THINGS THAT MATTER - The National Integrity System and Governance
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
(Lord Acton, English Catholic historian, politician and writer; in a letter of 1887)
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand-fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evil-doers … we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” (Alexander Solzehnitsyn)
I normally have three or four books on the go at any time, my choice of the moment depending on mood, time of day, or where I may be when I feel for a quick read; but I’ve just received a book that’s so important I simply HAD to drop everything else and devour it over these last three days. It’s “The National Integrity System and Governance in the Commonwealth Caribbean”, by Cynthia Barrow-Giles. It’s a heavy title, but Cynthia’s style is light – and easily readable – without the convoluted jargon sometimes seen with other academics!
The book grew out of a series of articles in a weekly column in another section of the press in 2016 – expanded, updated, illustrated and fully referenced. It’s published by Carib Research & Publication Inc., local brainchild of my friend Dr. Farley Brathwaite, and it’s hot off the press. It should be essential reading for everyone with a serious civic consciousness. In fact, Professor Emeritus Neville Duncan wrote in his review that it should be made available to every Parliamentarian, Jurist and Senior Public Administrative officer in the Anglophone Caribbean, but I’d like to see it read far more widely, because it’s the conscience, involvement and actions of our citizens that’s essential to ensure accountability and integrity and to denounce corruption in the public arena. And the cartoon “I see nothing, I hear nothing, I say nothing” alone is worth the price of $60!
The author is a highly respected Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Cave Hill Campus, UWI. She’s widely published and this well researched book is informed by extensive scholarship and wide experience on Election Observation Missions for the OAS and the Commonwealth Secretariat. She is an energetic and inspiring teacher, an eloquent speaker and writer and a clear thinker, and she brings these skills together with an objectivity that must be central to political scientists because it’s not often evident in political practitioners!
In her Introduction, she reflects on the dismissal by a high-ranking official of her public comments on national integrity as “stupid noises” and on some other incidents that led her to produce these columns and this book. She reports that students have told her how their votes were “bought by candidates and political parties, some accepting monetary ‘gifts’ of $200 to $800”. (The citizens who told me they had been offered money for their vote were only offered $100!) And she told the story of “a ‘gentleman’ at a funeral … as he smugly boasted of his manipulation of procedures, to derive benefits for himself and a circle of persons within the organisation he headed. This ignited a renewed concern with the blatant abuses of power which appear to be so pervasive, yes pervasive in almost every single Caribbean country, including Barbados.” Right up front she quotes the highly relevant comment by Dr. Trevor Munroe of Jamaica that the small populations of our islands provide ample opportunity for victimisation.
The book comprises some sixteen chapters. While it sets the context in the worldwide prevalence of political corruption, it preceded the recent revelations of the global epidemic of gross corruption, with the exposure of the presidents of countries as different as Brazil and the Bahamas, the Gambia and South Korea. One glimmer of hope is that some countries are bringing the perpetrators to justice. Will that happen in the Caribbean?
Chapter 1 discusses Electoral and Political Party Campaign Reform. She gives examples of election corruption and exorbitant campaign funding in countries from Rwanda and Ghana (now leading with integrity legislation) and our neighbours Dominica and St. Lucia (where forensic audit in 2011 revealed “naked abuse, sleaze and general corruption associated with such funds ‘gifted’ to parliamentarians”). She quotes Dr. Munroe of the UWI, Jamaica: “The consequences of continued failure in these regards (campaign financing disclosure) are grave and serious. There are increased levels of poverty and the intensification of the burden on the backs of the poor who suffer most when scarce resources are diverted away from development into the pockets of the corrupt.”
Other topics discussed are manipulation of elections (Chapter 2) and “Caesarism” –a kind of dictatorship or political authoritarianism. The point is made that Caribbean Prime Ministers enjoy too much power and reference is made to the manner PM Margaret Thatcher exercised power, as a form of “elective dictatorship”. Barrow-Giles emphasises the ineffective nature of checks and balances in our countries, with the emphasis on absolute party loyalty, a point made by many about the rubber stamp nature of our own Senate.
Chapter 4, titled No Watchful Eye expands on the issue of transparency and accountability, with reference to the Public Accounts Committees, which in our own case is shamefully ignored. Similarly integrity legislation has been called for loudly, but is still not in place here, and Barbados, once a leader, is now left embarrassingly behind some of our neighbours.
The scandals of the Turks and Caicos islands’ bribery and corruption, and their integrity legislation outcome, have unfortunately been omitted.
Chapter 8 is titled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly where the author summarises some six concerns of our own Auditor General. Similar irregularities are detailed in the Public Accounts Committee, while others “make the rounds” informally, not to mention the scandalous CLICO case. But as Barrow-Giles shows, it’s critical to have both political will for the eradication of corrupt, illegal or non-transparent practices, and an alert media and academy (i.e. the universities), civil society groups and observant populations – here and across the Caribbean. She calls for Election Commission reform, adoption of the office of a Contractor General, Integrity Commissions, et cetera, if we hope to control the cancerous spread of corruption in these precious Caribbean countries.
A particular challenge for Barbados is the national personality feature of caution and conservatism, bordering on paranoia in the words of psychiatrist colleagues, about speaking out. It is now a matter of pride or the loss thereof. Can the citizens demand and enforce accountability when our constitution provides inadequate checks and balances and imbues Prime Ministers with omnipotence and cabinet ministers with inferred omniscience?
Barrow-Giles has done the entire Caribbean a great service. We thank you most sincerely ma’am!
On a less serious note, a political acquaintance who enjoys a good story (but whose credibility may be suspect), informs me that a politician died and arrived at the Pearly Gates, where St. Peter welcomed him, and checking his ledger said: “So you’re a politician? Well, we have a new protocol for you guys, you spend the first day in hell” and WHOOSH – he woke up in a luxurious bed with soft music playing. Standing close by, elegantly dressed in a tuxedo, was a smiling man who said: “Welcome to Hell – I’m Satan. You’ll love it here – we have fabulous golf courses and you’ll meet all your friends and your wife who left you when you entered politics. And yes, this is really Hell, we’ve been grossly misrepresented on earth”.
Well Mr. P spent a wonderful day, had great golf, a sumptuous banquet, and romanced his wife all night. Suddenly it was morning and Satan appeared again, saying “Well, you now get to choose – hell, or heaven, singing hymns all day in a white robe?” Mr. P said “Oh Hell is great – I choose hell” and WHOOSH – he awoke to horrendous noise, people screaming, being tortured, and flames leaping around him. “Hey, Satan, what’s gone wrong? It wasn’t like this yesterday?”
Satan smiled and said: “Yesterday we were canvassing. Today you voted.”
Bouquet: To Amelia Gentleman, reporter of Britain’s newspaper The Guardian, for exposing the Windrush scandal, where elderly citizens who had arrived as children from the Caribbean among the first invited immigrants, were being deprived of their British citizenship in an aggressive policy to send them back to the Caribbean – a sad example of institutionalised racism and a worthy example of investigative journalism.
Professor Fraser is Past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Clinical Website: profhenryfraser.com