Money can’t buy love
LET US be very clear: the results of last Monday’s local government elections are resultant attempts by both parties to either buy votes for themselves, or to block votes for the other side by paying electors to stay home. Our politicians have created l aw making transparency re the quantum of political donations impossible, which is what enables votebuying and vote-blocking.
Both sides buy votes and block votes; both sides have made our voting system transactional; both sides have created feelings of entitlement among Jamaican voters to be paid for their votes. We like to boast about our democratic traditions, but the world has eyes and ears; we are developing the reputation for staging the best elections money can buy, and for corrupting the minds and sensibilities of Jamaican voters.
The days of die-hearted party supporters are dying. Some people used to vote because they loved their party and what it stood for. I hope they both get the message: that money can’t buy love – or loyalty. Money only buys loyalty to … money. And the love of money is the root of all evil.
I will leave it to you to conclude which side had more money to spend; for me, the most telling data is the frequency of political advertisements in the media. It seems to me that somebody – parties and donors – did not get the bang for their buck, and that their money has been wasted.
On the face of it, the voting data suggest a strong swing away from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) towards the People’s National Party (PNP). That concurs with the findings of the independent political opinion polls, which do not factor transactional politics into their calculations.
Either the vote-buying vote-blocking by both sides cancelled each other out, or the actual swing was of seismic proportions, appearing more moderate (masked) by transactional politics.
Where forward from here: pour more and more money into votebuying and vote-blocking? (The private sector will be asked for more and more secret donations, and promised more and more favours). Or will we demand our politicians become genuinely honourable by enacting serious anti-corruption legislation? Which do you think is more likely? Private sector get ready!
Or will the private sector demand that their donations not be used for vote-buying and vote-blocking?
At time of writing reliable results of Monday’s election are not available, and so I will hold more detailed analysis for next week. Both sides have declared victory, and the “definite” and “emphatic” bluster is deafening.
What is indisputable is that the most votes went to “none-of-theabove” by two-to-one. I believe that many that voted on Monday held their noses, and swallowed their spit.
The real implication is what Monday’s result means for the general election due to be called in the next year or so. The PNP is smelling victory, but are not sending any signal that they will be any less corrupt than the incumbents should they ascend to power. Mark Golding must not mistake the syndrome of voting out the JLP as support for the PNP. The public will just as readily vote out a corrupt PNP government.
The PNP must focus on giving Jamaicans something to vote for.
GARRISON POLITICS IS NOT DEAD
The church communities I serve include Tivoli Gardens. I drive through at all hours of the day and night dropping home parishioners, young and old. Since the demise of Dudus and the opening of roads in and out of Tivoli, I thought garrison politics was on the way out. I now have to rethink my position.
Earlier this week I got a distress phone call. Like most Jamaicans, some of my parishioners who live in Tivoli Gardens decided not to vote, and to stay home. I was told that on Monday afternoon gunmen entered their home demanding that they go out to vote.
It is not difficult to figure out how the gunmen knew the residents had not voted; partisan indoor and outdoor agents take attendance at polling stations; that is why they are there; at any time of the day the parties know who has voted and who has not. (And in the days of open voting the party agents would also know how the electors had voted). Clearly this information was passed on to the political gunmen.
Grossly intimidated, my parishioners hurried to the polling station.
Nevertheless, now my parishioners have been told that they must pack up and leave their homes in Tivoli Gardens – or else! This is rank terrorism! Dudus may be gone, but garrison politics and political thuggery are very much alive. Tivoli Gardens is still the “Mother of all Garrisons”.
This is what garrison communities are all about – why they were created in the first place – to ensure victory at the polls. We will not be emancipated from tribal politics until all the PNP and JLP garrisons are dismantled.