Photo by Nathaniel Stewart
Morgue workers remove the body of a taxi driver who was recently shot dead in Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew. No motive is yet established for the killing. Murder is rising despite the hot-spot strategy being employed by the police.
Don Robotham, Contributor
The political centre is becoming deeply pessimistic about the state of the country. Neither the Opposition nor the Government seems to be acting in the national interest. The low turnout at the recent Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) annual conference at the National Arena was a clear indication of demoralisation. The poor turnout at the coming local government elections will be another. Cynicism is growing again and this is very dangerous for us all. This despair was already high before the general elections. Don't forget that 40 per cent of the electorate did not vote and that the Government was elected by only 30.3 per cent of the electorate.
There is much to be cynical about. The two political parties are playing last-lick, while Jah kingdom goes to waste! The Government must take the bulk of the blame because it has the main responsibility to lead. Instead, they behave as they are still in opposition. The Opposition is also to be blamed. Their comments are equally personalistic and offer no solutions to our developing crisis.
Two oppositions
The reasons for the descent into the 'cass-cass' arena is frustration within the Government about the predicament they find themselves in. As someone remarked, "Jamaica now has two oppositions but no government!" The economy continues to deteriorate and both the Government and the Opposition are uncertain how we should intervene. It's not just a matter of price increases spiraling out of control. It is also a matter of shortages. Right now flour is hard to find on the supermarket shelves. If and when it re-appears the new price is likely to be way over the official 30 per cent increase. Indeed, flour may well have got 'married', while it was away.
The Government is under enormous pressure from its own political base to act. Can it continue with its present policy of 'benign neglect'? Should it try some subsidies? On what goods? Should it cut or raise some taxes? On what services? What about selective price controls? What will the International Monetary Fund (IMF) do if Jamaica goes down that road?
The impression which the public has formed is of a government and opposition which are powerless. Indeed, the Government's own propaganda seems to celebrate its powerlessness. But if you were powerless why seek power in the first place and make all those pie-in-the sky promises? No answers have been forthcoming. Instead, both government and opposition have concentrated their efforts on the propaganda front. But propaganda puts no food on to the table. The propaganda excites only party tribalists and feeds the belief in the political centre that the Government is not governing and all the opposition can do is oppose. The remarks emanating from the Opposition are sterile. Who cares whether Omar is brighter than Bruce!? The Opposition is simply pouncing on particular blunders without offering any constructive solutions to the nation's problems.
The political centre is becoming disillusioned with this government and this opposition. Even the argument that the Government has been in power for only two months is being turned on its head. If this is the situation after only two months, imagine what it will be in two years!
Kill-and-go
The second cause of the alienation of the centre is inaction on crime and police brutality. The anticrime strategy is so urgent precisely because of the deterioration in the economic situation. While the political parties waste time in destructive engagement, the criminals act. The increased economic hardship means more and bigger inner cities - more Flankers and more Canterburys. It means the spread of more criminality to the countryside. The global economic deterioration has horrendous implications for our social and crime situation. Not only price increases, but also gang increases, extortion increases, rape increases and murder increases. More rural poverty, more violence in schools and more abandoned children. It is the acuteness of this crisis which makes the 'cass-cass' between opposition and government so destructive. We need unity and constructive engagement more now than ever before.
The murder rate has already shot past the 1235 mark. Police killings are over 212. Yet the Minister of National Security finds the time to engage in 'cass cass' politics. The hot-spot 'kill-and-go' strategy - to borrow a Nigerian phrase - is bound to result in higher police and army killings without suppressing the murder rate. It needs to be thoroughly reviewed. Bold leadership is needed if we are to halt the lurch into anarchy. But there is no sign of such leadership.
The idea of re-structuring the police force is in principle a good one. But very great caution is needed here. First of all, it seems to be driven by a desire to further militarise the police. This is the rationale behind the possible appointment of a former leader of the JDF as commissioner. My guess is that such a move towards militarism would be the signal for more 'kill-and-go'. Is this the direction we wish to go?
Second, any sizeable lay-off at the officer level can have unpredictable and exceedingly dangerous consequences. In a volatile situation like ours, to let loose into civilian life dozens of persons who have a detailed inner knowledge of the workings of crime and police operations could put the final nail into our security coffin. It could unleash an avalanche of violent criminality which would make today's murder rate look like a picnic.
Undermining the Governor-General
A third factor which is alienating the political centre is the Vasciannie and Public Services Commission affair. It is threatening to get completely out of hand. Attacks are now being mounted against the Governor-General for not bowing to the Government's wishes. JLP zealots are grumbling that if the Governor-General will, not act according to their wishes, he should be run out of town. Some are digging up the Australian precedent of 1975 when the then Prime Minister tried to remove their Governor-General. This is utterly outrageous. Golding himself has indicated that he is opposed to such moves. But he must go farther. He must slap down these tribalists in no uncertain terms.
If the JLP Government wants the entire country to unite against them, they should continue with the bad-mouthing of the Governor- General. Sir Kenneth has discharged his duties impartially and with great distinction. Attacks on him are attacks on the fundamental democratic rights of all Jamaicans. These attacks show how little the Government takes its own constitutionalism seriously. It is a scandalous example of the JLP saying one thing in opposition but doing another in government.
The Vasciannie issue is not about whether the Government has the legal right to recommend the dissolution of the Public Services Commission. I leave that one for our distinguished legal fraternity to chew the cud over in their inimitable 'speaky-spokey' colonial fashion. The point is not a legal, but a moral one.
Golding long ago adopted the National Democratic Movement position on the separation of powers. Over and over again he argued that the problem in Jamaica was that Prime Ministerial and Cabinet Executive powers were too strong. He stressed the need for other contending centres of power to be able to curb the Executive. Well, the Public Services Commission is precisely such a centre and is administering precisely such a curbing. Now that the boot is on his foot, Golding does not like the pinching one bit.
Personal antagonism
Some attribute this to personal antagonism. Others claim that the real problem is that Professor Vasciannie is already on record advising against allowing the Dutch to enter our legal jurisdiction in order to prosecute the Trafigura case. But whatever the reason the point is that pressuring the Public Services Commission to resign is diametrically opposite to the separation of powers line. And undermining the Governor-General takes us over the brink. In fact, if one were to follow the separation of powers argument to its logical conclusion, the Public Services Commission would be even more powerful and independent of the Government than the present constitution permits.
So, it turns out that the real position seems to be that one supports the separation of powers when it produces results with which the Government of the day agrees. But when it does not, then out with the separation of powers. This makes complete nonsense of the rationale for a separation of powers in the first place.
