Don Robotham, Contributor
Spencer
Kern Spencer has done the right thing. He should have stepped aside earlier, but better late than never. But his actions only highlight the utter failure of the People's National Party (PNP) to take a firm stand on the corruption issue. As everyone one knows, the reason for this paralysis is that the efforts by one section of the PNP to take a firm stand have been blocked by a faction.
Why is this faction blocking firm action on issues of corruption? Some of them pretend that they are doing this out of solidarity with Kern. Well, by his own actions, Kern has now deprived this faction of that flimsy excuse. This is not about hounding Kern Spencer - far from it. I know him quite well. Kern is a very personable young Jamaican who means his country well. Kern, Basil Waite, Ronald Robinson and Andrew Holness are all products of the University of the West Indies (UWI) who have much to contribute to the progress of Jamaican society. It is good that they are in politics and we must encourage more of them - sons and daughters of the soil - to come forward. They are not perfect and will make serious mistakes. When they do, we must not brush these mistakes under the carpet. We must help them to face up to them squarely, to correct them and to move on.
Kern is not the devil incarnate. I hope very much he is vindicated in this case. I hope that, whatever the outcome, Kern finds a way to continue to play a role in the political life and public affairs of Jamaica. His decision to step aside improves his chances. But if it turns out that he has done something wrong and is severely punished, would I turn my back on him? Never!
corruption
But one must be able to distinguish between one's personal feelings of friendship for Kern and the fundamental issue of principle before us. The issue before us is the corruption of the Jamaican state. Such an issue supersedes by far any particular personality, including Kern. Confronted by an issue of such vital national importance, personal friendships and party loyalty must take a distant second and third place. This kind of sentimentality is not, of course, the real reason why this faction is blocking all efforts to get the PNP to take a firm stand on the corruption issue. For one thing, Kern's political ties with the leadership circle are not particularly strong. The faction would drop Kern in a minute if they felt this would bring them political advantage.
The real reason for this faction's stonewalling on the corruption issue has nothing to do with wishing to protect Kern Spencer. The problem for them is the other scandals which plague the PNP - which may turn out to be far larger than the light bulb saga. In the Trafigura case, for example, the allegations point directly to key members of the personal circle of the leadership. The faction is fearful that if they give ground on the light bulb case, this will open the floodgates to Trafigura and more. As far as this faction is concerned, that is to be avoided at all costs. The danger for this faction is that any serious pursuit of the corruption allegations will loosen their grip on power. What this faction is doing by stonewalling on the light bulb issue has nothing whatever to do with protecting either Kern or the PNP as a whole. It's their own skins which they are protecting.
POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Some in this faction make the argument that if the PNP were to take a firm stand on the light bulb issue it could lead to a by-election in the St Elizabeth constituency represented by Kern which they could lose. This argument is specious. PNP loyalists in this constituency are unlikely to switch to the JLP in a by-election. Who could switch is middle-of-the-road voters who are not captives of any party. But the longer the PNP dilly-dallies on the corruption issue, the greater the chances that the political centre in St Elizabeth and Jamaica as a whole becomes alienated from the PNP. Therefore, the current stonewalling on the corruption issue is in fact endangering and weakening the PNP politically from every point of view. Kern's decision to step aside helps the cause of the PNP. But it is a blow to the schemes of the leadership faction.
This faction belongs to a broad trend in Jamaican society which has developed an entire philosophy of corruption. These philosophers of corruption think that too much fuss is being made around the corruption issue. Were the PNP to regain power, they would calmly resume their practice of ripping off the state in which they have become true experts. After all, if nothing was wrong with corruption in the past, what would be wrong with it in the future?
Philosophers of corruption are by no means confined to the PNP - they are also well-represented in the uptown lumpen sections of the JLP who Bruce Golding is struggling to subordinate. This trend argues that corruption is a middle-class and media-created issue and is being blown out of proportion. They point to polls which suggest that less than 10 per cent of the Jamaican people regard corruption as an issue to which political priority should be given. In this line of thinking, all the talk about corruption is so much hullabaloo. They point to wealthy families in Jamaica who got huge breaks from the state in the past and who now pose as paragons of respectability with all manner of national honours. To them, all the fuss about corruption is so much hypocrisy or motivated by racial, political or social envy. What the masses are interested in, according to this trend, is the price of gas, flour, chicken and rice. You can't eat ethics, they cynically proclaim.
running
This tendency in Jamaican society which thinks that nothing is wrong with corruption is not, of course, confined to political parties. Indeed ironically, the light bulb saga has its counterpart in the light-stealing saga from which the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and the media continue to run, like the devil from holy water. There are obviously strong ethical reasons why we should firmly oppose corruption in any quarter of Jamaican society - public or private. But the main reason to sternly fight corruption and uphold ethical conduct is a practical one. Here is the reason:
Since the era of globalisation dawned in the mid-1970s, Jamaican society has fallen into deep crisis, like many other countries in the world. The old import-substitution development strategies which worked under Norman Manley and in the immediate post-colonial period could work no more. Drastic changes in the world economy left the Jamaican economy stranded. The inevitable liberalisation and deregulation in the 1990s only made clear what had always been the case: We could not support and maintain the mass of our people at an adequate standard of living. Only a small minority at the top could prosper. In the mad scramble for survival which has ensued, all manner of subterfuges, corruption and survival strategies have been resorted to but to no avail. We have simply bounced from pillar to post while the society continued to spiral downwards. The enormous increase in our murder rate is the clearest expression of this failure. The deep alienation of our frustrated youth is another. The crisis in values - the hedonistic pursuit of bling, skin-bleaching, carnival and dancehall - is a third. The corruption of our police force is a fourth. The corruption of the civil administration of the Jamaican state is the final straw which will break the camel's back.
final nail in our coffin
'The collapse of the state would be the final nail in our coffin. At the moment, you could reasonably describe Jamaica as a fragile state. If the corruption is left unchecked and we do not get a grip on our affairs, we will move into another column. We will become a failed narco-state. We must get a firm grip on our affairs and get it urgently.
If the corruption of the Jamaican civil administration is not reversed, then we can kiss goodbye to any attempt to fight crime. We can forget about reforming the police force. We can forget about economic development, improving education, health, public transportation and housing. We can forget about improving values and attitudes. This practical threat is the crucial reason why a strong and uncompromising stand has to be taken on the corruption issue. What we are really dealing with here is the survival of Jamaican society and keeping alive the possibility of a better society for ourselves and our children. This is the practical reason why we cannot tolerate corruption no matter who is involved. The PNP must take a firm stand and take it now.
