Crafting a System Of Governance

IMPACT ON GOVERNANCE CONFERENCE Examining Governance and Oversight Mechanisms at work Keynote Presentation: Crafting a System of Governance

THE SPEAKER: Michael Harris has been for many years a commentator on political, social and economic affairs in Trinidad and Tobago in particular and the wider Caribbean in general. He currently writes a column in the Monday Express in which his views are always well expressed, informative and stimulating.

Fellow Citizens; Brothers and Sisters

I have been invited to give the Opening Address at this Conference today and in doing so to lay the groundwork or , if you prefer, to set the stage, for what is to come later which is an examination of Governance and oversight mechanisms at work.

I am indeed happy to be here and to try to fulfil the role which has been assigned me. I have called my presentation Crafting a System of Governance and while I shall, like the rest of this conference, be focusing on Issues of Governance, I want to begin this morning by calling your attention to the first word in that title.

CRAFTING, what does that word mean and what does it imply in the context of our discussion here today? The Oxford Reference Dictionary defines the verb To Craft as To make in a skilful manner. And the Thesaurus lists as synonyms of Crafting, words such as Inventing, Designing, Fashioning, Forming and Constructing. So that when I speak of crafting a system of Governance I am purposely intending to give the impression of an exercise requiring skill and care and attention to detail. Permit me to elaborate on that point just a little bit longer. It is very important.

A system of Governance does not arrive by magic. It cannot be bought off the shelf. One size does not fit all. If a system of Governance is to be truly viable and effective then it must be crafted, it must be designed, it must be fashioned to fit the history, the culture, and the stage of political evolution of the country in which it is to be applied. I would want to suggest that such a caution is particularly relevant in the context of todays Agenda.

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For while it is exceedingly useful for us to examine mechanisms and structures of Governance which have been applied in different countries let us guard against the temptation of thinking that we can import such mechanisms into our polity without extensive testing an modification. So we are not going to be able to beg, steal or borrow from abroad our system of Governance. We have to fashion one for ourselves. We have to build our own. And if we are to design and build our own system of Governance, and do so with SKILL and attention to detail then we must very clear as to what a system of Governance is and why it is necessary.

So what is a System of Governance and why is it necessary?

I think the best place to start to answer those questions is to define what GOVERNANCE is and the best way to define what Governance is to draw a clear distinction between Government and Governance. GOVERNMENT refers to the group of men and women who hold office at any particular time; it refers to the policies they pursue and it refers to the decisions they make. So that when we speak of good government and bad government the difference we are referring to lies essentially in the competence and integrity of the people in office and the quality and efficacy of the policies they pursue and the decisions they make.

GOVERNANCE on the other hand refers primarily to the process by which governments make such policies and decisions and seek to implement them. In this context the critical question is the degree to which and the manner in which such decisions incorporate and reflect the will and wishes of those who are directly impacted by such decisions and their consequences. Thus governance is really about the structural, legal, institutional and regulatory environment surrounding a governments decisionmaking process and the extent to which such structures and institutions and regulations facilitate the active involvement in that decision-making process of the people affected by such decisions.

A System of Governance is simply the inter-relationships among and between all the various structures and institutions and regulations. A System of Governance is viable when those various structures and mechanisms work harmoniously and in synchronicity to achieve the ends of peoples involvement and participation.

So hopefully we now understand what a system of Governance is. But we still have to answer the allimportant question as to why it is necessary. Why should we spend any time and resources designing,

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building and maintaining such structures and mechanisms? There are two answers to that question. The first answer is what we might call a philosophical one.

I want you to remember that the primary purpose of a system of governance is to facilitate the active involvement of the people in the decision-making and implementation process of government. If we do not have a viable system of governance or we have a poorly designed and improperly functioning system, then the involvement of the people is not assured. And let me state it Bluntly, WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE NOT EFFECTIVELY INVOLVED IN THE DECISIONS WHICH AFFECT THEIR LIVES THEN DEMOCRACY DOES NOT EXIST. If we claim to be a Democratic country and polity, if we believe that Democracy assures the greatest good of the greatest number, then the designing, building and maintenance of a viable system of governance is an essential and necessary ingredient of democracy, for there is no Democracy without the People and without a viable system of Governance there are no People.

But if that first reason is too philosophical for you then let us get to the second reason why we need a viable system of governance. The second reason is far more practical, down to earth and directly related to our bread and butter, but to effectively explain this second reason I would need to get into the reality of our own politics here in Trinidad and Tobago for just a little bit. I hope in so doing that I do not offend anyone in the audience. My duty is simply to speak the truth as I see it.

Just a few days ago we celebrated our fifty-first anniversary as an independent country. I think that most of us would agree that over the course of those years our country has been beset by a host of serious problems which not only do not go away but in many instances seem to get progressively worse. Whether our concern is crime or corruption; whether our concern is flooding in Barackpore or in Diego Martin; whether we are concerned about the state of our education system or our health system; or whether we are fed up with the lack of water or the lack of proper drainage or roads, whatever our particular concern, I think that most of us, if we are truthful, would acknowledge that we have simply been unable to deal with these problems.

Take for example the issue of flooding. Diego Martin has been flooding every rainy season for years now and if it is not Diego Martin it is Petit Valley, and if it is not Petit valley it is Maraval, and every year it is the streets of Port of Spain, and every year the government announces grand plans to fix it. Every Government, Peoples Partnership; PNM, UNC, NAR, PNM again, UNC again, all of them promise to fix and it never gets fixed. Every Year it floods, why? Why cant we fix anything in this

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country? The answer to that question is not a simple one. It has to do with the state of our constitution. It has to do with the nature of our politics. It has to do with the fact that our political parties are little more than election machines. But it also, and above all, has to do with the fact that we do not have a viable System of Governance. Let me explain why.

Let me begin by asserting that the major social and economic problems of a country, under conditions of independence, cannot be solved by any government no matter how honourable its intentions or how much money it has, without the active trust, support and involvement of the vast majority of the people. The simple reason for this is that all such problems are problems which concern and affect people. In every solution to every major social and economic problem some people may stand to lose while others stand to gain. How do you persuade those who stand to lose to accept such losses in deference to the greater good?

There is only one way. People must trust the solution they must trust the process they must believe that it truly is in the best interest of all ad if they have no voice in what is proposed to be done to them, or for them, how can they ever come to trust and support such solutions?

That is why a System of governance is necessary.

Successful government, however defined, is only possible if the process of government is trusted by the vast majority of citizens. Such trust on the part of the people in the process of government can only be won if the vast majority of people are persuaded that such process is fair and equitable to them and their individual and collective interests. They can only be so persuaded if in fact they are actively involved in the process. Active Involvement in the process of government is what a system of Governance is all about.

One final point before I leave this section. Good governance does not guarantee good government but good government is not possible in the absence of good governance.

So now we know what Governance is, now we know what a System of Governance is, now we know why a system of Government is necessary. The question now, is what do we need to know in order to craft a System of governance?

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In other words what are the critical elements of a System of Governance? I would want to suggest that there are four (4) fundamental pillars of good governance. These are Information, Consultation, Participation and Control.

In the time I have here this morning it is not possible to deal comprehensively with any of these pillars. What I shall attempt to do is to give you some understanding of what each of them refers to, how they impact on a system of governance and give some suggestions as to some structures we might consider in building each of these pillars. The structures of Governance and the mechanisms of governance may be different in different countries, but no matter what the structures and mechanisms look like a viable system of Governance exists where those structures or mechanisms are built upon and demonstrate these four pillars.

The first and the most important of these pillars of Governance is INFORMATION; If citizens are to participate in the exercise of political power in an effective and meaningful way, then they need to have information relevant to the issues being confronted in the political arena. This is one of the reasons why freedom of speech is considered such an important right and a free press such an important institution within democratic political systems. This is also why transparency has become such an important objective in politics and government today. But we have to recognise that merely knowing what government is doing is not enough. Good information would include analysis, it would include the background facts and figures with which to make sense of the foreground information and it would include access to different interpretations of the information.

So what are some of the structures and mechanisms which would facilitate the free and full provision of information to the people? In this context first and foremost is a free press. But we cannot fool ourselves that a press owned by and subject to commercial interest is ever completely free. In this context I have proposed converting CNMG into an independent media authority. In addition we

need to establish institutions and structures of research and dissemination. Here I would suggest that our Universities have a vital role to play which they have not been playing. I would also advocate that the Central Statistical Office be converted into an independent national authority charged with the ongoing gathering and dissemination of social and economic data.

The second pillar of a proper system of governance is Consultation. As far as this is concerned what we need are structures which allow our citizens, individually and collectively, on an on-going basis, to express their views on policy matters of concern to them and to promote and advocate their interests.

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If we are to institutionalise consultation as a feature of our political process then we have no choice but to radically alter the structure of some of our political institutions. In this context converting our Senate to become a forum of interests has long been advocated as a first step. This is why Lloyd Best spoke of the macco senate. But implied in that term are several important features of any such institution, including but not limited to, the power and the capacity to oversee the work of the government, to hold public hearings on issues, and to conduct investigations and enquiries.

The third pillar of a proper system of governance is Participation. I earlier argued that trust on the part of the people in the process of government can only be won if the vast majority of people are persuaded that such (a) process is fair and equitable to them and their individual and collective interests. Key to such trust is the direct involvement and participation of the people in the process.

Today our participation is confined to voting in elections and to burning tyres on street corners. Beyond that we are the passive onlookers to policies and programs which affect us. Building structures of participation into the governmental process a vital step not only towards successful government but to democracy itself. And in this context let me assert with all the fervour I can muster that only a decentralised system of government can facilitate the direct participation and involvement of the people in the governmental process. . The fourth and last pillar of good governance is Control. Unquestionably the most significant resource possessed by the people with which to control their leaders is our right, on a periodic basis, to review their performance and to decide whether we wish to keep them in office or to throw them out. And in the context of a situation where a viable system of governance is in place and the other three pillars of governance have been strongly built that opportunity would be all that was necessary for the people to assert their control. Unfortunately here in Trinidad very little of the other three pillars of governance are in place and as far as control through elections is concerned it exists in name only. Here in Trinidad, as distinct from Tobago, that instrument of control over our leaders has unfortunately been utterly subverted and rendered almost useless by the fact that our politics has been corrupted by the issue of race with the result that our choices in our elections are, for the most part, not really decided by the performance of incumbents so much as by which tribe they represent. The only way to revert to and restore a situation in which elections are truly an instrument of people control over governmental leaders is to change the bases of our political affiliations and mobilisation.

But that is a subject for another conference.

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So those are the four pillars of Governance and as we listen during the rest of the conference to the experiences of others we may wish to ask ourselves to what extent do the structures and mechanisms which are described to us represent any or all of these four pillars.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters, thank you for listening to me with such attention.

I Thank You.

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