Submitted by Eli Davis
Every so often I get the urge to contribute (?) a comment to this forum that I believe merits attention. This time around it is that of The Business of the Political Campaign and its Financing. It is an issue that is basic in determining the relevance of our electoral process and, as a result of the moneyed interests involved, is the most difficult of topics to have discussed in public.
Few people would know that a study on this topic was commissioned by the OAS back in 2003 and resulted in a report that was published about three years later. My concern with the entire topic has to do with whether or not it is an appropriate topic for consideration in our current political environment that has demonstrated little in the furtherance of the long term viability of our peoples and nation states.
Basically, in my view anyway, a political party is simply an (legal?) entity that seeks to gain administrative control over the funds in the Treasury, and that’s it. How these are spent and on whom form the essence of the business of the party. The business requires that the populace be deceived into supporting the party campaign and once successful, that control over the funds be maintained for as long as possible.
Of course this necessitates that at the very least, the barest minimum be done by the incumbent to demonstrate that the concerns of the civilian population are being looked after. In fact today all that is really required is for there to be a “recognition” of the concerns, without the matching desire to make good on addressing them (through designing and implementing workable solutions). So the issue of how these (legal?) entities are funded will most certainly expose the nuts and bolts of the business of the political campaign.
Recently a popular public personality lost his pick at the CBC without an accompanying explanation. It is believed however that his involvement in a partial expose on the source of campaign financing in Barbados may have been one of the roots causes. If this is in fact the case, it is an action that needs to be highlighted as part of a deeper sinister whole, and an action that should heap shame on the present administration.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.