| Day IV: Campaign Finance; Corruption or Culture? | | Print | |
| Monday, 19 January 2009 10:40 | |||
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“You have got to pay to play”. Everyone in politics in the Caribbean understands that. The system, defined loosely, is that a candidate will have a professional campaign manager. But in addition, he or she will have several so-called “generals”; largely men, who move through the constituency with ease and who know the local issues in a granular way, almost house-by-house. For such “culturally sensitive” services, as in and with all things political, money paves the way for political players. There is actually a long established system, one established by the colonial British of patronage in exchange for political support. That system has grown, (let’s say matured) over the years to an extent that the benefits thereof are now expected amongst the electorate. Here are three points to emphasize what I mean: An elected or perspective politician goes into a neighbourhood. Depending on where it is, different ‘generals’ will accompany him. He sits with a group of men under a tree. He ‘shoots the breeze” with the locals. People come up and whisper in the ear of the general. Occasionally, the politician looks at the general and nods; which means give the persons whispering what he or she wants. There are three stage of the application of cash in politics in our region: First, is during the initial stages of a candidacy; Second, is during the last days of an election campaign and third (and perhaps the most difficult) campaign contributions that become mixed with personal finances. Generally in the Caribbean everyone knows that the moment one announces one’s candidacy, one is festooned with requests for mortgage money, rent, hospital bill payments, funeral arrangement assistance, house hold appliance assistance and the ‘holy grail: a government job. During the last days of an election, actual cash is parceled out. T-shirts are rolled containing hundred dollar bills and appliance stores see a spike in their sales receipts. As was said, this has become an expectation. The Free Press takes the view that when faced with questions from the outside world, Caribbean politicians should not apologise for this. They should not allow this to be coloured as being corrupt. Yet, The Free Press opposes this sort of politics and hopes for a politician who acts with a commitment to change this system. Think for example about Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Whilst the Eastern and Western states in America have their forms of “payola”, (grease money in politics), it is in the Southern United States where the situation is much alike to the Caribbean. When President-Elect Obama’s camping arrived in South Carolina, he was being pressured to give out payola to the local and state political general, often called “walking around” money. Obama took the decision not to payout this money. Had he paid it, no one would really have called him corrupt. Yet, he took a decision to bypass a cultural systemization of payola, because he though it would distort the proof of the impact and effects of his message. It is open to any Caribbean leader to do the same without prostrating himself before critics from other countries, where these practices have been prevalent for centuries. In fact, papers released in Britain in 2005, under Freedom of Information rules – published in the Guardian UK - show that actual, unadulterated bribery was state policy in the US and Britain until a few years ago. The article reads as follows: Many of the documents released early by the National Archives date from the days of the last Labour government under James Callaghan in the late 1970s, when a series of scandals led the US to outlaw overseas bribery. But Britain refused to follow suit. Critics say the government continued to turn a Nelsonian blind eye until 2002, when such bribery was eventually criminalised. Britain has still not prosecuted a single company for this offence. The newly discovered papers reveal that when an army chief in London was asked by Britain's ambassador in Venezuela whether the government was prepared to countenance bribery, he replied in a despatch marked "secret" and considered so sensitive that only five numbered copies were made: "I am completely mystified by just what your problem is ... People who deal with the arms trade, even if they are sitting in a government office ... day by day carry out transactions knowing that at some point bribery is involved.” In fact, more spectacularly, Mrs. Thatcher (much beloved by the Free Press), still struggles with her reputation over the infamous £43bn Al-Yamamah arms deal, the largest in UK history involving BAE – a distinguished UK company - in which not only USD$ 1 billion dollars in brides were paid, authorised by the government, but her son Mr. Thatcher appears to have benefited directly. Does this mean that such behaviour is or ought to be regarded as acceptable? No. As was stated previously, The Free Press stands against this sort of political funding, just because larger nations have the power, to make smaller ones seem corrupt for doing exactly the same thing; even though it has less of a global impact. No matter how convenient it is for some to pretend differently now, the fact is that most political candidates in our region use large amounts of personal finances to fund political activities. In fact, often, elected officials will use their salaries directly for ongoing political payola. When contributions come in, personal monies are not only mixed in, but are replaced by those contributions. In the current situation, The Premier, Dr. Michael E. Misick, MP finds himself under pressure for these contributions. Let us get clarity on this point: First, it is easy to hide behind actual egregious wrong doing by calling them political contributions. The Free Press offers no defense for anyone on this point. It remains for the people of Turks and Caicos to say even with the understanding of financing in our political culture, The Premier’s political contributions are too much for them. It is necessary for perspective that they make this decision, not at the behest of others, but with a clear understanding of the context in which the decision is being made. To strengthen this perspective consider the following report on campaign financing in America and Britain compiled for the International Foundation for Election Systems by Dr. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky Dr. Alexander Postnikov in collaboration with Christian Nadeau and Robert Dahl. Here is what they wrote in 1999: “The most essential problem of campaign finance regulation in Great Britain is the lack of requirements on the disclosure of information about contributions made to election funds of political parties, and the lack of any limitations in terms of their financing of election campaigns. Thus, party finances are a sphere that is practically inaccessible for public scrutiny. The country lacks a body (i.e. an election commission) that could accomplish control observance of campaign finance regulations on the national level. One of the weaknesses of the British system of election campaign funding lies in the participation of print media in the propaganda for election of various candidates. During the 1992 general elections the two main parties - the Labor Party and the Conservative Party spend approximately equal amounts on their election campaigns. At the same time, supporters of the Labor Party complained that practically all national newspapers supported the Conservatives. So, a question was asked "What is the sense of a relative parity of expenses of political organizations if public opinion is manipulated by a few multimillionaires - owners of newspapers?" In this connection it is suggested that restrictions be imposed on how the newspapers highlight election campaigns. However, such suggestions receive a very cautious response because they infringe on the recognized freedom of the press. [Also] British law does not prohibit funding of election campaigns from foreign sources. This, too, hinders disclosure of information about donations, as foreign companies are not obliged to report such donations. Does this mean that Mr. Milne’s attack on and questioning of the Premier is unfair in the circumstances? It depends on many things. If he projects outrage at the instances of the mixture of political contributions with personal monies and the same thing happens in Britain without much fanfare, then that would seem hypocritical. If he has a personal distaste for this sort of activity, he ought to declare that. However, again, just because this activity can be justified culturally, and just because other countries do it, does not prevent our leaders in the Caribbean from deciding, as President-Elect Barack Obama did, that if one wants to convince people to take a new direction, one does not depend on old cultural habits to explain one’s actions. One is always capable of taking a decision that goes against cultural history for the history of own one’s country’s sake.
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