We should be concerned about the quality of our Politics.

Beyond the possible impending effect on our democracy that the destruction
of the current opposition, the People’s National Party would have, we have another disaster in the form of chronically low quality in our political representation and governance both nationally and locally.

At our local level, the Municipal Corporation representation is seen as a glorified divisional organizer appointed by political parties to keep their election machinery active. These local rep functions continue to be overshadowed by central government via Members of Parliament to curry favor with constituents. The local reps are usually less educated but deeply passionate about their communities, often lacking any substantial knowledge about government and governance.

We should be additionally concerned that our local reps with years of representational experience are continuously overlooked by the political parties for promotion to the House of Representatives.

The Upper House (Senate) is a prime example of decline, with the establishment political parties continuing to thwart the initial concept by their perplexing political appointments of defeated politicians, party activist and future candidates. The debates and exchanges on legislative matters seem almost pedestrian. The upper chamber was meant to be a legislative buffer of independent professionals or civic minded folks not a compost heap.  

Lastly, the Lower House having the better crop of representation with older professional, and tertiary educated folks seemingly lacks boldness to go against the party line and fails to truly mirror changing sentiments of their younger and more modern constituents. There is an unwillingness to be creative with policy as many laws get dragged from colonial times to be applied now and reforms being done piecemeal.

There is no need for us to implement any stringent requirements for entry into political representation, as any Jamaican citizen must have a right to run for public office and offer themselves for service. However, we must demand political parties to emphasize the need for candidates to be sufficiently groomed and empowered with the knowledge about our government systems and governance is general.

As a developing state, we must support engagement at an early age with Civics and Government in schools plus continued wholesome youth participation from the community to the national levels. As we better the stock quality in the citizenry, surely, we will see mark improvement overtime as the selected few offers themselves to represent the masses.

Mario Boothe

Youth & Governance Advocate

Rural Development Deh Back a Bush?

As the lives of those living and working in Kingston and St Andrew become synchronized with traffic detours, repaired water pipes, high rise buildings and a revitalization of downtown - these major infrastructure works would make any rural citizen like myself ask ‘wah bout us?’

It is not entirely far-fetched to consider that rural development is a back burner or just a side panel issue, many have lamented for years the state of rural communities not in mountainous regions left to in the dark ages literally, still without electricity or indoor plumbing. Communities where farm roads are still donkey tracks and you walk a mile to get public transportation. We rural folk who travel great distances to the nearest major town to access necessary services like utilities, banking, groceries, etc.

Goal 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities of the encourages policies and plans that promote positive and stronger connections between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by linking sectorial policies that affect national, regional and local governments. If we are serious about attaining any success with Vision 2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) then leaving no one behind must become an integral part of our development processes.

While I’m privileged to be living in one of those major scheme developments near Old Harbour, this in itself presents a few challenges for the existing public infrastructure, environment and social fabric of the area. Within the last decade or so there have been at least 4 major phase developments adding to housing stocks in between Spanish Town and May Pen, mostly focused around the town of Old Harbour. The 2 largest being New Harbour Village and Longville Park still adding phases with Colbeck Castle development expecting to add another 8000 homes.

There have been no ‘announcements’ from any public entity on development plans for upgrading the existing infrastructure that supports these newer and older communities, will the water supply and sewage be able to withstand the needs? Will there be road expansions and better traffic management? How will security improve?

With the increased usage of these former farms and “idle” land, we are altering ecological structures as we accelerate the conversion of rural land into urban uses – which becomes environmentally unsustainable. What kind of fauna and flora is being displaced?

The necessary public facilities to maintain human settlement and development also come under extreme pressure, local schools and health facilities cannot handle the volume of students and patients.

When will rural development be in the spotlight and given the sustained effort it deserves?

Where is the Local and Central Government representation?

No Real Political Ownership of Vision 2030

“A Whole of Society Approach” in my opinion was at the centre of Jamaica’s participation in the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF 2018), more so than the emphasis on our upgraded upper middle income and our lack of resilience. The Forum that took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York under the theme “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies”.

Vision 2030

I followed with interest the presentations, and found that every Jamaican was given full ownership of the Vision 2030 National Development Plan, from conception, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, yet, there is actually very little evidence that Jamaicans are actively involved in the attainment of the national outcomes that align to the Global Sustainable Development Goals.

The Cabinet has taken ownership of Vision 2030, but should a plan of such national importance be only left to the executive to manage or should every elected representative be able to contribute fully to the monitoring of the implementation, has this National Development Plan been debated or mentioned for debate in Gordon House since its original tabling?

Minister Pearnel Charles Jnr

In his presentation at a side event organized by UNDP and the Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the UN, haply titled “2030 Agenda: a whole of society approach” Minister of State Pearnel Charles Jr outlined how critical for his government that the implementation had “citizen participation and a people-centered approach by building awareness” that “full consideration of youth and gender is imperative to policy design.

 (Previous Article:http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/letters/20170309/parliament-tracking-vision-2030-progress )

Global Goals

How then can a government say there is “people-centred approach” without the peoples elected representatives tasked with forwarding their views and concerns after discourse with constituents to parliament and municipal councils, refusing to bring Vision 2030 to their constituency, to their divisions? As a matter of accountability, this boils down to political expediency for whoever is at the political helm at the time.

Politicians and their parties haven’t been able to successfully engage our citizens in these complex discussions due to the regressive thinking and victuals they have fed the citizens for decades - A MP or Councillor doesn’t see votes in explaining What is Vision 2030? and How we will attain the SDGs?

So.. the question is who are the political owners of Vision 2030? 💭