Dear Editor,
It is time for Jamaica to vote directly for her leaders. Prime ministers are voted for by parliamentarians, and mayors — all but one — are voted for by councillors.
This process affects who offers themselves for political service and creates barriers that protect the current office holders from any significant challenge from anyone who does not choose to make politics a lifelong career.
At the current salary scales for politicians we literally have institutionalised corruption and insist that anyone who would seek these high offices must pass the party litmus tests of patronage and rent-seeking behaviour.
Jamaica will never get a Michael Bloomberg.
Under this system we are relegated to accepting only who the political parties believe will ensure that their interests are put above the country's. Is it any wonder who gets the top job?
There is a lot of talk these days about the paucity of leadership, but that's all that is, talk. If we want better leaders we need to fix the system so that the leaders we need will emerge. Even those with whom we are fascinated in the second-tier of the political parties are merely just the better of a poor lot.
Ever wonder why most of our political leaders are not very successful outside of politics? Even the ones who are lawyers are many times mediocre, with notable exceptions of course, and get appointed "QC" not based on legal ability or success at the bar, but due to political cronyism, patronage and, some might even say, as reward for party work done.
We in the private sector and John Public are not powerless to change this system. We must demand better. That is where we have failed. We are prepared to accept the status quo as long as we are protected from it or we can manipulate it for our own benefit.
That power and influence, however, is waning. The political parties, in seeking to diversify their revenue take, have found alternate streams through construction contracts and the appointments in cash-rich state agencies. Once they are properly manned, then the procurement guidelines present no hindrance. The National Contracts Commission grades and the artful use of the term "non-responsive" will usually allow for the corrupt to cloak their choices with the appearance of probity.
It is necessary for political parties to do this so they don't have to rely on the contributions of persons who might have the audacity to expect better governance for their financial support.
We must call upon those who still have some influence — especially the retired, newly minted statesmen seeking to be seen as old, wise and full of integrity — to break down these essentially colonial barriers and give us a political system that will make it possible for real leadership to come forward and chart a way for economic growth, lower unemployment and safer communities.
Eliot Penn
Kingston 5
New political system needed
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It is time for Jamaica to vote directly for her leaders. Prime ministers are voted for by parliamentarians, and mayors — all but one — are voted for by councillors.
This process affects who offers themselves for political service and creates barriers that protect the current office holders from any significant challenge from anyone who does not choose to make politics a lifelong career.
At the current salary scales for politicians we literally have institutionalised corruption and insist that anyone who would seek these high offices must pass the party litmus tests of patronage and rent-seeking behaviour.
Jamaica will never get a Michael Bloomberg.
Under this system we are relegated to accepting only who the political parties believe will ensure that their interests are put above the country's. Is it any wonder who gets the top job?
There is a lot of talk these days about the paucity of leadership, but that's all that is, talk. If we want better leaders we need to fix the system so that the leaders we need will emerge. Even those with whom we are fascinated in the second-tier of the political parties are merely just the better of a poor lot.
Ever wonder why most of our political leaders are not very successful outside of politics? Even the ones who are lawyers are many times mediocre, with notable exceptions of course, and get appointed "QC" not based on legal ability or success at the bar, but due to political cronyism, patronage and, some might even say, as reward for party work done.
We in the private sector and John Public are not powerless to change this system. We must demand better. That is where we have failed. We are prepared to accept the status quo as long as we are protected from it or we can manipulate it for our own benefit.
That power and influence, however, is waning. The political parties, in seeking to diversify their revenue take, have found alternate streams through construction contracts and the appointments in cash-rich state agencies. Once they are properly manned, then the procurement guidelines present no hindrance. The National Contracts Commission grades and the artful use of the term "non-responsive" will usually allow for the corrupt to cloak their choices with the appearance of probity.
It is necessary for political parties to do this so they don't have to rely on the contributions of persons who might have the audacity to expect better governance for their financial support.
We must call upon those who still have some influence — especially the retired, newly minted statesmen seeking to be seen as old, wise and full of integrity — to break down these essentially colonial barriers and give us a political system that will make it possible for real leadership to come forward and chart a way for economic growth, lower unemployment and safer communities.
Eliot Penn
Kingston 5
New political system needed
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