Local government and community development

Andrew Smith, Staff Reporter

THE UPCOMING Local Government elections to be held on June 19 will be the first one since September 10, 1998. The Jamaican electorate will choose 227 local government representatives in the 12 Parish Councils and the Kingston & St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). In recent years the voter turnout for these elections has been low, and if you asked the average Jamaican to name their councillor, they would be unable to. The exception to this apathy might be in the rural areas, because an irate populace needs to know who to blame for having inadequate roads, a poor water supply and a breakdown in basic infrastructure.

DECENTRALISATION FROM KINGSTON

This lack of infrastructure, especially in rural area has resulted in many Jamaicans being disenchanted with local government. This should not be the case. Councillors in local government should be the catalyst by which community development occurs from the ground up. This is opposed to traditional "trickle down" development from centralised government.

Kingston-based centralised government is considered by many rural citizens as the bane of their existence. From the neighbouring parish of St. Thomas, I have heard innumerable farmers state that their parish is not a part of Jamaica. They base this assertion on not receiving any Government support in the producing or marketing of their goods.

By empowering the local government structure and providing them with the necessary resources to help the local communities help themselves, then the odds are strengthened that long-term community development will occur.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Community development is based on the physical quality of life of the residents. If children cannot receive education, if farmers cannot take their crops to market and if mothers cannot provide clean water for their family's domestic needs, communities will not develop. Residents will migrate from their community to larger urban centres which places pressure on their infrastructure. This is evident by the slums which are in close proximity to the all-inclusive hotels in Montego Bay and Negril.

In many locations, the foundation for improved community development already exists. In Clarendon's south coast near the world-famous Milk River Bath is the fishing community of Farquhar Beach. Up to 2001, this community of 200 persons relied on a 1,000-gallon tank for its water needs. According to residents, it was filled by the Parish Council "when dem feel like", which ends up being once a month. The water in the tank lasts for two days. When no water is available, residents are forced to go to Milk River for water. If the facilities at Milk River were developed properly with the involvement of the neighbouring communities then the economic and infrastructural benefits would spread to these residents.

TRANSPARENCY & VISIBILITY

Local government and community leaders need to be seen and heard by the residents. Professor Rex Nettleford, speaking at an Organisation of American Sstates (OAS) sub-regional meeting on the "Pro-gramme of Co-operation in Decentralisation, Local Govern-ment & Citizen Participation" in June 1998 remembered growing up "with vestries and municipalities or parochial boards (later renamed Parish Councils) and having a real chance for ready dialogue with local representatives whom we actually saw, and who lived among us."

Now this is no longer the case. In many rural communities, the councillor is an unknown entity. As Professor Nettleford said, this is a result of "a perverse and deliberate programme of emasculation of the local government system." He emphasises, "investment in local government is an investment in human capability for self-governance over the long haul in building a nation and shaping a society."

Professor Nettleford said that, the citizens' easy and inexpensive access to primary healthcare, running water, education, decent housing, good roads all hallmarks of social justice, equity and the building of self-esteem remain on the agenda of humankind's concern.

The hijacking of all these basic community responsibilities by a central Government into a national monopoly by this or that party has served to deprive local communities of a sense of purpose all over the region, and has resulted in a certain cynicism duly exploited by talk shows in Jamaica, and for which we are now paying dearly.

These comments were made five years ago, preceding the last Local Government elections. Unfortunately there has been no marked improvement in the lot of ordinary Jamaicans. Maybe between June 19, 2003 and the next Local Government elections, some progress will be made. Based on the past record, this will not occur.