Arnold Bertram
BRUCE GOLDING has finally succeeded in becoming president of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Leader of the parliamentary Opposition, Member of Parliament for Western Kingston and ceremonial head of Tivoli Gardens. Within his own Party there are those who contend that he has not earned one of these positions, and that it is the endorsement of the ruling 'Junta' based in Tivoli Gardens which has been the critical factor in his ascendancy.
Seaga, in one last desperate bid to assert some authority in the constituency he had ruthlessly built up as his personal fiefdom since 1963, nominated his protégé, Desmond McKenzie, the energetic mayor of Kingston, to succeed him as Member of Parliament. The power brokers made it clear that McKenzie did not qualify. What was needed was someone with the status of a potential prime minister, who could provide the services of facilitation and public relations required from time to time. In return for such services, they would guarantee security of tenure and a direct route to Jamaica House.
Golding's conversion to garrison
politics came after he discovered in 1976 that in predominantly rural constituencies like South Central St. Catherine, where people exercised their right to choose, candidates could both win and lose. It was this reality which made the Seaga model of permanent tenure attractive.
FIRST POLITICAL GARRISON
OUTSIDE OF THE CORPORATE AREA
The next time Golding appeared in Parliament was in 1983 as the representative of Central St. Catherine, a constituency dominated by Spanish Town with the clear potential of becoming the first political
garrison outside of the Corporate Area. He established his headquarters at Tawes Pen, and replicated the Tivoli model by ruthlessly 'sanitising' the housing scheme of anything resembling PNP support.
The victory of the PNP in 1989, together with the growing fratricidal struggles between his colleagues and the resilience of Seaga's leadership, forced Golding to reconsider whether or not his political ambitions could be realised within the JLP. In 1995 he took the decision to leave the JLP and form his own party, the National Democratic Movement (NDM).
The yearning of a substantial part of the electorate for a new beginning together with a skilfully crafted public relations campaign contributed immensely to Golding's success in presenting himself as 'new and different'. Unfortunately, this phase of Bruce Golding did not last for long. His timetable could hardly accommodate the years of patient, organisational effort, and personal sacrifice required to realise the vision of the NDM.
THE ECONOMICS OF GARRISONS
By the elections of 2002 he was back in the same old JLP, with the same old political practices he claimed he had turned his back on. In no time he was on the road which has led him to Tivoli Gardens, the island's premier political garrison.
Scholarship and public opinion have tended to treat garrison constituencies as a purely political phenomenon, completely underestimating the economic base which sustains the political superstructure.
The transformation of Kingston Pen into the political garrison of Tivoli Gardens was more than Seaga's political will, the ruthless bulldozing of the squatter communities, and the forced evacuation of PNP's supporters in 1963 and again in 1966. Of equal importance is the fact that Mr. Seaga's 43 year tenure as Member of Parliament for Western Kingston began simultaneously with his appointment as Minister of Youth and Development, followed by his elevation to the Ministry of Finance and Planning. In 1980 he became Prime Minister and continued to hold the Finance and Planning portfolio.
It was these powerful positions in the state which gave him the power to ensure the flow of investments in and subsidies for his constituency and made his power total and undisputed. The fact that these investments and subsidies continued under the PNP as well as the lucrative security contracts which became the first charge on all government projects certainly strengthened the political monopoly.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TIVOLI
The growth of the largest market and business districts in the island, on the doorstep of Tivoli Gardens has been an economic factor of the greatest importance. Each week, hundreds of truck loads of agricultural products are exchanged for cash which in turn is used to acquire a wide range of consumer products. It is the continuing expansion of commerce which provide unlimited opportunities for extortion. As long as we fail to invest in an expansion of the police force, commensurate with the need to enforce public order in our urban centres criminals will take over as they are now doing in Spanish Town, May Pen, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.
The next step in the consolidation of Tivoli Gardens came with its primary role in the illicit trade in cocaine. The enormous cash proceeds from this trade together with the earnings from state contracts and extortion has placed Western Kingston among the constituencies with the highest per capita income. The continuing poverty of the majority in comparison to the opulence of the criminal elite in the area is eloquent testimony to the fact that problems of equity persist in all processes of wealth creation, legal or illegal.
On the basis of these new sources of wealth the criminal elite has achieved the distinction of becoming the equals of their former political patrons. Today, Tivoli Gardens is a virtual state within a state, levying and collecting its own taxes in the form of extortion, dispensing justice and armed with the coercive power of any legal state.
In 1988 Michael Manley and Edward Seaga announced a peace treaty that would bring an end to partisan political violence. We have to be careful that similar announcements are not in reality the first step towards a confederation of criminal enterprises, in which political violence will only be replaced by the fight for turf in future gang wars. In this regard the developments in Matthew's Lane require the closest scrutiny.
Illegal arsenals are being constantly modernised and upgraded. In 1966, a raid by the police on Tivoli Gardens during the state of emergency yielded shotguns, revolvers, dynamite and Molotov cocktails. By comparison, three raids between 1993 and 1996 had yielded 2,877 rounds of ammunition used in Thompson machine guns, M16 assault rifles, AK47 rifles and a range of semi-automatic pistols. A raid on Arnett Gardens in January 2001 produced two AK-47 Assault Rifles with telescopic lens equipped to launch rockets, four rockets, three silencers and several assorted rounds of ammunition.
Where do we go from here?
In the meantime, all candidates for public office, especially those who want to be Prime Minister, must satisfy the law-abiding majority as to where they stand in the fight against crime. Golding has been flip flopping on this issue, and should be made to demonstrate beyond any doubt and especially by action that he supports the rule of law and is willing to share his knowledge with the police authorities.
Till then, no sane law-abiding Jamaican can contribute in any way to him becoming the chief executive of the state. He can, and should take these actions without requesting any further dialogue with the Prime Minister nor special opportunities to speak to garrison constituencies. His dilemma is of his own making and only be resolved by his own actions.
In the mean time, the rest of us should be clear that should he enter Jamaica House without abandoning garrison politics, the positions of ceremonial head of Tivoli Gardens would, once again, be united with that of Prime Minister for the rest of Jamaica with the most dire consequences one could ever imagine.
