Don Robotham, Contributor

Kern Spencer ... should, at the very least, be suspended from Parliament. - File

The recommendations of Contractor General Greg Christie on the Cuban light bulb case bring the issue of corruption to centre stage once again. This and the Trafigura case raise very serious questions for the country and the People's National Party (PNP), which they will have to answer.

Without encroaching on anyone's rights, it is essential that the PNP take a very clear-cut stand on these matters of fundamental principle. So far the response has been inadequate, to put it mildly. One report in the press claimed that the PNP was ostracising the particular Member of Parliament most directly involved in the light bulb case. This suggests that the PNP is at last waking up to the need to clean house on the corruption issue. But it is far from enough.

LEGALISTIC LINE

What is needed is for the PNP to insist on the suspension from Parliament of the member involved as a first move. If the member is charged then he must be required to resign forthwith and expelled from the party.

That is the minimum required in the light bulb case. There is also the Trafigura and other cases. In the Trafigura case, the PNP seems to be taking a legalistic line. That may help them in the courts of law but not in the court of public opinion. If the PNP has nothing to hide, then why does it not cooperate fully with the investigation? Trying the hide behind nationalistic arguments that the investigation is being done under Dutch, not Jamaican, law does not impress anyone. Likewise for the other argument made by PNP sympathisers, that the JLP also got huge contributions from local private sector sources, and these, too, should be investigated.

STRONG PARLIAMENTARY ETHICS

All of that probably is true but is beside the point. The point at the moment is the light bulb scandal and Trafigura. If the PNP is serious about wanting to cleanse its image of the taint of corruption, then it must act without fear or favour and be willing to let the chips fall where they may.

We need a strong parliamentary ethics committee because this whole issue of corruption among parliamentarians needs to be addressed more generally. As recent developments in the British Parliament demonstrate, this is by no means a problem confined to Gordon House. The British Labour Party has been recently reeling from scandal to scandal - involving similar issues, of under-the-table funding channelled through senior members and former government ministers. There has also been the case of the MP who employed his family members on his parliamentary staff

and political parties at public expense - a fairly common practice in the British Parliament, if this gentleman is to be believed. The difference between the situation in the UK and in Jamaica is that the British have mechanisms, however imperfect, to address these kinds of corruption, and we do not. If we are to go beyond the immediate cases of corruption before us, therefore, we need to establish a strong parliamentary ethics committee.

It is not clear to me if provisions for such a committee exist at the present time. If such a body exists it must be a closely guarded secret. If it exists we need to revamp it and give it a new composition and set of powers. If it does not exist we need to create it. But the key to the effectiveness of such a body lies in its composition and powers. It is essential that such an ethics committee should have non-parliamentarians on it playing a central role. This has been a huge bone of contention in the debate on ethics committee in the United States Congress. So far, all attempts to broaden the composition of ethics committees have failed.

The problem is that when they are composed of parliamentarians only, they easily lead to horse trading and deal making when cases arise. At this point, the principles of ethics are made to take second place to the principles of politics. The principle of politics is power. When the demands of power assert themselves, you can kiss goodbye to ethics.

BROADER ISSUES

Therefore, we must establish a broad ethics committee to police our parliamentarians of both houses. We must also define offences broadly - on an ethical, not simply a legal basis. In other words, acts which will be perfectly legal could nevertheless be regarded as unethical and therefore lead to sanctions by the ethics committee. Further, the sanctions available to the ethics committee should be broad, including recommending suspension and resignation from either house.

We should note that these issues of ethical misconduct by parliamentarians are separate matters from the funding of political parties and cannot be subsumed under the same label. We should also note that an ethics committee would review not only the conduct of members of the Government but also the Opposition, including Opposition Senators.

The issue of corruption in the society does not, of course, involve only parliamentarians. Indeed, as PNP sympathisers eagerly point ask, what about the recent case of alleged electricity stealing involving the company of a prominent member of the private sector? Indeed, what of this case? It seems to have vanished off our radar screens and the alleged offender proceeds completely unperturbed! This is the kind of behaviour which completely undermines the legitimacy of the big private sector in the eyes of the Jamaican people.

If Gordon House needs an ethics committee, it is clear that the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) also needs one badly.

BLACK BOURGEOISIE

Can the PSOJ simply pretend that this and other cases simply did not happen and play the same sort of game the PNP is playing on the Trafigura matter? It's not going to work - of that we can be sure. This is also where the issue of the funding of political parties arises - another area crying out for reform.

To address corruption effectively in Jamaica we need a many-sided approach. One part of this has to be punitive. Another critical part has to be to enhance the powers and role of the press and whistle-blowers. A third part has to do with reducing bureaucracy. Government bureaucracy in Jamaica is daunting and invites corruption. Despite improvements at some tax offices, government services in Jamaica remain woefully slow and bureaucratic.

Employees seem to exist for the sole purpose of chastising the public and telling us why what we want to do cannot possibly be done. All this is infuriating to the average citizen and is an invitation to adopt corrupt practices and end the bureaucratic torture. If we are serious about reducing corruption, then we must place a major emphasis on increasing the efficiency and user-friendliness of government agencies, especially at the point where they interface with the general public.

But we have to go further. We have to understand that corruption does not arise in a vacuum. A large source of corruption in Jamaica is the attempt by the small and medium-sized business persons to expand and develop their business in a hostile and unpredictable economic environment. This is the important issue of the rise and development of the Jamaican black bourgeoisie although, of course, many such business persons are also light-skinned and from ethnic minorities. It is essential for our economic prosperity, as well as our social stability, that we do all in our power to encourage the consolidation of such a black bourgeoisie in Jamaica. As long as the big private sector is perceived as a light-skinned bastion, it will never have the legitimacy which it needs to have in Jamaican society. This is the simple reality, like it or not.

The determined efforts of the small and medium-sized business persons to bear up economically against all sorts of special interests and indifference are a major source of corruption. Often, such business persons are willing to use any means necessary to further their burning ambitions. P.J. Patterson understood how bright these ambitions burned but used the issue for his own narrow political ends - to foster the emergence of some 'Black Princes'. Clearly, the ambition to rise is completely legitimate - it's the means which are the problem. If we are to seriously tackle corruption in Jamaica we won't do it effectively by punishing people. On the contrary, our main effort must be positive. We must develop a comprehensive programme of incentives and support for our small and medium-sized business sector across a wide range of their needs.

Often, this does not involve cash and credit but the provision of marketing and other services on a timely and efficient basis. People in this group have made impressive strides in trying to modernise and develop their business. The degree of computerisation in some small car parts suppliers, for example, is impressive. But they need much more help. We must offer them this help and pull them by positive means into the mainstream of Jamaican economic life at the highest possible levels. That is the real key to fighting corruption.