The Golding administration can claim, with fair justification, that it is lugging the baggage of its predecessor with regard to public perception about corruption in Jamaica.

However, Prime Minister Golding and others in the Government would be mistaken if they attempt to blame only the stewardship of the People's National Party (PNP) on the country's most recent downgrade on Transparency International's lastest corruption perception index released this week.

On this index, in which the best possible score is 10, Jamaica scored 3.1, down from 3.7 in 2006, to rank 99 of 180 countries rated by Transparency International on its corruption index. This is three places down from a year ago.

More significantly, it is a slide of 15 slots since 2007, the year Mr Golding's Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won the general election to end the PNP's 18-year hold on government.

This newspaper, of course, does not claim that corruption in Jamaica has worsened - if, indeed, things have deteriorated - to the extent that a superficial reading of the slippage would suggest. The current ranking is a combination of improvement by others and a failure by Jamaica to do enough to battle actual and perceived corruption.

Combat corruption

Indeed, Contractor General Greg Christie reminded the public this week that Jamaican governments, including this one, have not been energetic enough in upgrading legislative and institutional arrangements to combat corruption.

As Mr Christie noted, and this newspaper previously argued, the Corruption Prevention Commission ought to be more aggressively policing misbehaviour by public officials, and lacks the resources to do the job adequately.

Similarly, the integrity laws covering the filing of assets and liability statements by parliamentarians need updating to broaden the requirements and to bring greater transparency to the process.

But building confidence and trust that Jamaica is a society that is turning its face hard against corruption will demand more than enacting laws and establishing institutions - although those are important. It will require, too, a fundamental shift in the political ethos.

A case in point is the Government's handling of America's request for the extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, the west Kingston 'businessman' and reputed 'don', whom Washington accuses of exporting narcotics to the United States and importing guns into Jamaica.

Conventional wisdom

Many Jamaicans are persuaded, we feel, that the Government has dithered on the request - and not because, as is claimed, the administration is intent on respecting the constitutional rights of a Jamaican citizen. The perception is that the Government is stalling because of who Coke is, where he is from and what he represents.

West Kingston is Prime Minister Golding's inherited parliamentary constituency, and Tivoli Gardens, where Coke has his base, is one of those political 'garrisons' where conventional wisdom presumes the soul of the JLP resides. West Kingston represents, for many, the classic nexus between politics and criminality, in changed circumstance. 'Community leaders' who, independently, can be benefactors in areas within which they operate, maintain allegiance to the traditional parties of the area, but no longer pay obeisance to politicians, as was the case years ago. Roles, in some respects, are reversed.

It is unfortunate that Mr Golding, the leader who set for himself new benchmarks for integrity and governance, appears unable to escape the old order of politics. We are sure that he understands just how intertwined are the 'Dudus affair' and the Transparency International rank.

November 19, 2009

jamaica-gleaner