Fiddling while Rome burns

A.W. Sangster

TRADITION HAS it that Nero, the uncaring Caesar, played the fiddle while Rome was burning. Certainly the series of ongoing crises we are experiencing would seem to indicate that Jamaica like Rome is burning.

The government of those ancient days cared little for the plight of its citizens and displayed a callous indifference to their needs. We need to translate the actions of those times to our present day. Some examples give us no cause for comfort.

The Montego Bay street people incident inquiry is now over. We await the report of the Commission of Enquiry. Will it be a nice whitewash or will the commissioners be bold enough to expose the lies, hypocrisy and corruption which has been so obviously revealed in the affair. We still don't know "who done it". What is clear however is that the apparatus of the state was used to deal with citizens in an unprincipled way. I am not holding my breath. We move on.

The recent treatment of the prisoners in the St. Catherine District Prison is a grim reminder of the ways that the rights of citizens ­ in this case prisoners ­ were trampled on by the agents of the state. The indifference of the bureaucracy of the state to the specific problems in the prisons is reflected in the following:

Prisons are not hotels, and the discovery (was this a new discovery!) of cell phones and weapons in the prisons speaks to a total breakdown of discipline and order in the prisons. Clearly the manifest indiscipline and corruption has been allowed to continue unchecked. We should therefore not have been surprised at the subsequent turn of events.

We have a situation in which some 800 warders were interdicted nearly four months ago and the trial ­ of only six warders ­ started to be heard last week. The next sitting is nearly one month later. When will the enquiry ever be completed? This is scandalous and in the meantime a short-staffed and clearly stretched military operation is in place to man the prisons.

How long can the delays in dealing with the staffing situation at the prisons be allowed to continue? In the event of a national emergency such as a hurricane, or a major crisis such as the gas riots of April 1999, the ranks of the army would be seriously depleted as a significant number are serving as jailers!

Clearly the Chief of Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force is being placed in an impossible position. Soldiers are trained for war to kill the enemy and clearly in the face of rebellion and indiscipline in the prison acted in this way ­ though if not killing any prisoners, they got well on the way by maiming many, some potentially for life. This would include at least one lost eye. In addition a correctional institution is now being turned increasingly into a place where vengeance is being contemplated.

The head of the correctional services, Lieutenant Col. Prescod, is clearly no longer in control as the manager of the correctional system, if he was at any time. How do knives and other weapons get into the prisons? How would the lady who spoke on a call-in programme be allowed to get a cell phone into the prison?

Severe
indictment

The Harrison Report was a severe indictment of his management, the performance of the warders, and of the overall conditions in the prison. What emerges is that the men of the army as agents of the state, were forced to use repressive measures - as of war - because of the serious deficiencies in the management of the system.

But the ink was not even dry on the Harrison Report when the Government through its Minister of National Security reappointed Lt. Col. Prescod for a further term of office. Clearly the report was regarded as irrelevant as far as the Government was concerned. No need to pay it any mind. The public will soon forget and it will be another nine-day wonder.

So while the rights of a few of our fellow Jamaicans are being trampled on, the fiddle is being played and 'Rome' burns.

It will be more and more difficult to put out the fire.

A.W. Sangster is former President of the University of Technology.