There are two competing positions on crime as posited by the two political parties in Jamaica neither of which can lead to a positive conclusion.
“I firmly believe in the rule of law as the foundation for all of our basic rights”. Sonia Sotomayor.
The PNP.
♦ The People’s National Party has never been a party which embraces law and order as a political philosophy. In fact, the populist persona of the PNP has been geared at attracting all and sundry into the party and keeping them through a lack of education and a heavy dose of indoctrination.
Under Percival Patterson, the Island’s longest-serving Prime Minister and arguably the leader on whose watch we lost our country, the dog whistle “anyting a anyting” was understood to mean, you are allowed to do what you please.
Needless to say, not only did crime increase exponentially but the nation gave up its moral compass.
Patterson made no attempt to arrest the precipitous slide the country was on- during his elongated tenure.
It may reasonably be argued that he took active measures to ensure that there would be no impediment to the crime scourge while he was Prime Minister.
For almost ten (10) years under Percival Patterson, not one dollar was made available to train a single detective.
It would be a waste of time to belabor the point as it relates to the clueless Simpson Miller.
Needless to say, crime is a staple of any PNP administration, the party is not concerned about it, it thrives on it.
It is true that power corrupts. The hope at the polling stations and the actions of the elected representatives, unfortunately, often turn to be opposite. The power of ballot turns into the power of wallet. Some law-makers become law-breakers. Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj.
The JLP
The Jamaica Labor Party of Hugh Lawson Shearer was a party which respected the rule of law, after Shearer the Party pretty much stayed with the policy under Edward Seaga but it is difficult to make the case for the rule of law while maintaining a community like Tivoli Gardens.
In fairness to Seaga the PNP created much more Political garrisons than the JLP ever did.
After a 14 1⁄2 year exile, the JLP was returned to power under Bruce Golding’s leadership.
Having inherited a country which had changed since he was a Minister in the JLP administration Golding made the tactical mistake of refusing to extradite the Tivoli Gardens crime lord Christopher Coke to stand trial in the United States.
Standing on what he later told the New Yorker was principles anchored in the Constitution he maintained the methodology the US used to obtain the evidence against Coke was antithetical to Jamaican law.
Before he capitulated he bellowed in one of his speeches as the issue swirled around his Government,“This Government does not take orders from Liguanea,” a thinly veiled swipe at the US Embassy which is based in Liguanea St. Andrew.
Golding’s protégé, Andrew Holness is a product of the liberal philosophy which presupposes that respect for citizens rights and enforcement of the nation’s laws are diametrically opposed.
That false choice has been the talking point of the island’s elitist cadre of movers and shakers many of whose legitimacy is to berate law enforcement.
Many of whom are heavily invested in the illicit drug and guns trade.
It is an ill-informed and dangerous position to take, at a time when the very authority of the state is under serious threat from homegrown thugs who demonstrated in 2010 that they are not afraid to take on the state.
Despite this open contempt for the rule of law and the incredibly gruesome killings each day both political parties continue to delude themselves into thinking that this existential problem can be fixed through gentle persuasion and community outreach.
CONCLUSION
The facts are simple, the PNP could not give a rats ass about anything but pillaging the public’s coffers enriching itself in the process.
In order to do that they have to hold state power, as a result, the party has never been able to shake itself free of its marriage with garrison politics, gangs and gangland figures.
For the PNP, Gangland associations have kept it in power for the longest unbroken period in the nation’s brief history.
The JLP of today is a misguided arrogant party which deludes itself into believing that Janitors can perform brain surgery. The JLP has basically become filler party, given power by razor thin margins only when the people are absolutely fed up with the corrupt PNP.
In the meantime, the country stumbles blindly on, unable to live up to it,s true potential.
A country corrupt to its core and a people too high on the drug of self-indulgence to realize they are only surviving daily on miracles instead of the blessed lives they could enjoy.
Jamaicans obey laws when we are guests in other people’s lands.Those of us who don’t, get a one-way ticket back.
Jamaicans do the things they do and commit the crimes they commit at home simply because administrations of both political parties have refused to make and enforce laws which make it very painful to break laws.
Our country is crying out for leadership what it gets instead is deception, half truths, and distortions.
“Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs”.Joe Biden.