Delroy Chuck JUSTICE IS undoubtedly the most important pillar of a free, open and democratic society. It is the sense of justice, or the opportunity to secure justice, that makes citizens engage one another, enter into contracts, settle agreements, invest their time and money, produce for goods and services, interact commercially and commit themselves to what is right and good.
Justice provides the sense of fair play, even-handedness, balance and equity on which every community and society finds peace, hope, decency and comfort. The sense of anger, of distrust, of fairness and of equity can only be appeased and satisfied if people feel the society dispenses justice.
To be sure, things will go wrong. Mistakes will be made. Errors occur. There will be blunders, misjudgement, bad judgement, poor judgement and negligent judgement. Human judgement is never perfect. Many decisions are wrong and bring terrible results. Faulty decisions are oftentimes inspired by improper motives. What is important is to have a mechanism to correct the errors, the mistakes and the erroneous decisions. When things go wrong, someone must bear responsibility, the buck must stop somewhere or the machinery must exist to find the person responsible. When things go wrong, they must be corrected. Fairness demands that those who flout the law, are corrupted or engaged in wrongdoing should be punished. Indeed, the minimum requirement of justice in any society is for wrongdoers to be exposed and suitably punished. Unless wrongdoing is exposed and punished then justice is not done.
The Jamaican society is not dispensing justice. There is a corruption of justice. Abuses, corruption and injustice have become an integral part of the Jamaican landscape. People now expect and overlook irregularities, misconduct and malpractice. When a top businessman can openly confess that, nowadays, to succeed in business one has to be corrupt, it tells a sorry tale of how corrupt businesses have become.
When a top politician publicly admits that those who play by the rules get shafted, then not only is he speaking the truth but, also, it sends a compelling message to those who want to survive in a corrupt society. When rogue cops regularly abuse, humiliate, shoot and kill inner-city young men, sometimes openly and brazenly, it sends the wrong signal that it is brute force that counts and nothing else matters. When these injustices occur and are covered up, then it is justice that is corrupted.
The whole Jamaican society is in fact being corrupted, as those who can assist to deliver justice, elicit the truth, expose wrongdoing and condemn corruption are remaining silent, seeing and hearing no evil and failing to discharge their duty without fear or favour.
Where are the voices of the Church, the business sector, the professional bodies and civil society to speak out against the ills and tribulations of our times? Where is the watchdog of a truly democratic society, the media, in probing and exposing wrongdoing? Where is the conscience of the nation to condemn those who seek to corrupt justice? What is absolutely disappointing is to see how wrongdoings at every level, including the highest level of government or in the corridors of power, are covered up.
In truth, when corruption and scandals are exposed, nothing satisfactory seems to emerge even after an official inquiry. How many of us remember the Prison Inquiry investigating the beatings of over 300 prisoners who were so badly brutalised that many had broken bones and had to be hospitalised? As I understand it, the behaviour of some of them were reprehensible, but did that give the soldiers/warders the right to systematically beat the inmates with electrical wires, batons and whatever instruments were available? The prisoners did wrong and those who were responsible should be punished. But, in a society of justice, a wrong cannot cancel a wrong. The behaviour of the prison guards was wrong and even worse than that of the prisoners. Still, we have yet to hear of any official sanction or punishment meted out to redress the wrongs.
The recent Wiretapping Scandal is a very sore point. From information received and known, there was wiretapping and wrongdoing. We have even heard of tapes and of the tapping of Government Ministers' telephones. Did such tapes exist and which Ministers' telephones were tapped?
It seems to me that to cover up the scandal or to fail to reveal the outcome of the investigation is a corruption of justice, as justice demands that the truth be revealed to the public. But, what is really new? Do we believe that the truth was revealed in the Zinc Scandal, the Montego Bay Street People Scandal, the fatal beating of Michael Gayle, and the host of other inquests, including the coroners' inquests into the deaths of young men killed by the police?
Shortly, we will hear the results of two inquiries, the deaths of the seven young men in Braeton and that of 27 persons in Tivoli Gardens. Will the plain truth be known in either of them? I am not sanguine that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth will ever emerge in these cases. Obviously, people know the truth. Do they have the courage, conscience and character to come forward and let the chips fall where they may? In the Braeton Seven issue, policemen were on the scene and saw what took place and did not agree or support the actions of their colleagues, but are they willing to come forward and tell it, as it did occur? Andrew 'Pang' Stevens was brutally killed. There are dozens of people who claim to have been spectators, will they come forward in a court of law? will the culprits be brought to justice or will the cover up continue?
When the truth is covered up, justice is corrupted. When justice is corrupted, the whole society suffers, as wrongdoers go free and feel emboldened to engage in even further injustice. Crime and violence escalate when we do not respect truth and justice. When we sideline truth and justice, the society decays, suffering increases and hardships multiply. Truth and justice are indeed the cornerstones of a free, good and decent society. Therefore, the whole society has an interest in the truthful outcome of every inquiry, of every investigation and of every court case to secure a fair and impartial result. When people are motivated by extraneous factors, such as partisan consideration, then truth and justice are likely to suffer and the outcome cannot be fair.
The cry for justice needs to be heard and answered. There is simply too much injustice, corruption and cover up. We need a new beginning and it can start with a commitment to truth and justice. We need leadership that can accept responsibility when things go wrong, as they occasionally will do, and are prepared and determined to right the wrongs. We need leaders with a passion for justice and a vision to build a society based on trust and confidence.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at delchuck@hotmail.com.
