Dear Editor,
With all the talk about eliminating the duplications and inefficiencies within Government, our Parliament seems to have forgotten one very important state organ — itself. Specifically, the upper house, the Senate, seems like an excellent candidate for being made redundant in the public interest.
The Senate, which is supposed to be senior to the lower house, the House of Representatives, is the state organ that helps to keep the lower house in check. While this is so on paper, this is never the case in practice.
Never a chamber that offered any real support to governance, it seems that the Jamaican Senate is nothing more than a proving ground for aspiring politicians who want to be "promoted" to the lower house. It also seems to be a retirement chamber for political has-beens, who seemingly have little else to do.
Never mind the pretend debates that take place in the Senate, laws that are passed in the lower house are never truly scrutinised in the objective way that we would want. For a long time, the Senate has been nothing more that a rubber stamp for the lower house; automatically approving — along party lines — whatever the lower house sends to it.
Many of these politicians, in both houses, constantly talk about the need to cut the red tape in Government. Wouldn't it be good if they cut the long red one called the Senate? Let us have one less useless bottleneck in Parliament. Get rid of the Senate.
Michael A. Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
Why not abolish the Senate?
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With all the talk about eliminating the duplications and inefficiencies within Government, our Parliament seems to have forgotten one very important state organ — itself. Specifically, the upper house, the Senate, seems like an excellent candidate for being made redundant in the public interest.
The Senate, which is supposed to be senior to the lower house, the House of Representatives, is the state organ that helps to keep the lower house in check. While this is so on paper, this is never the case in practice.
Never a chamber that offered any real support to governance, it seems that the Jamaican Senate is nothing more than a proving ground for aspiring politicians who want to be "promoted" to the lower house. It also seems to be a retirement chamber for political has-beens, who seemingly have little else to do.
Never mind the pretend debates that take place in the Senate, laws that are passed in the lower house are never truly scrutinised in the objective way that we would want. For a long time, the Senate has been nothing more that a rubber stamp for the lower house; automatically approving — along party lines — whatever the lower house sends to it.
Many of these politicians, in both houses, constantly talk about the need to cut the red tape in Government. Wouldn't it be good if they cut the long red one called the Senate? Let us have one less useless bottleneck in Parliament. Get rid of the Senate.
Michael A. Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
Why not abolish the Senate?
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