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A moment of crisis
published: Wednesday | June 4, 2008
The Greek word, Krisis, means "time of decision or judgement, time to make a determination, time to state a preference".
In a crisis, one has a choice: one can 'go with the flow' and let events run their course, and be swept along - maybe in a direction you would rather not go - or in a crisis one can step in, sum up the situation carefully, and take a decision which will resolutely set a course in the direction you believe it is right to go.
Mashing powerful corns
Clearly a battle is being waged behind the scenes, the outcome of which will affect all of us, and also our grandchildren.
Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, who is a man with a mission, clearly faced some obstacle so great that he felt it necessary to publicly offer his resignation. I have a feeling that in his effort to rid the police of corruption, and to fight organised crime in the country, he is mashing powerful corns.
For a long time, there have been stories about malfeasance in high places in the police force; former Prime Minister Patterson once said that a corrupt police force could not fight corruption; there have been allegations about links between senior police officers and drugs.
As former Jamaica Defence Force chief of staff, I am sure that Commissioner Lewin is in possession of intelligence on who these corrupt cops are, and I can imagine the obstacles - the 'Fifth Column' - that he has to battle every day; he must be mashing their corns.
More seriously, he must have intelligence in his possession on the drug-dealing politicians and influential private sector moguls who are paying the corrupt cops, and that group of outstanding Jamaicans must be feeling very threatened right now. I would imagine that he is mashing very powerful corns indeed!
And so I can well imagine that there is a very influential group actively lobbying for the removal of Admiral Lewin as commissioner of police before he gets too close. And this is why I say that in Jamaica at this juncture, we are at a moment of crisis, a moment of fundamental decision. In whose hands do we want Jamaica to be?
Last week, I wrote that "we are not going to find a solution to 'the crime problem' leaving everything else unchanged". I have received calls, and I have noted the letters to the editor asking for details of the 'solution'. I do not pretend to have all the answers, but what I do know is that we are not going to behead the monster of murder and mayhem in Jamaica until we dismantle the garrisons.
Move to dismantle garrisons
The front page of last Sunday's Gleaner tells the tale: 'Three-quarters of all murders committed in the Corporate Area this year took place in the political garrisons - 423 out of 564 murders'!
We have in place a minister of national security who chaired a committee which authored a Road Map to Degarrisoning, and a police commissioner who has the cojones to work with him to actually do it! We are at a very crucial point in Jamaican history, and the stakes are high.
Both the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition preside over garrison constituencies, which poses a particular problem. Whoever makes the move to dismantle the garrisons will have to turn against their own dons and their militias who have supported them in the past, and who put them in power in the first place.
One thinks of F.W. DeKlerk in South Africa who turned against the apartheid policy of his own party; and Mikhail Gorbachev, placed in power by the Communist Party of the Supreme Soviet, and who presided over the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
Is Bruce Golding made of the sort of statesmanly stuff to preside over the dismantling of the garrison constituencies which are the greatest threat to the Jamaican constitution? The continuance of Admiral Hardley Lewin as commissioner of police suggests that the crisis is being handled correctly, and that history is in the making. We shall see, won't we?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a consultant in sustainable rural development.
published: Wednesday | June 4, 2008
The Greek word, Krisis, means "time of decision or judgement, time to make a determination, time to state a preference".
In a crisis, one has a choice: one can 'go with the flow' and let events run their course, and be swept along - maybe in a direction you would rather not go - or in a crisis one can step in, sum up the situation carefully, and take a decision which will resolutely set a course in the direction you believe it is right to go.
Mashing powerful corns
Clearly a battle is being waged behind the scenes, the outcome of which will affect all of us, and also our grandchildren.
Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, who is a man with a mission, clearly faced some obstacle so great that he felt it necessary to publicly offer his resignation. I have a feeling that in his effort to rid the police of corruption, and to fight organised crime in the country, he is mashing powerful corns.
For a long time, there have been stories about malfeasance in high places in the police force; former Prime Minister Patterson once said that a corrupt police force could not fight corruption; there have been allegations about links between senior police officers and drugs.
As former Jamaica Defence Force chief of staff, I am sure that Commissioner Lewin is in possession of intelligence on who these corrupt cops are, and I can imagine the obstacles - the 'Fifth Column' - that he has to battle every day; he must be mashing their corns.
More seriously, he must have intelligence in his possession on the drug-dealing politicians and influential private sector moguls who are paying the corrupt cops, and that group of outstanding Jamaicans must be feeling very threatened right now. I would imagine that he is mashing very powerful corns indeed!
And so I can well imagine that there is a very influential group actively lobbying for the removal of Admiral Lewin as commissioner of police before he gets too close. And this is why I say that in Jamaica at this juncture, we are at a moment of crisis, a moment of fundamental decision. In whose hands do we want Jamaica to be?
Last week, I wrote that "we are not going to find a solution to 'the crime problem' leaving everything else unchanged". I have received calls, and I have noted the letters to the editor asking for details of the 'solution'. I do not pretend to have all the answers, but what I do know is that we are not going to behead the monster of murder and mayhem in Jamaica until we dismantle the garrisons.
Move to dismantle garrisons
The front page of last Sunday's Gleaner tells the tale: 'Three-quarters of all murders committed in the Corporate Area this year took place in the political garrisons - 423 out of 564 murders'!
We have in place a minister of national security who chaired a committee which authored a Road Map to Degarrisoning, and a police commissioner who has the cojones to work with him to actually do it! We are at a very crucial point in Jamaican history, and the stakes are high.
Both the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition preside over garrison constituencies, which poses a particular problem. Whoever makes the move to dismantle the garrisons will have to turn against their own dons and their militias who have supported them in the past, and who put them in power in the first place.
One thinks of F.W. DeKlerk in South Africa who turned against the apartheid policy of his own party; and Mikhail Gorbachev, placed in power by the Communist Party of the Supreme Soviet, and who presided over the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
Is Bruce Golding made of the sort of statesmanly stuff to preside over the dismantling of the garrison constituencies which are the greatest threat to the Jamaican constitution? The continuance of Admiral Hardley Lewin as commissioner of police suggests that the crisis is being handled correctly, and that history is in the making. We shall see, won't we?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a consultant in sustainable rural development.