As people's frustration with the economic malaise in Jamaica increases and the reality that there is no light at the end of the tunnel possible as long as we are stuck with the stale JLP and PNP which have been fiddling with our lives for 50 years, sets in, more and more people are crying out for alternatives. To make matters worse, the old hope that new blood would have entered those clueless parties to bring about change is nothing but a pipe dream, since the powerful and power hungry love the staus quo and are not about to give an inch in the interest of strengthening democracy in the country.
While the cry for better alternatives is not new and many small parties have sprung up over the years only to fade away after an election, the call for real alternatives is more intense today than ever before. But is it realistic to think that a third party can break the stranglehold that the traditional parties have on us if all else remains the same? I hardly think so.
The first problem is that we do not have proportional representation but instead the less democratic winner take all system which consistently, results in parties getting just over half of the popular vote but ending up with up two thirds of the representatives in parliament. So where would that leave a third party that can muster up even 10% of the popular vote? You are perfectly correct, no where.
While it is true that the Labour Party in England (from which our system is copied) did move from third party status replacing the once dominant Liberal party in the 1920's, the circumstances were totally different so we can't take any comfort from what happened there.
However I think the greatest obstacle to any third party having an impact in Jamaica is the corruption of the local government system which is a millstone around the necks of taxpayers but from which we reap little benefit.
The fact is the only entities that benefit from the existence of the almost 300 parish councilors being supported by the public purse, are the JLP and PNP. This is because these councilors who are being paid by us are mostly nothing but permanent political fixtures and activists for the two parties year in year out.
On the other hand, they serve very little purpose to the taxpayers, as the usual chant is, we have no money to carry out their basic functions. So why have we continued to pay them for the past few decades if they cant even carry out basic functions? Since the IMF is demanding that we cut the public service, wouldn't it be logical to start with agencies we have learnt to do without for years? Anyway, most of their traditional functions have long ago been subsumed by central government or taken over under the Constituency Development Fund.
A few years ago I wrote a critique of this same redundant local government system and a consultant to the ministry replied that they were critical to the running of the country especially since their main function is town planning. What a joke! Can someone point me to a well planned town in Jamaica today? At one time one could point to Mandeville but even that town is now nothing but a series of chacka chacka, unplanned and monstrous buildings. Further, residential communities and the roads therein, especially in Kingston, are being devastated daily by illegal commercialization with the apparent tacit approval of the KSAC. So to take this to its logical conclusion, the parish councils are proving to be more destructive than useful!
Anyway, Jamaica is just too small and poor to be having fifteen different governments, (13 parish councils, Portmore municipal council and Central Government.) Fact is we are being smothered financially and practically by super heavy and counterproductive bureaucracy.
It was quite a long time ago that a debate on the relevance of the local government structure was bubbling and guess what? A commission of sorts was set up to look into it. What did they come up with? The concept of County Councils, one for Cornwall one for Middlesex and one for Surrey.
That was a very sensible recommendation but the idea was immediately buried by the politically powerful JLP and PNP as it would have put an end to their having hordes of persons on the ground profiling as representatives of the people when they are nothing but party activists being paid by the overburdened taxpayer.
So now we come back to my main theme, how can a third party ever make an impact with that type of machinery the traditional parties (gangs) have, compliments of the public purse?
It seems that before we see the next plethora of small parties emerging in time to fight the 2016 election, those so minded should tek sleep mark death and start from now to lead a campaign to mobilize the hapless and exploited taxpayers in this country to rise up and demand an end to the useless Local government system, replacing it with three County councils made up of no more than an total of 20 representatives with well defined duties. The heads of these councils should be independently elected by voters too.
Of course, it is well known that each new generation likes to re-invent the wheel, so I am only throwing out this suggestion to those of the younger generation of potential politicians or change agents who are not blinded by romanticism.
While the cry for better alternatives is not new and many small parties have sprung up over the years only to fade away after an election, the call for real alternatives is more intense today than ever before. But is it realistic to think that a third party can break the stranglehold that the traditional parties have on us if all else remains the same? I hardly think so.
The first problem is that we do not have proportional representation but instead the less democratic winner take all system which consistently, results in parties getting just over half of the popular vote but ending up with up two thirds of the representatives in parliament. So where would that leave a third party that can muster up even 10% of the popular vote? You are perfectly correct, no where.
While it is true that the Labour Party in England (from which our system is copied) did move from third party status replacing the once dominant Liberal party in the 1920's, the circumstances were totally different so we can't take any comfort from what happened there.
However I think the greatest obstacle to any third party having an impact in Jamaica is the corruption of the local government system which is a millstone around the necks of taxpayers but from which we reap little benefit.
The fact is the only entities that benefit from the existence of the almost 300 parish councilors being supported by the public purse, are the JLP and PNP. This is because these councilors who are being paid by us are mostly nothing but permanent political fixtures and activists for the two parties year in year out.
On the other hand, they serve very little purpose to the taxpayers, as the usual chant is, we have no money to carry out their basic functions. So why have we continued to pay them for the past few decades if they cant even carry out basic functions? Since the IMF is demanding that we cut the public service, wouldn't it be logical to start with agencies we have learnt to do without for years? Anyway, most of their traditional functions have long ago been subsumed by central government or taken over under the Constituency Development Fund.
A few years ago I wrote a critique of this same redundant local government system and a consultant to the ministry replied that they were critical to the running of the country especially since their main function is town planning. What a joke! Can someone point me to a well planned town in Jamaica today? At one time one could point to Mandeville but even that town is now nothing but a series of chacka chacka, unplanned and monstrous buildings. Further, residential communities and the roads therein, especially in Kingston, are being devastated daily by illegal commercialization with the apparent tacit approval of the KSAC. So to take this to its logical conclusion, the parish councils are proving to be more destructive than useful!
Anyway, Jamaica is just too small and poor to be having fifteen different governments, (13 parish councils, Portmore municipal council and Central Government.) Fact is we are being smothered financially and practically by super heavy and counterproductive bureaucracy.
It was quite a long time ago that a debate on the relevance of the local government structure was bubbling and guess what? A commission of sorts was set up to look into it. What did they come up with? The concept of County Councils, one for Cornwall one for Middlesex and one for Surrey.
That was a very sensible recommendation but the idea was immediately buried by the politically powerful JLP and PNP as it would have put an end to their having hordes of persons on the ground profiling as representatives of the people when they are nothing but party activists being paid by the overburdened taxpayer.
So now we come back to my main theme, how can a third party ever make an impact with that type of machinery the traditional parties (gangs) have, compliments of the public purse?
It seems that before we see the next plethora of small parties emerging in time to fight the 2016 election, those so minded should tek sleep mark death and start from now to lead a campaign to mobilize the hapless and exploited taxpayers in this country to rise up and demand an end to the useless Local government system, replacing it with three County councils made up of no more than an total of 20 representatives with well defined duties. The heads of these councils should be independently elected by voters too.
Of course, it is well known that each new generation likes to re-invent the wheel, so I am only throwing out this suggestion to those of the younger generation of potential politicians or change agents who are not blinded by romanticism.
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