Rediscovering the wheel

By Stephen Vasciannie

DEATH STALKS the land. Particularly in areas of West Kingston and Southern St. Andrew, notions such as the right to life and the sanctity of life are little more than illusions: concepts to be disregarded in the interests of princes and parties, or for the sake of expediency. But death is not alone. Its companions include confusion, brutality and dishonesty. As these forces prevail, law-abiding Jamaicans live in fear, a fear deeper even than the fear prompted by Cold War skirmishes in the 1970s. Some migrate, some die, we all suffer.

Perhaps a Commission of Enquiry can help someone, somewhere to solve the general problems of death, confusion, brutality and dishonesty that now prevail across significant pockets of our capital city. But there are no particular grounds for optimism. Take up the authoritative 1993 Report of the National Task Force on Crime (the Wolfe Report). It has numerous answers to the problem of crime and violence, carefully formulated, and presented with a strong sense of urgency. Almost all the points are covered.

They include:

(1) Proposals to address the short, medium and long-term abatement of crime;

(2) Measures to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and professionalism of the police force;

(3) Means by which members of the security forces are to be insulated from improper political and other interference;

(4) Proposals designed to foster harmonious relationships between the security forces and the public, especially at the community level;

(5) Measures to prevent abuse of authority by security forces and to ensure accountability of those forces;

(6)Measures to improve conditions in the country's penal system;

(7) Proposals to improve the administration of justice, and, particularly to remove undue delays in judicial processes;

(8) Recommendations on social and economic programmes, within the limits of available national resources, to reduce inducement to crime; and, of course,

(9) Proposals to facilitate national consensus which enables all sectors to contribute in the fight against crime.

So, less than 10 years ago, the Wolfe Report covered much of the ground that the post-Tivoli Gardens/post-Willie Haggart Commission of Enquiry will also be covering. I wonder if this is necessary. Indeed, the Wolfe Report itself appears to have recognised our penchant for rediscovering the wheel through Commissions of Enquiry and committees. As an initial point, it gently reminded us that the Barnett Commission (1975-6), the United Nations team (1977), the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Justice (1980), the Fraser Commission on the Death Penalty (1981), the United Nations Committee on the establishment of a crime research unit (1982), the National Advisory Council on Crime and Justice (1985-6), and the National Advisory Committee on Crime and Justice (1990) have all, in recent times, covered areas that bear "a marked similarity".

What, then, will the post-Tivoli Commission add to the mix? Perhaps, you may think that the new Commission will enhance our search for solutions by examining the question of political tribalism as a separate and distinct issue, there being allegations that tribalism helps to explain the recent murders in Kingston. But, come now, in July 1997, the Report of the National Committee on Tribalism (the Kerr Report) considered that very matter. So, almost five years to the day, since the problem of tribalism was studied, another body will examine that question? This does not seem to be a particularly enlightening course of action.

In view of the foregoing, I submit that the rather wide terms of reference presented for the post-Tivoli/post-Willie Haggart Commission of Enquiry should be abandoned. For this Commission of Enquiry, we need to know:

(1) Whether there is a link between the murder of William 'Willie Haggart' Moore and companions, on the one hand, and the upsurge of violence in Southern St. Andrew and West Kingston from April to July, 2001, and the nature of that link, if any;

(2) The identities of the persons who have stimulated the wave of violence in Southern St. Andrew and West Kingston from April to July, 2001, and the party affiliation of each of these persons;

(3) The motives of the persons who have brought about the killings in the area in the period specified;

(4) Some assessment as to the prevalence of 'donmanship' in West Kingston and South St. Andrew, including an analysis of the extent to which these communities are now subject to control by illegal forces;

(5) A comprehensive review of the methods used by the police in tackling problems of crime and violence in Southern St. Andrew and West Kingston in the period from April to July, 2001, and an analysis of the methods and motives of the police officers who were involved in the operation in West Kingston in the period July 7 to 10, 2001; and

(6) Recommendations concerning each of the areas covered in the assessment undertaken by the Commission of Enquiry. It should, of course, be left to the members of the Commission of Enquiry to follow their information as far as they wish to go.

However, I believe that a narrowly focussed enquiry will avoid rediscovery of the wheel, and could present us with a coherent picture concerning a particularly brutal period in our national life.

Finally, one hopes that the Commission of Enquiry will consider the nature and extent of the drug problem in West Kingston and Southern St. Andrew, if this is an important component of the developments in those communities. In the debate that is now taking place, some analysts have raised the spectre of drugs with no small degree of force, but they have not provided much supporting evidence to reinforce their contentions.

The drug question is important not least because methods of tackling drug infiltration could be quite different from those designed to tackle tribal conflict with political connotations.

Death stalks the land. In some senses, it is the result of years of neglect, and the development of social patterns of behaviour that show no regard to peaceful methods of dispute settlement. It affects us all; but, curiously, some poor, uneducated Jamaicans are so blinded by partisan and other prejudices that they have become fodder for the aspirations of others. We cannot live like this!

Stephen Vasciannie, an attorney-at-law, teaches at the University of the West Indies.

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