Martin Henry
PARLIAMENT NOW has a number of research interns. Thanks to Senator Trevor Munroe, a professor of government at the UWI, seven students have been assigned to the country's legislative body as research assistants.
In the first instance, the interns will be servicing the research needs of Joint Select Committees. But we hope that this can be broadened to meet the research needs of all members of both the Upper and the Lower Houses of Parliament. The interns will also attend the Sectoral Debate and file review reports.
The placement of the UWI students as research interns has come out of a recommendation of the Oliver Clarke Committee which was set up to review the salaries and the performance of parliamentarians. The Clarke Committee had noted that many bills and resolutions required research support which was not available.
SALARIES AGAIN UNDER REVIEW
Parliamentary salaries are again under review. The Jamaican public, poll after poll, is very firmly in favour of government on the cheap. If possible parliamentarians should be paid nothing but should nonetheless deliver maximum performance. And part of that performance, a significant part, is to be the amount of handouts provided.
The parliament building, which does not even have a good library, must not be moved and upgraded because that is going to give even more benefits to undeserving politicians. At the moment the seat of our democratic government, rather than being a monument of civic pride, is dingy, cramped and under-served with the facilities needed for effective modern governance. The research internship is an initiative of the UWI right down to their stipend. We should note that the UWI is not even a purely Jamaican institution but is Caribbean with obligations to all contributing territories.
Some years ago, while leading a UNDP Science and Technology policy project, I met and worked with the Office for Science and Technology of the United States Congress. This was an entire outfit designed to provide cutting-edge information to members of the Congress. There are several other such specialist research units attached to the Congress. And members of Congress have their own research staff and offices. We are not yet in a position for that kind of support. But democracy cannot be bought on the cheap. If we want quality we must be prepared to pay a reasonable price for it.
One of the reasons for the dominance of the Executive in our constitutional arrangement is that Ministers of Government can use the resources of their ministries to get their research done. Come Budget presentation time and for major bills, virtually all of which come out of the Cabinet, everything else is put on hold and an entire little army is mobilised to get Minister what he or she wants. The backbench parliamentarian and, indeed, the Minister as MP has virtually no support to have his or her work informed by research.
Another alternative to the absence of research support for the Parliament is the use of the machinery of the political party, such as it is, especially by the Opposition with no access to Ministry money and personnel. People like Audley Shaw, Andrew Holness, Delroy Chuck, and Bruce Golding who can consistently match their ministerial counterparts with no research support in the Parliament itself are worthy of high praise.
CHEAP DEMOCRACY
But cheap democracy citizens are hardly aware of what may be missing from the dialogue of ignorance which often passes for parliamentary debate. We see little analysis of trends and patterns. We see little historical backgrounding. We see little comparative data with other countries. We see little impact assessment for anything. And these things can't happen without research support.
While we thank Professor Munroe and the UWI for initiating long overdue research support for the Parliament at the token level, the Government of Jamaica must move to use resources of the state to provide adequate research support for all parliamentarians. This is a sensible and legitimate budget line for democracy which should not await higher per capita GDP and lower public bad-mindedness against the costs of governance.
Martin Henry is a communication specialists.
