A Consensus on Crime

 I echo the call from the JMEA for the need for a consensus on the issue of crime. For some time now, in my online Disqus comments and Letters to the Editor of the Observer and The Gleaner, I have been calling for a societal consensus on the way forward post Covid 19. The clamor is to re-open the economy and for a return to normal. However, our economy was never "open" to most of us. Most Jamaicans are on the margins of the economy looking in. Most Jamaicans are either unemployed, underemployed, struggling in the informal economy or are working poor. We should use the virus crisis as an opportunity to 'reset' Jamaica as advocated by Imani Duncan-Price. 

I refer you to the Rupert Lewis article attached which provides some of the historical background for what I am saying. The only thing I disagree with in that article is that I don't recall Norman Manley being 'a light-brown-skinned mulatto'! Post slavery, Jamaica has had economic and social crises in the 1930s, 1970s and now in 2020 with the virus crisis. Each of these crises created a window of opportunity for social change. In the 1930s, it was Bustamante who picked up the $100 bill laying on the ground and ran wid it to 'Independence'. In the 1970s, it was Michael Manley who picked up the $100 bill and ran with Democratic Socialism - and we know how that turned out: the collapse of the Jamaican dollar, increasing social polarization, 'economic hardship, food shortages and targeted political violence' (Rupert Lewis pg 6). The current virus crisis poses another window of opportunity. Who will pick up the $100 bill an run wid it? An election is coming up. While it would be nice if our political parties could carry out this process, I think if we wait on them, the wait will be in vain. We Jamaicans expect too much from and depend too much on our tribal, partisan political process for our country's development. I think we have to turn elsewhere. Where you might ask? No, not a third party! History shows that ain't the way. 

We have to face the harsh reality that our political establishment has been hijacked by a bunch of power hungry, mostly corrupt professional politicians in league with a corporate elite. For example, Bunting does not subscribe to the party's principle of democratic socialism and yet he is very powerful in the PNP to the point that he nearly won the leadership and only recently it has been proven that a majority of the PNPs MPs support Bunting. It seems to be only a matter of time before Bunting takes over the PNP. Therefore, we will have to look elsewhere for progress. Where? I suggest moving away from the state-directed economic model. I suggest a coming together of all the community organizations in our society: churches, community associations, independent unions, diaspora organizations, private sector organizations, everyone except the political parties to form a societal consensus to determine the way forward for Jamaica - ignoring the partisan political realm and all 'isms'. Exempting the political parties will be the only way to keep the process sane. As a strategy I suggest borrowing from Michael Burke's suggestion: the formation of massive cooperatives in each economic sector 'People's Cooperatives' formed under the existing Societies Act in Jamaica. This would be all legal and peaceful. This is especially needed in the ganja industry. Is this naive or is my suggestion realistic?

Raymond D. Grant