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Behind
Jamaica's Garrisons
(
Part 2 )
The
following are excerpts of the July 1997 Report of the National
Committee on Political Tribal-ism. The Committee was chaired
by Political Ombudsman the Hon. Justice James Kerr.
The
Primary Causes
Patronage
Patronage has been defined as "the disbursement of the
discretionary favours of Government" or as in the submission
of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), "the monopolisation
of power by the party which forms the government and the use
of that power to manipulate state resources to perpetuate
its control. The concentration of power provides a strong
motivating force to the politicians because if they are outside
of the "power loop", they are rendered ineffective and impotent
despite the fact that they may be duly elected representatives
of the people. The manipulation of state resources provides
strong motivation to party supporters since for many it offers
the means to their existence and survival."
Gleanings
from academic studies and submissions written and oral indicate
indubitably that what began as mild clientelism in the decades
of the '50s developed into a blatant display of favouritism
including nepotism for the supporters and discrimination against
others. It is now a case of "to the victors the spoils" and
a contributory cause to gun violence as a form of political
rivalry. At every forum and in the many submissions, oral
and written, the discriminatory allocation of what has been
euphemistically called "scarce benefits" has been urged as
the fundamental cause of political tribalism.
Scarce
benefits
Housing
schemes
The practice
of the party in power allocating houses to supporters in order
to establish a homogeneous voting community resulted in recent
proliferation of garrison communities seven in Kingston
and St. Andrew and one in St. Catherine. This method of the
allocation must be condemned and discontinued.
The cessation
of the creation of garrison communities will not solve the
problem as the established towns will continue to exist with
their outreach influence and the violence between garrison
communities of different political persuasion. The dismantling
of the garrison communities by relocating some of the residents
was discussed, but the committee is of the view that this
would involve the removal of persons from their homes, the
break up of families, the economic realities of finding comparable
accommodation.
The impracticality
of the method precluded feasible proposals. It must be left
to the removal of the causes with attendant diminishing of
the dominance of the don and the advent of political tolerance.
Proposals
and recommendations
1.
The committee approves of the criteria and method of allocation
of housing schemes under the control of the National Housing
Trust.
2.
For housing schemes not under the control of the National
Housing Trust, including slum clearance schemes, the allocation
should be entrusted to an impartial committee.
3.
The committee commends to the Government the adoption for
areas in similar circumstances the "Strategy for Revitalisation
of Blighted Areas" as set out in the 'Report of the National
Inner City Committee' and implemented in 1993 in Jones Town.
Land
settlement schemes
The widespread
belief in political preference in the allocation of lots under
Government land settlement schemes has been strengthened by
recent complaints to the Ombudsman for political matters and
the public outcry of the farmers of Holland in St. Elizabeth
that their applications for the purchase of lots will not
be given the promised priority, because of the publication
list of an approved list of approved purchasers who were not
farmers from the area.
The committee
has considered the statement to Parliament on February 22,
1994, by the Honourable Prime Minister on the disposition
of land and unreservedly approve of the process for disposition,
the criteria for disposal and the proposed membership of the
committee to consider and recommend applications of potential
purchasers thus:
"...When
Government is preparing to sell or lease lands, the process
of disposition will involve a sequence, along the following
lines:
A. A
sub-division survey.
B. Valuation
of the lots.
C. Advertisement
of sale of lots.
D. Issue
of prescribed application forms.
E. Receipt
of completed forms.
The criteria
for disposal for lands will include:
A. Making
lots available to the landless and to small farmers to the
extent possible.
B. The
encouragement of youth and women in agriculture.
C. Favouring
viable production, especially for exports.
D. Minimising
use for speculative purposes.
E. Ensuring
security of tenure for those to whom lands have previously
been allotted and are in good standing.
Once
applications have been received, they will be considered by
a committee comprised of the following:
* Two
(2) representatives of the RADA Board for the parish in which
the land is situated.
* One
(1) representative of the Ministers (of Religion) Fraternal
for the parish.
* One
(1) representative of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS).
* Three
(3) persons selected from a panel established by the Contractor-General,
two of whom must be residents of the parish.
* The
Commissioner of Lands or his/her representative."
We are
of the view that the recommendations of the Land Disposal
Committee to the Minister of Agriculture should be submitted
through the Permanent Secretary rather than the Commissioner
of Lands, as proposed by the Prime Minister. These recommendations,
once approved by the Minister, will be made public with information
as to price and size of lands and other terms and conditions
of sale or lease.
The committee
has also taken note of the complaint of the Contractor-General
at the delay in establishing the Parish Land Disposal Committee.
In light
of consistent criticisms of Operation PRIDE, we share the
Contractor-General's concern at the delay in implementing
measures to ensure that there will be equity and fairness
in the disposal of Government Land Settlement Schemes in word,
appearance and deed.
Contributory
Circumstances
After
three decades of independence the deplorable conditions in
the inner cities continue notwithstanding the manifest
improvement of living standards in some parts of the Corporate
Area. Many politicians have benefited from the unrest and
displacement which are features of communities with high levels
of unemployment, a proliferation of unskilled and virtually
unemployable youth, pervasive poverty of pursue and spirit.
The focus of positive attention on the needs of these persons
could elevate their self-esteem and no doubt define for them
a purpose beyond their usefulness as partisan puppets.
Poverty
The living
conditions of the people in most of the "tribalised" communities
(some which we visited) reek of abandonment and neglect. Sub-standard
housing, poor sanitation and numerous environmental hazards
are immediately visible. The National Inner City Committee
highlighted these conditions in its 1993 Report on Strategy
for the Revitalisation of Blighted Youth. Similar observations
were made by the Centre for Population, Community and Social
Change in its Study on Urban Violence and Poverty in Jamaica
(They Cry Respect) published in 1996.
Poverty
facilitates the development of political tribalism. The slum
communities around the parish capitals, particularly, Kingston,
St. Andrew, and St. Catherine, continue to grow as unemployed
and under-educated youths migrate from rural communities in
search of a better opportunity.
The fact
is that the Jamaican economy has not performed well over the
past 35 years and therefore the country has not been able
to provide enough jobs to meet the needs of a growing population.
The conditions
in the communities also reflect the failure of the education
process, where young people, the regenerative capacity of
the future, are graduated from schools without the basic skills
required to perform in the formal economy.
It is
clear that poverty and illiteracy provide the opportunity
for politicians to create and nurture political tribalism.
In our visit to South St. Catherine a young man defined the
problem clearly when he said, "the politician makes us feel
important, we have nothing else to do otherwise".
The needs
of the poor are great, it is estimated that the poorest household
contributed five per cent to Gross Domestic Product in 1950,
by 1980 the contribution was reduced to two per cent.
We submit
that any solution to political tribalism must address poverty,
and unemployment by the ways and means advocated hereafter.
The committee
recognises with approval the "points" system developed by
the National Housing Trust in the sale and allocation of government-aided
housing solutions.
We recommend
however that attention be paid to those persons so far below
the poverty line that they are unable to access the benefits
offered by the National Housing Trust.
Any assistance
offered by the government of the day in this regard should
be on the basis of need. This neutral and non-parish approach
may be achieved if it sought to involve non-governmental and
non-partisan organisations in the process of implementing
programmes for those person in need of adequate shelter. In
any event, the allocation mechanism should be manifestly impartial.
Closer
attention should be paid to the basic requirements of public
health and cleanliness in the inner city areas. Broken sewer
mains which create unwholesome and unpleasant atmosphere must
not await public disturbance in the form of roadblocks, demonstrations
or otherwise.
Skills
Training and Unemployment
There
is little or no emphasis on personal empowerment and the promotion
of healthy self-esteem for the
numerous unemployed and unemployable inner city residents
(particularly among the youth). The large body of unskilled
persons who reside within these communities must await the
hand-outs of odd jobs (very often the offshoots of small parochial
contracts distributed by politicians to known supporters).
Jobs are regularly tied to political affiliation. The sources
of work are also limited by the high concentration of persons
who have no skills and therefore form part of a very large
group of common labourers. Many young males sit idly by unless
and until there is a programme or development which requires
labour intensive input. And the devil finds work for idle
hands. Survey done by the National Inner City Committee (ante)
revealed that in 1993 a mere 18 per cent of the residents
of Jones Town had proper training in any particular skill.
Another 53 per cent admitted to having no particular skill
whatsoever.
The committee
recognises the need on the part of Government to:
* Provide
safe places for our young to learn and grow. Businesses, churches
and other organisations could assist by offering structured
activities for young people.
* Help
young people to develop marketable skills.
* Focus
on establishing and developing community centres for skills
training, youth programmes and encouraging meaningful social
activity.
Job
Creation/Youth Empowerment
The committee
is of the opinion that the country has to commit to providing
gainful occupation for unemployed youths in the inner city
communities. We believe that failure to address this problem
will only perpetuate political violence and crime in general.
We suggest the following:
* The
Government seeks the co-operation of the private sector to
spearhead an inner-city job initiative. Essentially, the programme
will be funded by the State by means of a tax credit equal
to twice the cost of employing and training inner city youths
for a period of three years. The Church, Council of Voluntary
Social Services, the NGO Community and other approved non-governmental
organisations will determine the list of qualified youths.
* Reducing
the cost of national security and the savings from the National
Food Stamps Programme could fund this initiative. It is also
suggested that any private sector company participating in
a government project or obtaining financial support from the
government should provide employment to inner city youths.
* The
committee has determined that in many communities, there are
few examples of good role models for young men. Presently,
the politicians and the community "dons" are the models of
success and masculinity. We believe that balance could be
obtained by resuscitating youth programmes such as Boy's Scout,
Girl's Guide, Cadet movement and the Four-H Pro-gramme. The
State would encourage companies to allow their employees approved
time off to volunteer in such community-based projects. These
efforts could be supervised and monitored by the Council for
Voluntary Social Services and other umbrella non-governmental
organisations.
The
Social and Economic Support Programme (SESP)
The SESP
was set up in October 1990, with the aim of seeking "to mitigate
the effects of major changes in economic strategy on the most
vulnerable in the society". The co-ordinator of the SESP unit
stated that his unit would not consider "the SESP activities
to be related to allocation of scarce benefits which are usually
seen from a political stand point as payback for favours and
or works rendered for the party". In a memorandum dated January
13, 1997, he went on to emphasise that the focus of the programme
was on "developmental issues... to pull up those persons who
fall on or under the poverty line with a view to improving
the quality of life."
These
are obviously laudable objectives and the committee was provided
with a copy of a letter dated January 31, 1997 from the Ministry
of Finance to the Office of the Prime Minister, which set
out detailed guidelines on the accounting and accountability
requirements of the disbursement process under the programme.
However, it does appear that apart from a component
for project proposals received through non-governmental organisations
the identification of projects generally is to some
extent what the co-ordinator himself described as "MP-driven".
Indeed, one component relates expressly to a reserve maintained
by the Office of the Prime Minister (described as the "OPM
Reserve"), which seeks to address requests from "Sundry organisation
and institutions... [which] ... from time to time make appeals
to the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, the Ministers in the Office
of the Prime Minister and other Ministers and Members of Parliament."
Apparently where various requests for assistance received
"cannot be fitted in other government programmes, the Rt.
Hon. Prime Minister and his Ministers attempt to satisfy them
from the Reserve".
It does
seem clear that the structure of the SESP does not insulate
it from potential abuse as a vehicle for the distribution
of "scarce benefits" along political lines. To this extent,
laudable though it aims, the SESP remains capable of assuming
a role in the machinery of political tribalism.
Recommendations
The committee
having reviewed the objectives and structure of the SESP,
recommends that the programme be abolished. Programmes of
the SESP can be adequately achieved through the various ministries
and agencies of Government without direct involvement of the
Member of Parliament.
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