More than hollow rhetoric needed
published: Tuesday | August 5, 2003

THE EDITOR, Sir:

SOMETIMES A complex problem yields to a simple solution. Sometimes it doesn't.

Your columnist, Martin Henry, bemoans the seeming surrender of Jamaica's sovereignty to area leaders (The Gleaner, July 31, 2003). Mr. Henry is troubled by the notion of "peace" as an acceptable conclusion to the latest round of violence in the Mountain View Avenue area. "Despite the bogus rhetoric of war and peace, it is crime most foul with which we are confronted," contends Mr. Henry.

Mr. Henry's point is: Making peace with those who kill within the borders of the state is a paradox that denies justice to the victims of murder. It is a valid one. Outside of a civil war, the only legitimate response to a murder within a sovereign state is justice under a pre-established judicial framework. Should the government of such a state, tacitly or otherwise, become party to concessions outside of this framework, it almost by definition simultaneously admits to the existence of sub-sovereigns with whom a negotiated end to "hostilities" is an acceptable option. Taking this to be true, the only principled path for the government is investigation and prosecution to the arrival of justice by due process for the participants and victims in the latest spate of violence.

But if principle were of itself an end, strategy would be irrelevant. Inner-city violence in Jamaica is of complex origins and survives of complex conditions. A thoughtful view concludes a simple solution is impractical. Law enforcement and the institutions of justice are handcuffed for lack of resources and want of unambiguous political directives. Legacy and the perversion of the power of the vote thwart solutions that demand moral clarity of political leadership. Simple solutions wanted. None here.

I don't foresee any revolutionary development that would, by force or will of the state, end the objective reality of inner-city fiefdoms and the bloodletting that settles grievances within and across these communities. In this absence, a thoughtful - maybe Machiavellian - strategy has to be developed that cedes to the limitations of the state and adopts new methods that are specific to the realities on the ground.

I am, etc.,

SHELDON LYN

sllyn@hotmail.com

Washington, DC

Via Go-Jamaica

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