Trevor Munroe, Contributor 
Olivia McKoy threw the javelin 58.27 metres on her last attempt to claim bronze, Jamaica's first medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.- RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE NUMBER one priority in reviewing and transforming the state of the nation is the need for each of us to rid ourselves of the feeling within of helplessness, the feeling that we cannot do anything or any more in the face of the murder, the crime and the violence.
Consider the Jamaican performance at the 18th Commonwealth Games now on in Australia. Consider 50 years ago at the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver; Jamaica won one medal. So many of us then would have doubted that in 2006, Jamaica would have won, by Day 8, 16 medals and registered performances unequalled by any other country in the entire history of the Commonwealth Games. Special congratulations to our world-beating athletes!
Over and over again, the Jamaican doubting Thomases have been proven wrong! For the condition of the Jamaican people to improve, for the state of the nation to be transformed, we must look at our people's capacity to overcome, to achieve world-class standards and renew our faith, our respect and our love for one another.
On this foundation, the state of the nation needs to be and can be transformed, be renewed in so many areas. Today, I want to mention three:
How we as a nation and as individuals treat one another;
How we treat the weak and the vulnerable in particular, our children, our senior citizens, our women, and workers;
How we steer and guide and exercise power and authority over our society our system of governance.
In each of these areas thanks to the efforts of so many of our people of all parties and social classes the glass is at least half full, though some would prefer to say half empty and, a few that the glass is totally empty, even that there is no glass at all!
But who but the most negative could deny the thousands of acts of kindness, of compassion, of consideration taking place every day in Jamaica?
But we have to admit that these acts of humanity are becoming like oases in a desert, a desert of inconsideration, of short temper, of disrespect. To transform the state of the nation we have got to multiply manifold the oases of compassion; we have got to deal with one another differently; we have got to treat one another with more love and more respect. Our national anthem says it: "Teach us true respect for all". The good book says it: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Each and everyone of us needs to take individual responsibility to turn these words into deeds in how we speak to each other; in how we disagree; in how we respect the choices of others; in how we deal with our neighbours, our co-workers, our colleagues.
Don't tell me we can't do it!
In this very chamber, I have seen people on both sides who join our ranks with a hard heart and a tribal instinct and gradually, with effort on all sides, it melts away. But let us be clear: Without each of us Jamaicans treating one another with greater love, with greater respect, all other achievements will rest on a foundation of sand, will be non-sustainable.
For example, if tomorrow we caught tried, convicted and punished everyone of the murderers who killed 1,700 Jamaicans last year, this would be a major advance.
No doubt the murder rate would fall. But what would happen the very next day?
Unless we had learnt to deal with one another differently, with greater respect and love the very next day a KC or a Calabar Boy (or any other secondary school for that matter) will still be fighting and stabbing each other over flags in Cross Roads; the ex-boyfriend would still be invading Salem Primary and Junior High School to chop his ex-girlfriend and the teacher!
We can and must change these negative behaviours just as we learnt to put on the seat belt, to line up for the bus at least on campus or to reduce our birth rate.
But it is going to take greater individual responsibility from each of us, greater social responsibility from the private sector and from civic groups and leadership by example from people like us in this chamber.
Take the second issue of how we deal with the vulnerable, the weak and the disadvantaged. No one can tell me that nothing is going on in this area.
Take the 2006 UNICEF 'Situation Analysis on Excluded Children in Jamaica'. It is clear: "Jamaica has made impressive strides to provide most of its children with access to health, nutrition, education and social welfare."
Take the workers and the senior citizens. More than ever before the organisations representing these sectors are being empowered in consultative relations with the government e.g the Public Sector MOU.
By the force of law and regulation passed by all of us in this Senate, never again will pensioners or pension scheme members be in the dark about what is happening to their money or be left out of decisions regarding how their funds are invested. So in many ways, for the vulnerable, the glass is half full.
Take this question of the killing of children and I refer to killing by the knife, the gun but also the motor vehicle. Sixty children in the age group one-14 were killed in 2005 as many on the roads as were murdered!
Each of us can and must do better with the driving carefully and more slowly in the school zones under threat of severe sanctions. But when it comes to the slitting of the throat and the shooting of the little ones, this is clearly an emergency situation requiring emergency measures. We must as a society set a common goal to cut by half not by the five per cent, the national anti-crime goal the killing, particularly the murder of children in 2006!
But in addition, while I do not as a rule support capital punishment, when it comes to the slaughter of innocent children, I am prepared to suspend this rule so long as this emergency continues and demand that convicted child killers at least for a two-year trial period be sent to the gallows. The whole society needs to unite to prevent and to punish child murder!
With reference to women the second vulnerable group history as all know is being made. Our first woman Prime Minister is to take office within a week. And it is good.
But the nation as a whole suffers so long as the disgraceful situation exists where the female half of the Jamaican people is reflected by less than 15 per cent representation in the Parliament. Globally, where experience is not far different in terms of female representation, experience suggests that this unacceptable situation is not going to change unless, among other things, the first-past-the-post electoral system is changed to some form of proportional representation. No first-past-the-post country has over 30 per cent female representation and every country with over 30 per cent representation in the Parliament and in the executive had some degree of PR. This issue or changing our electoral system to combine constituency and proportional representation needs to be put once again centrally on the agenda of constitutional reform.
Regarding the workers, their vulnerability increases as corporate globalisation batters down protection of all sorts and exerts pressure for union-free environments. In the interest of reducing vulnerability, I urge the incoming administration to have as one major priority the change in the labour law to allow workers not represented by a union to have access to the IDT on the same basis as unionised employees in the provision of dispute resolution.
Regarding the senior citizens and the public sector pensioners in particular recent increases in benefits are welcome but two things:
In the interest of equity, the Government ought to consider lump sum increases in benefits whereby the pensioners least well off will get the higher percentage and those better off, a lesser percentage increase.
In the interest of transparency, the minister ought to publish the regular actuarial review of the NIS Pension Fund. The new regulations require private pension fund members to be informed of actuarial findings and recommendations.
The Government should subject itself to no less a standard.
Taken from the Senate State of the Nation Debate. Senator Professor Trevor Munroe is also lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies. Next week: Improving governance.
