Vernon Daley

Fifteen-year-old Rani Sittol has confronted the menace.

Last week the Meadowbrook High School student presented a paper to a youth forum in which he urged the restoration of the family if we are to have any chance against societal ills such as teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.

The social decay continues apace in Jamaica and therefore young Rani's admonition is timely.

We have huge discussions everyday about what needs to be done to improve our various institutions, including Parliament, the judiciary, the police force and the education system. However, the family unit - the most basic and important institution on which the entire society is built - has to struggle to get a piece of public discourse.

As part of the campaign for the next election, due next year, I'm hoping the political leaders will put some store on the very important issue of rebuilding the family as the bedrock of the society.

Bruce Golding has made a decision to project himself as a family man by more and more using his wife and children in his electioneering. It's no bad thing that he's shown as a good husband and supportive father.

In fact, it is encouraging because he's a man and it's mostly the men in our society who need examples of other men who are committed to family.

The Opposition Leader, I'm sure, is not the perfect family guy. I don't know that such a person exists. But at any rate, what we need is not perfection, just some good examples, backed up by the appropriate rhetoric, to start with.

Family ties

Mr. Golding is aspiring to become Prime Minister. If he plans on helping to restore family life then it makes sense that he demonstrates that he has strong family support and puts great emphasis on family ties.

Some people will see the Opposition Leader's rebranding as an empty political ploy. But we should guard against cynicism.

Others will argue that these are side issues and that what is really important is a leader who has ideas about how to get the economy moving and create jobs for people.

That is important, but the role of the leader can't stop there. We should want a leader who first of all embodies our best values, norms, practices and traditions. That should be the ideal, if ideals are to have a place in how we arrange our affairs.

A Prime Minister is not only there to grow the economy. He or she is also there to use the example of his or her own conduct, to grow our consciousness about non-material things such as the importance of good values and attitudes and strong family bonds.

Without these qualifications, the Prime Minister is handicapped in attempts to help the society out of crises where what is needed is not financial and political wizardry but moral authority.

Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson's values and attitudes campaign failed, not because it was a bad initiative, but because he was unable to summon the moral capital to lead it.

But having embarked on this new image, what Mr. Golding needs to tell us now is what concrete proposals he has in mind to rebuild family life in Jamaica and place it at the centre of national development.

Rani Sittol, I think, would love to hear.

Vernon Daley is a journalist.