More concern raised about absence of stand-alone political ombudsman

 

Watchdog group National Integrity Action is again raising concern over the absence of an independent Office of the Political Ombudsman. 

 

The duties of the ombudsman are being performed by a senior official at the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) after the post was subsumed within the ECJ last year. 

 

The concern follows Member of Parliament for South West St. Catherine, Everald Warmington's use of profanity at a Jamaica Labour Party meeting in Westmoreland on Sunday night. 

 

NIA Principal Director Danielle Archer, believes enough is not being done to rein in Mr. Warmington.

 

"For the leader to come out to say, 'I'm telling you all, behave on the platform.' What dat aguh duh? Where's the enforcement? And thirdly, democracy requires independent oversight. So it's okay for you to admonish them and to say, 'Don't do that; show some respect.' But if they step out of line, what happens? Where's the political ombudsman? Where's the referee? Where is the strength to ensure that you behave? 

 

"Just in case those of us, like me, who step out of line sometime and need sombody fi draw dem back in, where is the person? Where's the consequence? Because I know I couldn't say that. But equality is not there. Because it demonstrates the inequity in how the law is applied. When the artiste go on stage and dem do what dem affi do and say what dem affi do, police draw dung pon dem long time and lock dem up. But when some of us do it on the platform, we say it's political ferver," she complained. 

 

The NIA principal director has dismissed the ECJ as an ombudsman. 

 

"To my mind, beyond the conflict that exists, I have not seen anything that warrants me as a Jamaican, as a voter, feeling confident that the ECJ is going to be there to arbitrate in certain circumstances. Just if I'm wrong, though, it's been Sunday since that situation [with Warmington] occurred. Have you heard? It's kind of silent coming from the ECJ," she pointed out.

 

Ms. Archer was speaking Wednesday night on TVJ's All Angles. 

 

Professor Anna Perkins, a member of the Advocates Network, agreed that there is a clear lack of a mechanism to deal with politicians who step out of line. She, too, believes the independent political ombudsman should be reinstated.

 

"I think we should pay attention to what the Jamaican people are saying. The recent Don Anderson post said 70 per cent of Jamaicans said, we want back our independent ombudsman. We want back the moral authority that that position brought to the table in terms of reining in the core instincts of our politicians on the political campaign," she insisted. 

 

Professor Perkins acknowledged that there were gaps in the functioning of the independent ombudsman, including complaints that "it was kind of like a paper tiger [where] you could make recommendations, you could call people in, you could say you have all of these findings, but you couldn't force anybody to do anything". But she maintained that this could have been corrected by amending the Political Ombudsman Act. 

 

Professor Perkins was also a guest on TVJ's All Angles.