Jamaica's Dangerous Drift Toward Unchecked Power

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:02]What a gwaan people? It's a me here for the Jamaica mix podcast.

[00:00:08]And of course, this brought to you um by Yard Media. And today, we want to talk about a a developing situation in Jamaica.

[00:00:19]And this relates to the narrative. Now, yesterday me get a call from a a senior man involved in the government and, you know, this on this side of the world.

[00:00:32]And he clearly had called to to kind of pick my brains about this narrative discussion and the developments surrounding it.

[00:00:44]Now, at the same time, too, I think he reached out because of a social media post that I made I had made that spoke to the whole issue of you know, democracy, the threats to democracy. So, we're going to jump into this discussion, right? Now, if you like the video, may do ask you to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel.

[00:01:08]Now, for starters, if ever there was a time for Jamaicans to become more actively involved in the socio-political processes that underpins our democracy, I believe that that time is now.

[00:01:23]Because democracy is not merely the act of people voting in an election every 5 years.

[00:01:31]Democracy is a continuous engagement of citizens in monitoring, questioning, and challenging, and holding accountable those entrusted with public power. So, when citizens retreat from that responsibility, what it does is it allows power to inevitably become concentrated.

[00:01:54]It weakens oversight and accountability suffers. And of course, today I am of the view I've concluded that Jamaica finds itself at one of those critical crossroads. And so, we're going to look at this against the background of the NARA debate.

[00:02:13]Um which is more uh is is more than just about recon- reconstruction. Now, of course, people may wonder what NARA does. NARA creates a new statutory authority headed by a single CEO appointed by the Prime Minister.

[00:02:33]Um it it it it's Well, it executes all the approved infrastructure resilience projects. It's It allows them to fast-track um regulatory approvals and override um regulators where necessary. And it bring, you know, major private investment projects under the umbrella. Of course, it reports to the minister responsible, and in this instance, the minister is going to be the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

[00:03:04]And so, again, it is against this background that we want to have this conversation.

[00:03:10]Because at the center of this current national debate is the proposed NARA um body, which will oversee, as I said earlier, the Jamaica's massive post-Hurricane Melissa um rebuilding program, which is projected to involve more than 2 trillion Jamaican dollars in expenditure over time.

[00:03:33]Now, the government argues that NARA is necessary because existing bureaucratic systems are too slow and cumbersome to effectively manage a reconstruction effort of the magnitude that they are um projecting.

[00:03:48]Of course, the Prime Minister has dismissed much of the criticism surrounding the legislation characterizing concerns as being rooted in fear, mistrust, and ignorance. Of course, he maintains that existing legislation such as the Financial Administration and Audit um Act and the Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act already provide sufficient safeguards.

[00:04:15]Granted, more than 28 civil society organizations, along with the parliamentary opposition, have raised significant concerns. Now, we live in an environment, I should point out, where public and political education is at its narrowest, its shallowest in in my 60-odd years that that I've been alive.

[00:04:35]And I think, you know, individuals within the administration have been taking advantage of this deficit of knowledge. What we have substituted that for is a sort of a individual worshipping, you know, Prime Minister Andrew Holness um fluff, you know, boosting up from his constituents. And that is what seems to be driving the discussions. So, the objections from these people the um the 28 groups are not rooted in opposition to reconstruction. It's very important that people understand that. Because, like me, their concern is that the legislation concentrates an extraordinary amount of authority in the the the hands of a hand-picked chief executive officer and the responsible minister, while it fails to establish sufficient independent oversight mechanisms directly within the law itself. In essence, people, myself included, are a simple question.

[00:05:50]If this agency will will be entrusted with this unprecedented sum of public money, and we're talking more than excess of 2 trillion Jamaican dollars, why should it not be subjected to unprecedented levels of scrutiny?

[00:06:06]And and my personal view is that this question deserves a clear unequivocal answer. Because trust is earned through accountability.

[00:06:19]And so the timing of this debate could hardly be more problematic for the government. Because if you unless you're under a rock, you would have um learned about the approximately 1.4 billion dollars donated by private citizens citizens, businesses, churches, and members of the diaspora following Hurricane Melissa. And more than 1.2 billion dollars of this money still remains unspent some eight months after the hurricane that struck Jamaica.

[00:06:50]Um and destroying a significant portion of western Jamaica. It has left thousands affected of affected Jamaicans who continue to struggle continue to struggle to find shelter and to get themselves out of the the the the situation they find themselves in with respect to um you you know, the the recovery from the hurricane.

[00:07:24]And even more troubling is that the discovery too that 120 million dollars of money is donated to help the people who suffered in Hurricane Beryl a year before that still remains undistributed and unspent.

[00:07:41]So, these are facts that matters because when citizens are being asked to trust government with a multi-trillion dollar reconstruction program while billions in disaster relief funds sit dormant, questions should naturally arise.

[00:07:57]And those questions are not evidence of ignorance, contrary to what the Prime Minister is is saying.

[00:08:04]They are evidence of citizenship on the part of Jamaicans.

[00:08:09]Now, in the fray enters former Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

[00:08:16]And he issued some warnings that we should not ignore.

[00:08:21]Golding's comments deserves careful consideration because they come from somebody who has been in government and understand how government work from the inside. Speaking at the launch of a new accountability tools um the launch of some new accountability tools developed by the Jamaica Accountability Meter uh portal, Golding acknowledged a reality that many citizens already suspect.

[00:08:48]Oversight is often viewed by those in authority as an inconvenience. And as he explained, after a minister gets sworn into office, their first instinct is to is really to invite auditors, investigators, and watchdog agencies to monitor their activities. That observation does not imply corruption.

[00:09:10]What it recognizes though is something fundamental about human nature and power.

[00:09:15]People generally prefer less scrutiny than more. And that is precisely why democratic systems create independent oversight institutions.

[00:09:25]Accountability mechanisms are not designed because officials are presumed guilty. They exist because no public official should ever be beyond scrutiny.

[00:09:39]And so, Bruce Golding's warning cuts directly into the heart of the NIDS debate.

[00:09:46]The question is not whether today's leaders are trustworthy. The question is whether future leaders should be trusted without adequate safeguards. And that the answer to that must always be a resounding no.

[00:10:02]Citizens have to become watchdogs. And so, Golding emphasized another point. He said that citizens themselves must become active participants in monitoring government performance.

[00:10:18]That is the significance of initiatives like the Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal and the leadership of civic advocates um of the likes of a Jeanette Calder.

[00:10:31]Now, these tools empower ordinary Jamaicans to track government commitments, monitor compliance, evaluate public bodies, and assess performance against established government standards.

[00:10:46]Healthy democracy, it is my view, does not depend solely on politicians.

[00:10:55]What it does depend on is informed citizens. And so, the more informed we become as citizens of Jamaica is the more responsive government is going to be forced to become.

[00:11:08]And so, we should all become concerned, I'll be very very concerned, about state power.

[00:11:17]Because the NIDS controversy is not occurring in isolation.

[00:11:22]It is unfolding against a backdrop of broader concerns regarding governance and state power.

[00:11:32]Many Jamaicans have expressed alarm over what they perceive as the increasing resistance to scrutiny from independent institutions whenever investigations move too close to politically connected individuals.

[00:11:49]Others point to concerns regarding policing strategies, the resistance to universal body camera deployment, and increasingly militarized posture of sections of law enforcement.

[00:12:06]Um against that background, you're we you will be aware of the call by former police uh um commissioner and chief of staff of of the defense force, Rear Admiral Peter uh well, Harding Lewin, who recently entered that debate by publicly criticizing resistance to the broad use of body cameras. And his intervention is significant.

[00:12:33]Body cameras are not by themselves, they're not anti-police.

[00:12:40]What they are is that they are pro-accountability.

[00:12:46]They protect not only citizens from abuse, but they also protect good police officers from false accusations.

[00:12:56]And that fact, you know, the fact that such a basic accountability tool remains controversial should concern every single Jamaican.

[00:13:09]Democracy cannot operate on trust alone.

[00:13:13]One of the most dangerous assumption in any democracy is the belief that intentions are good enough.

[00:13:23]They are not.

[00:13:25]Democracies are built on systems.

[00:13:28]They're built on safeguards, checks, balances, transparency, and accountability. And so, the framers of democratic institutions, they understood this, you know, as something that is timeless. Power does not require evil intentions to become problematic.

[00:13:48]What that requires, power that is simply requires insufficient oversight.

[00:13:56]So, that is why citizens should never apologize when you have questions to ask. And especially in this social media-driven environment, where you raise questions, people basically want to frame you as either one or the other. Is that a yardie or a laborite or a PNP?

[00:14:16]You're no longer deemed as a citizen of Jamaica who have concerns. That is how stupid our discourse has gotten to, the level to which it has descended, so that when you oppose something that you know is people basically pillar you that you are one or the other.

[00:14:35]Again, we should never, you know, apologize or shy away from asking tough questions. We should never feel intimidating when we are demanding transparency from our public officials and institutions. And And citizens should never be persuaded that accountability is somehow an obstacle to progress.

[00:15:02]I personally believe that this moment demands greater citizens' engagement.

[00:15:08]The debate about, well, over NARA ultimately transcends NARA itself. It is a debate about what kind of democracy Jamaicans wish to have. Do we want a system where efficiency overshoots accountability, or do we insist that accountability and efficiency coexist?

[00:15:35]Do we accept concentrated power because we trust today's leaders, or do we build institutions that are strong enough to withstand tomorrow's leaders?

[00:15:47]Those are the real questions that I believe Jamaica is have um facing all of us.

[00:15:53]The rebuilding of roads, bridges, schools, and communities after Hurricane Melissa is undoubtedly important.

[00:16:03]But rebuilding public trust in governance may be even more critical.

[00:16:11]And that can only happen that can only happen when citizens remain vigilant.

[00:16:19]That can only happen when we remain engaged, informed, and prepared to hold power accountable, regardless of who occupies the office. It can be that because your party is in a power and you know say them are do some crap that is all right.

[00:16:40]But when the other side come in, you are up in arms. We We have to become more in more you know, more engaged, more focused.

[00:16:51]Right? It don't matter who hold the office. We need to be vigilant because democracy does not survive on trust alone.

[00:17:04]It survives on scrutiny. Tell me one thing, but let me think.

[00:17:09]And of course let me ask if you like the video, hit the like button, subscribe to the channel cuz this is the kind of discussion we want to have um on this platform Uh you know going going forward and so you know continue the discussion in your own little groups and of course feel free to share the video. Keep the discussion going when I receive your feedback in the you know the comments section until the next video drop on me same one.

[00:17:40]Mr. Blackford saying big up on yourself enjoy the rest of your weekend and look forward to the next video. Peace.