Tweet
Some years ago when Bill Clarke was riding high as Scotiabank's boss in Jamaica he declared Jamaica a failed state.
I disagreed with him then and even cited the contradiction of him being a success story in Jamaica and his freedom to express such negative sentiments as Jamaica was still some ways from that sorry state.
With our high rate of murders at the time, the inability of the police force to stem the murder flow, the breakdown of the nuclear family structure, high unemployment and underemployment and poverty, substandard education delivery, our borrowing and hustling culture at national and community level, and the ordinariness of the then PNP administration, Bill Clarke had no shortage of indicators to support his position.
But the lights were still on even though the society was discordant. We had elections every five years, our armed forces leadership had never indicated any untoward attachment to political power, civil society groups were surviving, freedom of the press was a living reality and the general political direction of our multi-party democracy was not in the least opposite to that of our powerful neighbour to the north, the USA.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Bill Clarke had his detractors then and those who supported him. The only real difference between the political leadership in the early to mid-2000s and the present one is the PNP operated in times more favourable to economic expansion but miraculously missed that reality, and the JLP is operating in a time that is at its most harsh for economic betterment. <span style="font-style: italic">The approach in both instances has been one where the political leadership acts only as keeper of the shop and not much else</span>.</span>
In former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's case, it was always easy to see and say that the job was way over her head. But if one agrees with that, one is forced to ask what is Bruce Golding's excuse. He is, after all, the man who demolished her in fine style in that pre-election debate in 2007. He said all the right things, rang all the right bells, answered questions with authority while she fumbled. So, what's his excuse?
With the November 12 issue of the Economist newspaper asking if rather than declaring that Jamaica is "unfixable", pessimism is once again the easiest available commodity in town. "I have told you and you refuse to accept it," said a close PNP friend of mine. "It can't come back."
GOLDING... what's his excuse?
"My problem is," I said, "if we all take that approach, then let us declare the patient dead and vacate the place. I am not prepared to do that."
"Then, what is the answer? Bruce has the answer?" he asked.
The Economist's article opens with a capturing of the general view going into the election, "Just over two years ago when Bruce Golding's Labour Party came to power in Jamaica, ending 18 years in Opposition, there were modest hopes that it might make progress in tackling the island's endemic problems of economic stagnation and gang violence."
It quotes recently retired DCP Mark Shields as declaring something we all know of the police force, "The patient is terminally ill and should be put down. the cost will be great, but the cost will be even greater from not doing it. If you don't fix crime, you can't fix the economy."
According to the prime minister's basic line in easing Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin out of his job as commissioner of police, he was too good to be so unsuccessful. The recently retired head cop had identified the number of criminal gangs operating, and it was told to us as standard bile by the police that gangs account for 80 per cent of the murders and that 60 per cent of all crime is drug-related.
One assumes that with all of that information, the commissioner would have flooded the individual gangs' areas of operations with intelligence-gathering and be more proactive in stemming the murder rate. But if we buy the JLP-inspired line that that was what resulted in Admiral Lewin being eased out, it forces the government into facing up to a few troubling realities.
One, no successful organised drug operation in small Jamaica can continue without direct police involvement. Even the little man in a roadside stall selling $20, $50, $100 and $200 sachets of ganja has his "police bredrin" who will pass by once in a while and take a Guinness or a lunch money off him.
With that understanding, how did the JLP government expect Admiral Lewin to get co-operation from a patient "terminally ill', with corruption going all the way dangerously close to the top? Two, how did Admiral Lewin himself expect to clean up a systemic mess when he was always seen as the odd one out? Three, how did the JLP government expect Admiral Lewin to stem the murder rate where 80 per cent of it is drug-inspired and is more than indirectly connected to police involvement?
Years ago it was the norm for the police to "sell" gun licences. It was also the norm for "big supes" to pal around with big drug dealers, and if they still do that, shouldn't it follow that police tip-offs would be given to the crime bosses prior to official police operations?
How did men like Robroy Williams aka "Spy" and Donovan Williams aka "Plucky", who were among those deported in 2007, get hold of gun licences? Through which police jurisdiction did they apply and were investigated?
If the prime minister had lost confidence in the ability of Admiral Lewin to deliver results, what guarantee does he have that the next commissioner, whoever he or she may be, will deliver? Will the PSC in its interviewing process for the next commissioner utilise a lie detector test?
It is on record that the two commissioners of police who had the highest appreciation for weeding out corruption and sloth in the JCF were Colonel Trevor MacMillan and Admiral Lewin, outsiders to the JCF. Will the PSC bear this in mind as they advertise for the post?
It is obvious that as an uncomfortably high murder rate remains with us, potential investors here and abroad will only look at Jamaica with one eye. As long as that continues, Jamaica will remain a place where all that the political leadership can prescribe is debating itself out of our economic catastrophe and away from the "unfixable" failed state.
Before the next commissioner of police is chosen, the minds of those in the PSC must be attuned to the toxic link between organised crime and the police, and the opportunity that will be lost if they merely act as keepers of the PSC shop and opt for what may turn out to be just another quick fix.
If the next commissioner chosen is not attuned to breaking that link, then we will definitely be in "unfixable" territory.
[email protected]
Comment