Devon Dick
LAST WEEK, after the Stand Up For Jamaica event, my tennis partner, Dr. Robert Robinson, operator of the Midlands Specialist Centre in May Pen, Clarendon, related his childhood experience with Mr. Azan. He said that while he was a student at Clarendon College, his parents would take him to Azan's store where Mr. Azan would do the measuring for the length of khaki. Over the years, the business prospered because of his entrepreneurial acumen and warm personality. At the time of his death, he was an icon. It is, therefore, meet and right that the nation should pause and remember one who had contributed so much and was so brutally slain.
The PSOJ must be commended for calling for the nation to pause and reflect on the approximately 600 lives that have been needlessly slaughtered. The mood at Emancipation Park was solemn. Many persons were talking about what is happening in the nation.
APPROPRIATE SPEECH
It was a good event. The singing of Judy Mowatt captured the spirit of the occasion. And Monsignor Richard Albert gave an appropriate speech without being narrow-minded. However, things could have been done differently. It might have been more symbolic if another day was chosen for the half-day lock down. It might have garnered more support if a different week was chosen than the short work-week in which a holiday was celebrated on the Monday. In addition, the following week would have given more time to mobilise the doubters to join in the protest.
The criticism that has less merit is the one that said the PSOJ only reacted when one of its prominent members was affected. Throughout history, the upper classes and the privileged ones usually react when things start to affect them. Even the great advocate of freedom, Reverend William Knibb OM, did not lash out against slavery until it affected the ministry of the gospel. Even after 1831, Rev James Phillippo, the founder of the First Free Village in Jamaica in 1838, remained silent on the issue of slavery.
Knibb told the Baptist Missionary Committee meeting in England held in June 1832 that "we should still have maintained the silence that had been imposed upon us as to civil and political affairs, however enormous, and cruel, and revolting the evils we were compelled to witness, had they not at last deprived us of the privilege of telling the poor, ill-used, and oppressed slave that he would, if a believer in the gospel, spend an eternity of happiness in heaven." But then he could be silent no longer.
Let all forces speak candidly and humbly so that there can be honest co-operation in the fight against crime. The private sector, police, politicians and church must acknowledge that we have all sinned and come short of what is expected of law-abiding citizens. Some have committed more acts than others. Many have left undone things that should have been done. Let us realise that the common enemies are the persons who commit the murders and conspire to murder and provide the conditions in which murdering flourishes.
'NATIONAL RESOLVE'
It needs social re-engineering, economic equity, equality before the law and spiritual renewal. Happily, there is what Opposition spokesman on national security Derrick Smith calls a 'national resolve' to tackle the monster called crime. As a people we have defeated slavery and apartheid and this murderous spirit is next.
This is not to say that it will be easy. We need to be honest and say we are not sure what the answer is and how to fix it. It is a multifaceted problem that cannot be easily fixed. No one person has the answer; otherwise we would have done it already. We have to try many things and different things. Even to say that more persons become Christians might not necessarily lead to a reduction in murders. Christians are killing each other and others in some countries.
Let us seek wisdom from God for this trying hour and each person humbly try to play a role. In the meantime, remember the exhortation of the Rev Rennard White, at the National Prayer Breakfast, "Support Kingfish."
Rev Devon Dick is pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot: the Church in Nation Building'.
