Marjorie StairTHE BREAKDOWN of law and order in a country is like the flu germ. It respects no person and does not discriminate in the selection of its victims. All are likely to be affected and there is precious little that can prevent it affecting any particular group once it exists.
In an open letter to the Prime Minister The President's Council of the PSOJ states that crime in our country has escalated to alarming proportions. I hasten to correct this statement. Crime in Jamaica did not escalate to alarming proportions in August 2000 even if these august men are just now getting alarmed. It escalated to alarming proportions some 20 years ago, some say with external assistance, in the 1980 election campaign when almost 900 Jamaicans lost their lives in what was said to be political violence. Many others lost limb, home and certainly peace of mind, if not their lives.
The germ was planted long before this, however, some time in the mid-1960s when the nature of our politics changed and the criminal element started to make its presence felt not only in political parties but in selected communities of the Corporate Area.
For many years now people living in some communities, mainly urban ones, have been victims of rape, murder, arson, assault and any other manifestations of crime that you can think of. This has continued for so long that, to all intents and purposes, residents of these communities have either become virtual slaves of the criminal element controlling their communities or they have been forced to migrate to other sections of the country or overseas. Taking a stand means being targeted as an 'informer' and running the risk of losing life and/or property.
The apparent wanton disregard for law and order, to quote the letter further, does not apply only to the criminals who kidnap, murder, assault, and hold up business places like the Air Jamaica office in Montego Bay, however, it has become a part of the national psyche. It starts with something as apparently harmless as getting a police friend to get rid of a speeding ticket, bribing customs officers to avoid paying duties, albeit prohibitive, to buying driver's licences and motor vehicle fitness certificates, to squatting, unauthorised vending, littering, petty theft, fraud and to the extreme of murder and the so-called white collar crimes that are crippling our economy.
Let me start with Jamaica's image in the world at-large mentioned in the first paragraph of the letter. 'Spring break' is a big tourism breakthrough turning a relatively slow period into one of major earnings. Many of the young Americans who fly into the island for Spring Break are not allowed, by the laws of both the USA and Jamaica, to consume alcoholic drinks. Promoting alcoholic drinks to these young people seem to be an essential feature of Spring Break. It is against the law for patrons of nightclubs and other places of entertainment in Jamaica to strip naked and perform and/or simulate sexual acts in a public place. My niece, disgusted by what happened at Spring Break in March this year, assures me that this is more likely to occur than not.
What is the role of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association and, indeed, other members of the President's Council of the PSOJ in ensuring that our visitors, the operators of these places of entertainment, and the local patrons of these places, obey the laws of our country?
No easy cure
How can we build a tourism product based on illegal activities or shouldn't I ask because money is flowing into the country. Will these young people be willing to send their own children to participate in our 'Spring Break' activities 20 years hence?
Paying protection money to the criminal elements of our society is against the law and, once started, becomes a cancer with no easy cure. What if Jamaican businessmen had united and worked with the security forces from day one to nip this particular cancer in the bud. No, is every man for himself. Do we then wonder that James Moss Solomon, as President of the Jamaica of Commerce, failed to get even a small thing as signatures as a stance against political violence and corruption? Having become willing partners of a criminal system, who now is to solve this particular problem for our businessmen?
A select group of people planned and executed an illegal act in the forceful removal of the street people off the streets of Montego Bay and their being deposited some miles away in St Elizabeth. It might be legal, but it is unjust, unethical and immoral, for the taxpayers of Jamaica to pay the price of this criminal act. But, look at what happened with the Jamaica Public Service withholding money belonging to its customers.
The letter says that the productive sector is being hard hit on all sides. Where was the Jamaica Bankers Association in the early 1990s and days of heady profits, when the productive sector reeled from the economic hits of high interest rates, unreasonable bank charges, the absence of any sort of planning horizon as costs skyrocketed and prices for goods stagnated or declined? Many honest hardworking Jamaicans have invested and become bankrupt as small bank loans grew to multi-million dollar figures because of prohibitive interest rates.
Many have lost home and property as a result. The financial sector was bailed out, again with taxpayer money. They are yet to provide a similar gesture to their clients. Crime is not the only thing hitting the productive sector on all sides.
The members of the President's Council of the PSOJ must be aware that crime in Jamaica will not be solved by an exhortation to the Prime Minister to take a comprehensive stand on crime now. The Gun Court did not do it. Colonel MacMillan, by himself, did not do it. The many task forces and special initiatives did not do it.
A recent survey revealed that 65 per cent of Jamaicans want to migrate, most to the USA.
