The issue of constitution reform for Jamaica has again reared its ugly head in Jamaica with the recent demonstration by the Prime Minister of the inherent failings of our current political system. Even though by law and logic we have three separate arms of government designed to counter balance each other reality shows that what we have is in fact an elected dictatorship where the executive can choose to bypass the judiciary and usurp its power for its own. As dangerous as this implication is, this is not the real or most dangerous failure of the system we inherited from colonialism. The real danger lies in the incestuous nature of our two party system which dictates that the leader of our country be the head of of the party that wins the most seats.

The danger is not that this elected head is really in fact elected by a minority (the respective delegates of each party) but to creative thought and independent thinking inside such a system. In order for one to become ruler of the party one’s loyalty has to be to party first and foremost, power factions within the party which solidifies and support your power secondly and finally the electorate a distant 3rd if not further afield. One could no doubt argue that my reasoning is flawed and that our PM can determine his own course of action; this may be true but by the time an individual has toed the party line, and played yes man for 30 or so years, whatever original thought he started out with is long buried in the party’s collective consciousness, hence the uniformity in bipartisan political school of thought.

Even the youth arms of these two organizations are susceptible to this corrupting influence, regardless of how loud they may claim to encourage independent thought, the nature of the political structure dictates otherwise. How else could you explain the similarities in view points of the senior Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and junior JLP, the senior People’s National Party (PNP) and Junior PNP. The viewpoints of both old an young differ on everything under the sun except politics. I find it more than coincidental that these youth arms sound identical to their senior counterparts. To gain favour and to move up the ranks invariably means agreeing with the more powerful sponsors who have the power to nip your career in the bud or proclaim you the new “rising star” of Jamaican politics.

By the time one becomes party president, individualism goes out the window and party line becomes paramount. If you should examine the speeches of current party leader and Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, when he briefly flirted with the gutsy move of breaking ties with the old traditions, baggage and excesses, the thoughts then were of an individual free to really think and speak as an individual rather than as the mouth piece of a larger consciousness.

As soon as he returned to the fold all good sense and reason went and the brief flash of brilliance seems to be little more than a dream. One might argue that the change is because he is a politician and he never meant what he said. I beg to disagree. I think he spoke as he did then because he did not have anything to lose and could afford to speak his mind. In this free flowing of ideas I believed he briefly flirted with the idea of putting the electorate first. Once he was reabsorbed, political reality dictated that party and power blocs become his priority and the electorate was once again relegated to the back burner.

We have painted ourselves in a corner, in effect all we have done is “swap black dawg fi monkey”.

Our current political system does not encourage change, our parties’ existence is dependent on maintaining the status quo. So even though the fissure in Bruce Golding’s character has been exposed in the last 3 years, our option for change is none other than Mrs. Portia Simpson-Miller who was as unremarkable, if less controversial, in her tenure as Prime Minister. We have painted ourselves in a corner and in effect all we have done is “swap black dawg fi monkey”.

So effectively we are down to a choice between two failures, two professional politicians, two individuals who have no leadership track record outside of their current leadership positions. What have both leaders led successfully which provides them with the necessary experience to run a country?

The fact is we are screwed, and the following points illustrate the extent:

1. We cannot choose our Prime Minister from the 2.8 million Jamaicans available.
What this means is we can never choose the best person for the job; we are limited to a choice of 2 or so individuals based on party politics.

2. Party success is often to the detriment of individual thought.
Even when we have bright minds entering politics the process is designed to strip all color and individuality from them to create party clones

3. Our elected officials have too much political baggage.
Internal maneuverings create candidates with long strings of debt. This translates into too many priorities placed before us, the electorate.

4. Be a yes man/woman long enough…kills independent thought.

5. There is no proving ground outside of the two cesspools to develop political leadership.

6. And the #1 reason we are screwed. We have narrowed our choice of leadership at any given moment to no more than 2-4 individuals who are decided on by tiny minorities with their own political agendas.

Until we fix these issues, it is going to be almost impossible to see any improvements in the moral fiber of our elected officials and we will continue to wallow in the quagmire of ineffective leadership.