THE EDITOR, Madam:
I CANNOT conceive of any possible explanation for Percival Latouche's call to further barbarise a barbaric nation? The brutish diet of murders, police and military beatings and extra-judicial killings has given some of us indigestion. It seems, however, to have opened the appetite of others for greater savagery.
And whom do they call on to satisfy this appetite? A state apparatus that has displayed its acute capacity for viciousness, particularly in our penal institutions. This is not a defence of murderers. It is a call for reasoned discourse.
Speaking as one raised in so-called underprivileged communities, and having been the victim of police harassment as a teenager, I have no confidence in the state security and justice machinery of this country. The events I have seen and read of in the years subsequent to those experiences give me no reason to modify that position. I (and many more like me) will therefore raise my voice to oppose any call for state-sanctioned killings.
Today's Jamaica is not the kind of state that anyone should be entrusting with deciding who should or shouldn't die. Considering our state of affairs, such a person would be complicit in the victimisation of young men from certain addresses, who seem always to be the ones foolish enough to get caught on the wrong side of the system.
Jamaica does not need more savagery. It needs refinement. Perchance Mr. Latouche might seek to use his organisation as a vehicle to put political pressure on the government. Perchance its members are voters who make decisions in northern places; northern places on which Jamaica depends for survival through all sorts of bilateral and multilateral arrangements. Uniting Jamaicans in these countries as political forces to impact intergovernmental relations might be a more positive route of action.
Jamaicans abroad do not have the political muscle of the Miami Cubans, or the New York Jews. But efforts in that direction are worth exploring. It also seems that Mr. Latouche has forgotten that Jamaica needs no more dividing. Having pitted 'browns' against 'blacks', poor against rich, JLP against PNP, etc., the colonialists and the politicians achieved results in that area that cannot be bettered. The country can therefore do without a new and special class called 'returning residents' (as distinct from the residents themselves).
All Jamaicans, not just returning residents are being murdered. All Jamaicans, not just returning residents, therefore, need protection. Unlike the value of dollars and pounds, the value of lives is not determined by the market.
I am etc,
R. ANTHONY LEWIS
E-mail:
newanthony@hotmail.com
University of Montreal
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Via Go-Jamaica
