Delroy Chuck
IN THE 2002 General Elections, the PNP pulled a fast one, conned the Jamaican people and subtly and successfully campaigned on the slogans of 'Solid achievements' and 'Don't stop the progress'. The inflow of used, 'deportee' cars, cellular phones and consumer goods, along with Highway 2000, were the crowning examples of achievements and progress. The people were encouraged to 'log on'. They did not know they were logging on to the disintegration of Jamaica, and the cry now is how to log off, lest we perish.
Since the 2002 elections, the country continues to disintegrate but at an even more rapid pace. Let the comrades, the well-connected businessmen, strong supporters of the governing party and others who contend that we are on the right track, deny and demonstrate that Jamaica is not disintegrating. Last year, we had the most murders in our history and, this year, we are on target to achieve a new record, probably exceeding 1,600 for the first time. Disappointingly, there seems to be no constructive solution to the daily bloodbath. Not even young children, women and priests can escape the gunmen and killers in our midst.
Nowadays, in our disintegrating society, gunmen and gangs seem to be in charge and rampage with little fear and no control from the security forces. While soldiers are stationed less than 50 metres away, a family of four burns to death in Barnes Avenue. Three women are raped, shot and thrown into the sewage disposal channel of Greenwich Town, two are presumed dead and to date cannot be found. Two young priests, from overseas and serving with Missionaries of the Poor, while washing dishes at their seminary on North Street are killed, probably, by one stray bullet. Then, a known hoodlum and alleged multiple killer, Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett, is slain by the police, allegedly in a shoot-out, and Spanish Town erupts into wanton violence. These are the news stories that Jamaicans at home and abroad read daily and wonder in which direction is Jamaica heading?
Yet, crime is not the only symptom of our disintegrating society. Everywhere, along the byways or highways, the physical infrastructure of our country is just falling apart. Admittedly, the hurricanes are responsible for the acute damage to many of the gullies and roads but, for most residential roads and inner city gullies, the passage of the hurricanes have only made matters worse. Most of the well-constructed gullies in Northern St. Andrew have not been maintained or repaired for decades. With the passage of the recent hurricanes, simple cracks and cavities have developed into gaping sinkholes, and the banks of many gullies have collapsed and threaten the well-being of lives and properties nearby. Apart from Highway 2000, virtually every road is now a total mess, full of potholes, and with eroded and undulating surfaces. And, there is no hope in sight, as there is no money.
Jamaica has no money to attend to the many social problems, no money to educate or heal our people, no money to pay our police and provide the resources to maintain law and order and, quite frankly, no money to fix or do anything worthwhile. The whole Jamaican society is deprived of needed funds and resources for one simple reason - the economy has been mismanaged and devastated by poor economic policies. The economy has not grown and, for the vast majority of Jamaicans, it has contracted. Presently, the economy is managed solely to pay our debt and to borrow more. Nothing in the economic policies of the government suggests that they have any plans for Jamaica to earn its way out of its mounting bankruptcy. The key focus of the balanced budget target is to enable more borrowing on the foreign market, so even the goose that lays the golden eggs - tourism - is being taxed into decline.
Further, Jamaica is disintegrating because the government has made partisan politics and the winning of elections its chief considerations in everything it does. State resources are used to enrich the genetically connected and, thus, to strengthen and bolster the party machinery. Important appointments are made primarily to put party supporters and sympathisers in positions of influence and control, to act in the interests of the party instead of the national interests. Until the government appreciates that the central purpose of governance is to provide an atmosphere of hope, trust, confidence and stability to generate jobs, choices, opportunities and resources for the people, Jamaica will continue to disintegrate.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at Delchuck@Hotmail.Com.
