Power struggle
published: Sunday | June 6, 2004

THE EDITOR, Sir:

THE BUILDING of garrison communities by both political parties doomed many to the kind of petty divisions that saw them nurtured in politically instigated and engineered violence. This has evolved into the present state of crisis, in the inner cities of Jamaica, as far as crime is concerned.

The elites in politics and business, including the media, have benefited from hiding the fact that the power struggle within the ruling classes has bred a kind of criminal that can only get worse with the addition of the drug dons. There can be no escape of the state's responsibility for the present crime problem in Jamaica. The blaming of improper parenting, drugs links and other factors while relevant do not change the fact that the state through its human rights abuses, its lack of respect for the democratic process (through the development of garrison communities and direct voter intimidation), lack of proper development of the educational institutions that enable citizen to rid themselves of direct and improper political influence (i.e. pork-barrel politics), and the fact that Jamaica has one of the most corrupt set of politicians in the world.

These factors acted as enabler to the kind of underclass that we have in Jamaica. The post-colonial generation of leaders have failed miserably in the project of political, economic and social development. The state bears direct responsibility and links at every stage since Independence, to the emergence, through the socialisation process, of vicious, violent criminal gangs in Jamaica.

I am, etc.,

ALLAN I.H. CARTER

aicarter@yahoo.com

Barbados

Via Go-Jamaica