF the people, by the people, for the people is as good a working definition of democracy as any. And for all the obvious imperfections of our governmental system, the political bottom line in this country is that what the Jamaican people want, the Jamaican people get.

So the incessant blather about the rights or wrongs of dual citizen Members of Parliament (MP) is really pointless. In the end, the only view that really matters is that of the voters, who on March 23 will deliver their verdict in West Portland. But seeing as this an opinion column, here's my two cents worth.

A poor, indebted country facing the worst global economic crisis in nearly 80 years should have more important things to do than argue about why it's OK to have an MP who is a Canadian citizen, but not one who is an American citizen. But crazy as this law is, it's in our Constitution and must be obeyed. Logic says it should be changed, but again that's for the people to decide.

Politicians like Abe Dabdoub make 'honourable politician' a contradiction in terms. First, he was booted out as Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) MP for North East St Catherine because constituents were fed up with his non-performance. Then he parachuted himself into Western Portland, and rather than trying to convince voters he was the better candidate to represent their interests, set out to appropriate the seat by legal manoeuvrings. Kudos to him for exposing the Constitution's dual citizenship flaw - but asking to be declared an elected representative despite a majority voting against you contradicts the very essence of democracy.

No initial interest

When the Appeal Court ruled for a by-election, Dabdoub showed no interest in trying to get elected by the people whose rights he claimed to have been fighting for. Though he would no doubt have found the time to be an MP had the seat been awarded to him, he suddenly was too busy defending the interests of his newly beloved People's National Party to contest an election. Diplomatic passport-deprived Comrades now remember the old adage - who lies with snakes will get bitten.

Give Dabdoub marks for candour though. Most politicians claim they are not in it for mere self-aggrandisement but genuinely want to help their country, and show some semblance of party loyalty. This honest Abe has made it transparently clear that he cares only about himself, and that his sole interest in representational politics is whatever power and glory being an MP brings.

His serpentine slithering for both green and orange proves once again that the only difference between Labourites and Comrades is the colour of their shirts. Had Dabdoub pointed out the same constitutional loophole to his then JLP compatriots in the run-up to the 2002 general election, does anyone doubt they would have tried to exploit it too?

Void of sense of duty

One always hoped that beneath all the crass ambition, our politicians had some genuine sense of duty and desire to help people. The eagerness with which Abe Dabdoub's patently insincere machinations have been embraced by his erstwhile foes has purged me of any lingering naivety. As my media colleague Martin Henry remarked to me recently, all political parties put their interests before the people's, and sensible electorates rotate them every 10 years or so.

Now, the Jamaican economy is hurting badly. Rising unemployment in Europe and America means less tourists and remittances. Plummeting car and plane sales worldwide have slashed the demand for aluminium and bauxite, leading to a looming shutdown of the entire local industry. A global rush into United States treasuries has led to widespread capital shortages, interest rate increases and currency depreciation. So jobs are being lost, the Jamaican dollar is plummeting, the economy is shrinking - and God only knows what the Government or anyone else can do.

But we are not alone. The World Bank recently predicted the first global recession since World War II, and said 94 out of 116 developing countries have been hit by economic slowdowns. It's probably just a matter of time for the other 22.

According to a February 26 Slate article, 'Violent protests and riots are breaking out around the globe as economies collapse and governments fail', hang a world map on your wall and start inserting red pins where violent episodes have already occurred. Athens (Greece), Longnan (China), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Riga (Latvia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Vladivostok (Russia) would be a start. Many other cities from Reykjavik, Paris, Rome and Zaragoza to Moscow and Dublin have witnessed huge protests over rising unemployment and falling wages.

Overriding goal

The overriding goal of our entire body politic should be to ensure that Jamaica never appears on that map. True, we are one of the more politically stable nations on the planet. Who can remember the last time even 1,000 Jamaicans demonstrated against anything? But our two greatest political disturbances since Emancipation - the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion and the 1938 Frome riots and Kingston protests - occurred in periods of sharp economic decline.

The world economy is a like a hurricane-swept sea, where huge liners like the American, EU and Japanese economies are struggling to stay afloat. Jamaica is a tiny dinghy at the mercy of forces beyond our control. All we can hope is that the captain keeps the boat from sinking until the waters calm down.

But while its hands are pretty much tied, this JLP government has failed to communicate the seriousness of the global situation to the man in the street. Prime Minister Bruce Golding, finance minister Audley Shaw and minister without portfolio in the finance ministry, Don Wehby, all seem to be reading from different scripts, when they should be reiterating in unison the same crucial message - the world economy is going to hell in a handcart, and Jamaica will go down the drain too, like Iceland, if we don't all unite. Otherwise they will get the blame for these tough times, and deservedly so.

Insensibility

Not that the Opposition is saying anything sensible. How can sane people cry that US Environmental Protection Agency approved fertiliser is not good enough for Jamaica when maybe 70 per cent of the food we eat here is imported from the US and elsewhere? Does anyone know or care what kind of fertiliser is used to grow the potatoes in the Pringles chips and KFC fries we wolf down by the bucket? Are the agricultural standards in the countries from which we import rice higher than the US EPA's?

Most Jamaicans are too busy weathering economic hardships to pay more than cursory attention to the West Portland by-election. Word on the ground suggests that Daryl Vaz's hard work in the constituency should give him the edge on voting day, but the usually reliable Don Anderson polls reportedly showed only a four per cent gap between the JLP and PNP. So, while Vaz is the betting favourite, an upset is not inconceivable.

A JLP win would leave the status quo unchanged. A PNP victory could lead to a change of governing party - maybe the populace will ultimately decide that Portia Simpson Miller has superior management skills and is better equipped than Bruce Golding to lead Jamaica through the current global financial crisis. Either way, what the people want, the people must get.