THE DILEMMA of how to deal with dons straddles party lines. That much is clear from the flashback feature we published last week showing the fulsome funeral farewells given the likes of Burry Boy and Jim Brown. Stalwarts of the PNP as well as the JLP paid due homage at those political obsequies.
Indeed Michael Manley on leaving office is on record as expressing regret for his own participation at the Burry Boy occasion which was marked by a graveside gun salute.
But times and attitudes have changed; as indeed the essence of what has come to be known as garrison politics. It used to be that this phenomenon of inner city politicking revolved around the availability of scarce benefits distributed to win votes which often at election time exceeded the official listing.
In the original manifestation the MP may have been the 'one don'. Like the MP the latter-day dons do not reside in the constituency; but they maintain a visible daily presence there as their main base of operation. What is more the available resources for the distribution of scarce benefits has come to rely on income from nefarious activity such as drug trafficking and/or extortion.
We can empathise with the dilemma of a Delroy Chuck caught between his duties as an MP and the demands of constituents beholden in so many ways to a community benefactor. This goes to the heart of the MP's role in such constituencies where money and attitudes are warped by seeming poverty cheek by jowl with expensive finery. Check those funeral fashions!
There is no easy answer. As Mr. Chuck himself declares in responding to his critics the economy itself must be managed to provide more jobs and opportunities for the youth faced with few choices for normal development.
But what is utterly unacceptable is the notion of the unsavoury nexus between crime and politics which is the essence of how the dons now seek to run things. The failure to move illegal vending from the streets of downtown Kingston is just one index of the consequential erosion of law and order which endangers the whole nation.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
