Devon DickDevon Dick
LAST WEEK, Zekes, powerful area don of Mathews Lane, called upon the nation to live in peace and harmony. He made this petition on Power 106 while being interviewed on the news magazine programme Nationwide. Zekes wished that rivals would 'put down we guns' and live peaceably. He also feared that if we fail to manage our affairs properly then the USA and U.K. would use this as a pretext to invade Jamaica and rule the country.
THE PETITION FOR PEACE
Some will scoff at this appeal as a death wish, because he was faced with his own mortality with the rumoured threat that he had 72 hours to leave Matthews Lane, or was it to live? However, whatever prompted it, the petition for peace sounded genuine. The cry for peace was also practical. When Cliff Hughes asked Zekes if he was willing to put down his gun, he replied that he could not because the other side would still have theirs.
This is, therefore, a moment for rival gangs to come together and give up the guns and work on peace. This is a time for the leaders of the society to step up to the plate. It has been done before where rivals have sought peace. Nelson Mandela of South Africa set the tone for reconciliation with his oppressor. For that noble gesture, Mandela and his former rival were rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize.
Zekes is a powerful man. Downtown Kingston was locked down when the police took him into custody for questioning. The police had to appeal to him to send the protesting crowds away from the vicinity of the police station. The most Honourable Prime Minister, then the Right Honourable, visited Zekes to express thanks to him for his role in quelling the April Riots of 1999.
THE VOICE OF ZEKES
Zekes is the person, along with another area don, Dudus, who is credited with the peace between rival political gangs of Matthews Lane and Tivoli for the last three years. Therefore, the voice of Zekes is the voice of the underbelly of society. It needs the support of officialdom. Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and the Leader of the Opposition Edward Seaga can leave us an awesome legacy of peace by building on this momentum. The business community, church, and civil society need to play a role to make peace effective and lasting.
There will be many scoffers and doubting Thomases who will give a thousand reasons why it cannot work. It will be cited that the le-gendary Bob Marley tried peace concerts and it did not last. Peace treaties have been signed before and the signatories died shortly after. There have been many peace walks, prayer vigils, dispute resolution lectures, intervention strategies, and poverty alleviation programmes but the murder rate has continued unabated from the 1960s.
However, Jamaicans need to recognise that Rome was not built in a day. Slavery was not slain with the first assault. The Berlin Wall did not crumble after the first push. A danger in the march towards peace is the indifference and tolerance to this high murder rate. People get agitated only when it affects their relatives, friends and associates. Another danger is creeping cynicism which claims that nothing works and Jamaicans cannot manage their affairs. Not to mention the fear factor wherein people are afraid to report wrongdoings.
But what is the alternative to keeping on trying? Allowing legal and illegal guns to create havoc in society? Letting it continue to spread from political gangs to drug gangs to political gangs turning on their own party members and then to persons who are in the wrong place at the wrong time? Opening up the gun licensing procedure so that it is easy to get guns to defend family, self and property, or make it a constitutional right to bear arms? Or call on more powerful nations to manage our crime situation?
A PEACE EFFORT
Zekes' supplication might have been from selfish motives and the exigencies of his perceived situation, but nevertheless it has come at an opportune time when the Olympians have revived a national spirit, made us joyful and brought tears to our eyes. And since they will be honoured during National Heroes Week, it seems appropriate that the planners should use this heroic and historic occasion to galvanise the nation around a peace effort that could lead to happiness and prosperity for all Jamaicans.
The Rev. Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot:
The Jamaica Church in nation-building'.
