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LETTER OF THE DAY: National ID - a singularly bad idea
published: Saturday | January 26, 2008
The Editor, Sir:
The government's proposed creation of a national identification (ID) card is little more than a superficial 'quick-fix'.
A national ID offers only a false sense of security but will pose serious threats to our human rights and civil liberties.
According to the Jamaica Labour Party manifesto, the national ID card is needed to "improve police surveillance and detection capabilities and protect law-abiding citizens".
Prime Minister Bruce Golding himself argues that the ID card will "ensure that this country becomes more manageable, more governable and the security of the country can be better ensured".
From this, I understand that the main purpose of the national ID is crime prevention - as we already have a tax registration number and voter identification for elections.
It is, therefore, clear that, whoever else is made privy to the information captured on this proposed mandatory ID, the police are to be given the authority to demand the card from any of us.
In 1995, when the then Government decided to amend the Evidence Act and allow absentee witness statements to be entered into evidence, it did so in the context of a palpably corrupt police force.
Given the recent revelations of Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue, we now know that police-men have been going into Jamaican courtrooms and manufacturing evidence against citizens.
Our leadership then, it seems, was not capable of predicting that a corrupt police force would attempt to pervert the course of justice and bend the rules of evidence when it suited them.
Breeding more corruption
The same police force in 2008, no less corrupt, is now to be given the power to detain citizens who cannot produce their national ID on demand.
May I, therefore, point out to the current leadership what is likely to happen if this system is actually put into effect.
Jamaicans with means - those who drive, for example - will soon be paying bribes to policemen who threaten lock-up if an appropriate 'fee' is not paid over when the ID cannot be produced.
Jamaicans from inner-city areas will actually be taken to lock-up and detained when the ID cannot be produced - as such 'processing' will now be rendered legal.
Women will be harassed for sexual favours when the ID card cannot be produced. I can safely predict that, in a few years, there will be much hand-wringing when we find out - perhaps through another policeman like Lyn-Sue - that the police have been further abusing citizens' rights on the pretext of making the national ID system 'work' for them.
I will further predict that it won't be long before other areas of our lives (office buildings, doctors' offices, gas stations, highway tolls, buses, hospitals) will require the ID card for their security or payment systems.
The end result will be a nation where Jamaicans moving in their own country are monitored and recorded through these 'internal passports'.
No effect on crime
I can also point out to our leadership that a national ID will have no effect on our preposterously high crime rate.
Those who already break the law and are involved in criminality will pervert the system.
Moreover, an ID card is only as good as the documents used to procure it. We already have established avenues for accessing fake passports and other such documents.
A thriving black market in fake IDs will emerge, further deepening the corruption that is such a feature of Jamaican life.
Ultimately, the national ID will not do what the Government hopes it will. Unfortunately, it will have consequences that we do not wish for our society.
Columnist Mark Wignall, in his column of December 30, 2007, wrote the following: "Many of our gunmen will not want to be fingerprinted. This will present our security forces with a smaller cohort of persons to whom special attention must be paid."
Already, we see that there is a real risk of presuming guilt in citizens who do not wish to be approached by some uniformed agent of the state with the words: 'Where are your papers?'
I am, etc.,
ALISON IRVINE
treacle_29@yahoo.com
published: Saturday | January 26, 2008
The Editor, Sir:
The government's proposed creation of a national identification (ID) card is little more than a superficial 'quick-fix'.
A national ID offers only a false sense of security but will pose serious threats to our human rights and civil liberties.
According to the Jamaica Labour Party manifesto, the national ID card is needed to "improve police surveillance and detection capabilities and protect law-abiding citizens".
Prime Minister Bruce Golding himself argues that the ID card will "ensure that this country becomes more manageable, more governable and the security of the country can be better ensured".
From this, I understand that the main purpose of the national ID is crime prevention - as we already have a tax registration number and voter identification for elections.
It is, therefore, clear that, whoever else is made privy to the information captured on this proposed mandatory ID, the police are to be given the authority to demand the card from any of us.
In 1995, when the then Government decided to amend the Evidence Act and allow absentee witness statements to be entered into evidence, it did so in the context of a palpably corrupt police force.
Given the recent revelations of Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue, we now know that police-men have been going into Jamaican courtrooms and manufacturing evidence against citizens.
Our leadership then, it seems, was not capable of predicting that a corrupt police force would attempt to pervert the course of justice and bend the rules of evidence when it suited them.
Breeding more corruption
The same police force in 2008, no less corrupt, is now to be given the power to detain citizens who cannot produce their national ID on demand.
May I, therefore, point out to the current leadership what is likely to happen if this system is actually put into effect.
Jamaicans with means - those who drive, for example - will soon be paying bribes to policemen who threaten lock-up if an appropriate 'fee' is not paid over when the ID cannot be produced.
Jamaicans from inner-city areas will actually be taken to lock-up and detained when the ID cannot be produced - as such 'processing' will now be rendered legal.
Women will be harassed for sexual favours when the ID card cannot be produced. I can safely predict that, in a few years, there will be much hand-wringing when we find out - perhaps through another policeman like Lyn-Sue - that the police have been further abusing citizens' rights on the pretext of making the national ID system 'work' for them.
I will further predict that it won't be long before other areas of our lives (office buildings, doctors' offices, gas stations, highway tolls, buses, hospitals) will require the ID card for their security or payment systems.
The end result will be a nation where Jamaicans moving in their own country are monitored and recorded through these 'internal passports'.
No effect on crime
I can also point out to our leadership that a national ID will have no effect on our preposterously high crime rate.
Those who already break the law and are involved in criminality will pervert the system.
Moreover, an ID card is only as good as the documents used to procure it. We already have established avenues for accessing fake passports and other such documents.
A thriving black market in fake IDs will emerge, further deepening the corruption that is such a feature of Jamaican life.
Ultimately, the national ID will not do what the Government hopes it will. Unfortunately, it will have consequences that we do not wish for our society.
Columnist Mark Wignall, in his column of December 30, 2007, wrote the following: "Many of our gunmen will not want to be fingerprinted. This will present our security forces with a smaller cohort of persons to whom special attention must be paid."
Already, we see that there is a real risk of presuming guilt in citizens who do not wish to be approached by some uniformed agent of the state with the words: 'Where are your papers?'
I am, etc.,
ALISON IRVINE
treacle_29@yahoo.com
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