A Jamaican In Exile

  https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/the-right-reforms-will-restore-confidence/ The most important part in the above article is #5. " 5)In line with enhancing fairness and equity in the political landscape, publicly funded election campaigns are a pivotal step forward. By providing all candidates with equal access to media platforms, such as press coverage, airtime, and town hall meetings, we level the playing field and promote a more substantive and issues-based campaign environment. This empowers the electorate to make informed choices based on the merits and policies put forth by candidates rather than being limited to options dictated solely by political parties. It is now a good a time to provide the people of Jamaica with a governing system that truly serves them, one that holds leaders accountable while providing the checks and balances necessary to create an efficient Government." Currently, Jamaicans only choice is between the two gangs in Gordon House, between ...

  You can also see my video on this topic here:  https://youtu.be/sZm5eCjwym0 As the above Gleaner graphic shows, Jamaicans believe that their politicians are the most corrupt group in Jamaica. Second to that is the police. Yet, nothing has been done about it. There has been no widescale social upheaval. In this piece, I will deal with how this situation has come about and what we can do about it. There are three areas of state power: 1.     1.   Political power - those who control the government. 2.      2.  Economic power – those who control the land, the banks and businesses. 3.      3.  Social Power – those who control the mainstream media and religion. Recently, Barbados removed the British monarch as their symbolic head of state and replaced the title of monarch with a symbolic Barbadian President. This woke up the Jamaican political leaders who had grappled with this issue before but were unable to co...

Big-increases-demand-more-accountability-pm According to PM Holness, 'we get the political leadership we pay for' and 'you get the quality of governance you elect'. So, all along, being poorly paid, when they were telling us how good they were, it was a lie? All along they could have done better it's just that they needed to be paid more? Mr. Holness cannot have it both ways, either the politicians have been lying to us all these decades saying they have been doing their best or pretending to be doing their best when all along they were lying to us. Or, is he lying to us now?  If you believe Mr. Holness, I have some beachfront land in Siberia to sell you..... Secondly, most of us have not elected the current governance. Most of us stayed away from voting. If anything, the current government is illegitimate in the sense that only a small minority of the electorate voted for the JLP. Jamaica's problem is not underpaid politicians! Jamaica's problem is that we ...

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/an-insult-to-other-civil-servants/ Odd as it may sound to the many representatives of the people elsewhere, Sweden does not offer luxury or privileges to its politicians. Without official cars or private drivers, Swedish ministers and MPs travel in crowded buses and trains, just like the citizens they represent. Without any right to parliamentary immunity, they can be tried in a court of law like any other person. With no private secretaries at the door, their bare-bones parliamentary offices are as small as 8m2. “I’m the one who pays the politicians,” says Joakim Holm, a Swedish citizen. “And I see no reason to give them a life of luxury.” Politicians who dare to spend public money on taxi journeys, instead of riding the train, end up on news headlines. Even the speaker of Parliament receives a card to use the public transportation. Only the prime minister has the right to use a car from the security forces on a permanent basis. Swedish parliame...

jamaica-needs-an-executive-president/ It is said that 'politics is the art of the possible'. The economist Kenneth Galbraith expressed a more negative view of political pragmatism when he said, “Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”  Like it or not and as unpalatable as it is, the process of drafting a reform to the constitution is in the hands of the JLP and PNP. Just like how their supporters choose who governs us, their supporters will chose how we are to governed in the future. The only thing the JLP/PNP gangs can agree on is to follow the Barbados model of replacing the ceremonial Governor General with a ceremonial President and to declare Jamaica a Parliamentary Republic with them retaining the power. All of the posturing of a Constitutional Reform Committee is just that - posturing. A jus suh di ting set... Raymond D. Grant

Listen First, Reform after "NEW CONSCIOUSNESS The mentality of advantage-taking is manifesting itself in the constitutional reform process. It is emerging quite strongly that the agreement between the political parties to replace the monarchy with a ceremonial president isn’t holding. More and more people want an executive presidency and consider anything else just a continuing waste of money, despite the limited-but-important functions accorded the governor general and his successor. Younger citizens in particular want to vote for their leader of government and circumscribe his power by strong checks and balances, not in the present indirect way through a political party, but directly. They are unconvinced that we still need to depend on King’s House as well as Jamaica House. This is part of the decisions which should be put to the citizenry. Who gave the JLP/PNP the authority to determine that? Public sentiment is overtaking what was “decided” earlier. Just saying that you are “...

 Privy Council vs CCJ Time come! Since my teens, I have been advocating for Constitutional Reform in Jamaica. During those years, I was a part of a group of youth led by a recipient on this email list. We advocated for constitutional and legal reform and focused on lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. In 1976, Michael Manley's PNP lowered the voting age to 18. We did it! There seems to be a perception that the whole constitution needs to be changed at one go. I disagree with this perception. Like moving our bowels, changing our constitution will have to be an ongoing, gradual process. To try and do it all in one go will 'constipate' the process as Lloyd B. Smith said (see below). For example, the US constitution has been changed numerous times throughout history - one thing at a time. The Jamaican Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms also came into effect because there was general agreement about it. As the above article says, there seems to be general agreement abo...