Laura Tanna
ENDURING ECONOMIC development will come to Jamaica only when crime has been brought to a point where the average Jamaican feels free to walk on city or country streets without being maimed, murdered, abducted, or even just harassed; where young men don't get beaten or shot for not joining a gang; where young women aren't reported missing and sent to the country to avoid being raped by local thugs.
P.J. Patterson has a lot to answer for. This country can be relatively crime free and could have been so for the past decade had he then put the right people in the right places and given them the money to do their jobs properly. I'm tired of hearing that Jamaica is saddled with debt that precludes taking the necessary measures to clean up corruption in the police force, provide adequate stations for the honest men and women left and put the technology they need into their hands. If crime had been addressed seriously, look at the money which could have been spent on it.
During the financial crisis, the Government bailed out people who deposited their money to earn 60 per cent or more. Government should not have succumbed to the argument that it was necessary for confidence to be restored to protect those who invested recklessly (especially when many knew the condition of the institutions they were investing in but were spurred on by greed). Had the Government protected smaller investors ($300,000 or less in deposits) and not allowed a bailout for the few reckless investors, it would have set a good example to the country.
GOVERNMENT LIABILITY
While Paulwell's exuberance keeps costing millions, Patrick Casserly's IT centres are going from strength to strength - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
It was obvious at the time that Government liability in bailing out badly-managed larger players was going to cost the taxpayer millions and millions more than government spokesmen projected, and many people said so, but the Government did not listen. Billions could have been saved and spent on education and fighting crime, creating an economic climate for growth.
When a primary employer in St. Thomas closed, Government appeared unperturbed. They intended to turn the Goodyear factory into a training centre for Internet services. Over a hundred million dollars of refurbishment later, Phillip Paulwell admits the centre never materialised. People are still out of work there but that money could have built a better police force. While Paulwell's exuberance keeps costing millions, Patrick Casserly's IT centres are going from strength to strength, despite the obstacles faced.
Many were incredulous at a front-page story in The Gleaner when the Minister of Agriculture stated that Government-owned sugar factories were badly managed. Hello, minister! Was that not your responsibility? Why had you taken those companies back from the private sector at a cost of billions and recompensed those investors fully, even when the companies were bankrupt? Bankrupt companies are not normally paid full price, as was done with sugar companies in private hands. One investor was amazed that Government not only gave him back all his money, but also took over the debt he had incurred!
The minister was then instrumental in borrowing billions to rehabilitate these now Government-owned companies, under management he appointed, and now tells us about their bad management! Will Government again spend millions to privatise the sugar companies, and if they fail, bail them out again? Think of how that money could develop better trained and paid police.
Even Air Jamaica, as much as it has projected a positive image of the country, has done so at an enormous cost to the taxpayer, a cost largely unknown to the average Jamaican. Significant reduction in crime would also have had a positive effect on tourism. Jobs were generated by Air Jamaica, but other jobs in tourism would have been generated if crime had been better contained. Think of the times the road to the airport in Kingston has been closed by full-scale gun battles between rival gangs blocking access to international travel, sometimes killing innocent passengers in vehicles and making international news reports. Who wants to travel to a place where you might not make it to the airport alive?
Did you know that the Peace Corps won't even send volunteers into Kingston or Spanish Town, areas where they served successfully for years and where their services are still requested, because of fears for their safety now? Think of how many jobs are lost to the average Jamaican today because companies won't locate here.
I haven't touched on the cases of alleged corruption at the National Solid Waste Manage-ment Authority, scandals in the Government building sector with contractors, etc. Millions of these dollars could have been spent to provide both the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force with what they need to protect every Jamaican in every neighbourhood, dollars that could have been available over the 17 years of People's National Party rule had the political will to spend them on the right thing been there. Mr. Patterson left the previous Minister of National Security in power for years because it obviously suited him to do so. Was it out of loyalty? Did the party benefit from this? Who benefited from this?
PIECEMEAL APPROACH
When Patterson knew he would not be running again, he finally changed the Minister of National Security, and to the new minister's credit, some long-overdue measures were initiated, though without the funding to make many of the necessary changes. It is clear what needs to be done now.
A piecemeal approach to crime is not the answer. An all-out attack on crime needs to be mounted now, on a war footing, using the reports and expertise abundantly available, to put a price tag on what it will cost to weed out corruption, provide proper salaries, work environments and technology for the honest security forces. If Portia Simpson Miller is willing to make the hard decisions her predecessor wasn't, then hats off to her. If she isn't, then Mr. Golding ought to be allowed to implement the MacMillan Task Force Report.
