Peter Espeut NO SEASON provides more work for Jamaica's political spin doctors than the commemoration of Emancipation and Independence. It is full of more platitudes and illogic than any other time, save during election campaigns. I listened carefully as PNP and JLP politicians listed the litany of achievements which prove that we have used our independence well: cell phones, cable television, and the like. Now tell me: is the government saying that if Jamaica had remained a British colony that we would not have had cell phones and cable television?Þ Look at the remaining British colonies in the Caribbean: the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, and the others, with their higher standard of living.
The argument is dishonest!
It is understandable that this stupid argument is advanced by both PNP and JLP, in a rare moment of consensus.Þ Well, not so rare. Both parties are united defending the constitution they penned to concentrate power in their own hands; they are united to facilitate a politics based on the distribution of scarce benefits and spoils through nepotism and corruption; they are united in their efforts to keep garrisons and gunmen in place.
GOOD FOR JAMAICA
And here, both parties agree that independence has been good for Jamaica, because not to say so would be to indict both of them for serially mishandling our Independence.
I was a young boy at Independence, and like so many others I was full of nationalism and hope. "We're out to build a new Jamaica", we sang at school, and it was with pride that we sang the Jamaica National Anthem for the first time.
There is no doubt that British colonialism held back Jamaica's educational and industrial development, and much else.
Prior to internal self-government in 1944, the British made little effort to establish high schools.
Their intention was that all important civil posts would be held by Britishers or British-trained colonials. The lot of Jamaicans was to labour on plantations. All high schools prior to 1944 were private, owned by trusts (e.g. Munro, Titchfield) or the church (e.g. Calabar, St. George's).Þ Internal self-government brought the first public high schools, and the UWI.
BEST-PAYING JOBS
British policy was to develop their home economy first. No industrial process which could be performed in the UK was allowed in colonies like Jamaica, to ensure that British voters got as many jobs as possible and the best-paying jobs. Even with internal self-government, the manufacture of sugar was taken only to the point where product could be sent to Britain; only brown sugar was made here, and we had to import refined white sugar our own sugar from England! One of the first acts after Independence was to open a sugar refinery to produce our own white sugar. We did not prosper under colonialism; the dream was that we would prosper with independence.
BARBADOS DID IT!
And it was possible: Barbados did it! Much smaller than we are, with much fewer resources and much less potential, Barbados today is a First World country! All Barbadians go to high school and can read and write. Why couldn't we have done that? We could have, but we weren't trying. If we are honest 41 years later, we will have to admit that we have not made the most of the opportunities that political independence provided.
If we had remained a colony with the same wide racial and social divide as in 1962, it is likely that Jamaican society would have exploded. Independence provided hope that better might come, and postponed social explosion. Independence was expected to right the wrongs of colonialism, where Jamaica was run as a private club serving the wants of the powerful few. In this "new day", the Jamaican plantation was to be run for the benefit of the labourers. But it never happened! Jamaica is still a private club serving the powerful few; the faces of the few have changed, but social and economic cleavages in Jamaican society are greater than in 1962.Þ We have the 11th largest gap between the rich and the poor of all countries, and the fastest growing gap in the world! Rather than righting the wrongs of colonialism, those who managed our independence perpetrated new wrongs!
INEQUALITY
Since independence political power has been used to fashion an education system which perpetuates inequality. In the first 25 years of independence, JLP and PNP Governments built 70 "junior secondary" and "new secondary" schools and only two "high" schools. The plan was for Jamaican children to fail the Common Entrance Examination to enter these schools. No white South African racist could have planned the "separate development" of poor, black - mostly rural - children more effectively! No wonder the majority of the electorate have rejected these two merchants of inequality by staying away!
Since independence, political power has been used for private gain. Public lands and government housing lots have been distributed by both PNP and JLP along political lines to create political garrisons, defended by political thugs carrying political guns. Plum jobs in the public service have been distributed to party favourites. Jamaican Independence is a study in how power has been used to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few.
UNIONS
What the spin doctors won't say is that instead of "Independence" we could have had the "Federation of the West Indies". As groups of countries around the world today seek to bind themselves in various unions, realising that in this globalised world small is not necessarily beautiful, we could have had a head start on that 40 years ago with our Caribbean neighbours. "Ten minus one is zero!" the headline said, as haughty Jamaica withdrew from the Federation. And 40 years later Trinidad and Barbados are buying us out.
The alternative to Federation was nationhood, but in the last 40 years we are yet to build a nation; most of our citizens do not have profound national loyalty and respect for our national institutions because they know Jamaica is organised for the benefit of a few, and they don't feel they have a real stake in the country. I don't believe that successive governments have respected the people (if the continuing disrespect and even brutality of state agencies), and the tribal nature of our politics has led to public disrespect for the government, national symbols and national institutions.
Eternal father, give us vision lest we perish!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
