THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE ABILITY of Jamaicans to 'politicise' any issue is something that will never cease to amaze me. This ability is most recently manifest in the controversial issue of the Braeton Seven.
Senator Maxine Henry-Wilson decided to revert to the good old Cold War favourite and cry 'destabilisation'. Our Attorney-General Mr. Nicholson paints a picture of the selfish aims of an evil Amnesty general-secretary. Mr. Seaga endorses the intervention; seemingly the only major member of Jamaica's ruling bloc to do so but his motives are questioned. PNP supporters say it is just an opportunity for him to 'lash' the government.
To add to this there is the barrage of comments being made by numerous people directly and indirectly involved with the shootings at Braeton. In the middle we have Amnesty International, a body who's aims and objectives seem honourable. However the infamous Jamaican spy versus spy saga seems to take centre stage.
In a lecture at UWI I heard Mr Sane list a range of accusations made against Amnesty International by the governments of various countries. Of these I will make mention of two.
The US government accused Amnesty International of being a communist movement with close ties to the KGB. The Kremlin accused them of being an arm of the imperialist west with links to the CIA. Unfortunately for our leaders we have no evil eastern (or western) empire as the case may be, so we proceed to proclaim that Mr Sane is trying to smear Jamaica's name across the globe so that he can keep his job.
Now really, how low will we go before we take responsibility for our own problems and address them? It is clear to me that the real fear we have lies not in our international reputation but in the shocking realisation that there are people who don't always have an ulterior motive, those who believe right should supersede might, those who want justice. Mr Sane and indeed Amnesty International come from a school of thought that exemplify values such as truth and equality under the law. Our constant questioning of Mr Sane's personal motives, and those of Amnesty International to my mind only serves to highlight the corrupt and contorted thinking of those who conceive the far-fetched theories of a global Amnesty conspiracy against our helpless but diligent government.
Personally I felt quite embarrassed by the accusations that were being made both toward Mr Sane and Amnesty International. This is by no means to say that one must not question objectively. However, this paranoia that saturates us does indeed reflect what is happening on our island. Corrupt, calculating, unscrupulous people surrounded by corrupt, calculating, unscrupulous people in turn believe that all are corrupt, calculating and unscrupulous.
I am etc.,
JOHN W. SMALL Jr.
Concerned UWI student
E-mail:
johnsmall30@hotmail.com
