Don Robotham, Contributor
Kern Spencer (centre) leaves the Half-Way Tree Courthouse after signing his bail bond last Friday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Good news from Kenya but bad news from Jamaica. Kofi Annan deserves another Nobel Prize for his peacemaking efforts. We must think about what we in Jamaica can do to help this process along.
Here in Jamaica, the whole country has been transfixed by the charging and likely resignation of Kern Spencer, which is long overdue.
The rule of law in Jamaica must be upheld, no matter the social or political status of the offender. This is a vital principle which we must steadfastly reaffirm at all costs. No sympathies one may feel for Kern must be allowed to obscure this fundamental point.
The allegations against him are very serious and, if true, are deeply wrong and harmful to Jamaican society. The People's National Party (PNP) must now go further and cooperate fully with the investigation of all the other cases - especially Trafigura. But, will they?
Without presuming guilt, the case already represents a great tragedy for Kern, his family, friends and an entire generation, including my own. How did it come to this? What kind of example did we set? What were the wrong turns we took? What has produced this decay in the PNP and in our public and personal lives, across all political and social divisions? If we are to come to grips with the crisis of corruption in the PNP and the Jamaican society as a whole, we must answer these searching questions.
SACRIFICIAL LAMB
There are signs that some wish to evade them. Some of us seem to believe that if we simply throw Kern to the wolves, the PNP and Jamaica will be fine. Kern must be led like a lamb to the slaughter, to wash away all the corruption in the PNP with his blood.
Why is Kern - the junior minister - the sole focus of attention? What about the minister with overall responsibility? Why are some sections of the PNP leadership shunning Kern as some kind of leper? Why the glee and smug self-righteousness in some sections of the press?
Why were Kern and the others kept without bail for three nights in the lockup? What is this vile rubbish about a public servant declaring she is hungry and not processing any bail applications after 3.30 pm? And why the astronomical bail of $10 million? Why the raids on the premises of his mother and step-father in the dead of night? Why the humiliation?
All these loathsome gimmicks foster bitterness and undermine the rule of law. They increase sympathy for Kern a thousandfold. Kern Spencer is not the devil. He has not been running around St Elizabeth murdering people left, right and centre. I can think of quite a few politicians, some of them currently jeering Kern, compared to whom, Kern Spencer is an angel from heaven.
Even if he is found guilty on every single count and faces the maximum penalty under the law, I shall stand by him to the very end. I urge Kern, his family and friends to take heart. All is by no means lost. Let those who are without sin, cast the first stone, not me!
MORAL DECAY
The problem of corruption in Jamaican society and within the PNP will not be solved by applying the 'one bad apple theory' or our ignorant and hypocritical Old Testament morality. Decay has deeper roots, is pervasive across all political parties and social classes in Jamaican society.
As the recent electricity stealing case in the private sector proved, corruption is not confined either to the state or to the PNP. Nevertheless, the PNP has a special problem which cannot be evaded. What is happening to the PNP is the general crisis in values and attitudes in Jamaican society coming home to roost.
There are two causes of this decay: one is moral-ideological, the other is socio-economic. When in the 1980s, the PNP abandoned socialism, this left an ideological and moral void. The PNP was now for the market, but what kind of market? What about the long-standing values of social upliftment and social solidarity on which the PNP was founded? All this was abruptly jettisoned - baby with bathwater!
When the PNP deregulated the economy under Michael Manley after 1989, it also deregulated our morality. It was not only our financial regime which was liberalised.
The PNP also liberalised our ethics. Instead of this neo-liberal regime unleashing the old, rural, black protestant values of self-discipline, hard work, saving and investment, it unleashed consumerism. A coarse mercantile ethic of avarice swamped the society. An era of self-promotion, self-enrichment, self-centredness, self-absorption and self-adornment - the era of bling - dawned in all its garishness.
This was and is across all social classes. Carnival reigned uptown. Downtown it was Passa Passa. As Ian Boyne has pointed out, they are inspired by the same hedonistic ethic. Same difference, take your pick. Feeble attempts were made to combat this in the Values and Attitudes initiative of P.J. Patterson.
But this effort was too minor and, in any event, was inconsistently pursued. As long as this morality prevails in Jamaica and in our political parties, we will continue to have widespread corruption, public and private.
The second key factor producing the decay of the PNP has been socio-economic. This has to do with the horrendous 1991 inflation of 90 per cent and the efforts to deflate the Jamaican economy.
The first consequence of the 1991 inflation was mass impoverishment. Between 1989 and 1991, those below the poverty line increased from 20.5 per cent to 44.6 per cent - an increase of 117.6 per cent compressed into three years. As inflation was brought down the numbers in poverty declined to 15.9 per cent in 1998 but this was still a baptism of fire which devastated many families as well as our political process and institutions.
This 1991 Manley Shock, drove about 400,000 Jamaicans below the poverty line and several hundred thousands to the very brink. A mass scramble of every individual immediately began, each seeking to fend for himself, desperate to protect his standard of living by any means necessary.
Higglering, hitherto the 'coping strategy' of the poor, spread quickly into the middle classes. Teachers hawked cosmetics and jewelry and nurses became important sources of clothes and shoes. 'Occupational multiplicity' ran rampant. Squatting and the informal economy mushroomed. Drug smuggling soared. The murder rate spiraled out of control. None of this began in 1991. But it took off then.
The second consequence flowed from the reliance on monetary policy to deflate the economy after 1991. This resulted in a transfer of about US$5 billion to the Jamaican holders of government bonds over a 10-year period. Although much of this went to institutional investors, a great deal has gone to private individuals at the top of the society.
This enormous increase in inequality opened up a huge social gulf in Jamaica and inside the PNP and fuelled deep alienation from and disenchantment with its middle class leadership. Hence the rise of Mrs Simpson Miller who embodied the hopes that this could be reversed.
STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
In every country, the smooth functioning of established institutions depends on the participation and leadership of the stable social classes. But the Manley Shock destabilised all social classes in Jamaican society.
Driven by the struggle for survival, the middle class and the organised working class withdrew from politics. Into the political vacuum which this created, rushed the lumpen. The PNP was particularly affected by this process of 'lumpenisation' since it was the government and had control over state resources. If you went to a PNP conference in the 1990s it was like a herb camp. Ganja, ganja everywhere!
GET BACK TO BASICS
The problems of the PNP will not be solved by throwing any particular individual to the wolves. They will not be solved merely by a change of leadership, although this probably is necessary. Deeper issues are at stake which go beyond personalities and makeovers. This party has to get back to basics. The middle class and the working class have to re-assert their participation and leadership in an organised manner.
A deep self-critique is required. They have to fill the ideological hole at the heart of the PNP - defining their core values and clarifying what they stand for in the 21st century. In particular, what are their social values? What kind of market economy do they uphold? What is the role of the state? What is the role of the business class? What is the role of the workers and the middle class?
Are the PNP social democrats of the old kind, of the 'Third Way' variety, or of some as yet undefined brand? Are they simply a capitalist party?
The JLP has morphed into a nondescript amalgam of liberalism and statism. What is the PNP? These are the tough issues. Crucifying Kern, or Portia for that matter, won't help them - or us.
