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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Disingenuous, Mr Seaga</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Henley Morgan
Thursday, February 15, 2007
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=88 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Henley Morgan</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Some points I have put into print before are worth repeating.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Garrisons are illegitimate; having been created by some of the worst acts of political gerrymandering and electoral manipulation seen in any democratic country in the second half of the 20th century. The advent of garrisons marked the descent of Jamaica into anarchistic behaviour. Today, they are, without exception, zones of exclusion characterised by endemic poverty, an absence of social services, crumbling infrastructure and appalling sanitation, making them breeding grounds for criminality. Having been allowed to continue unchecked for over 40 years, garrisons and the associated behaviour have become institutionalised and are spreading. Perhaps as many as 50 per cent of the populace live in political constituencies that have strong garrison features and although they represent only 20 per cent of the total, constituencies so characterised account for close to 80 per cent of the homicides. Even with some politicians in these areas practising a different brand of politics, the problem remains intractable; solutions are hard to come by.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Besides garrisons and the atrocities that attended their establishment, there is nothing peculiar about Jamaica's past that explains its current position at the top of the world's murder capitals. Other countries have endured slavery in their past, have known poverty, suffered uprooting of families, passed through periods of incompetent governments and experienced wars. Yet they have managed to overcome history, tradition and disasters of one sort or the other to achieve a semblance of normality in their social relationships, economy and politics.<P class=StoryText align=justify>For Edward Seaga to write about "Some shameful sins of slavery" and attribute Jamaica's current debacle totally to that period in our history, not only tells us the man is living in denial, but that he is disingenuous. His failure to make any reference to garrison politics as a causal factor when his time at the top of Jamaican politics converged almost precisely with the rise of the garrison phenomenon is itself shameful and a sin.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Omar Davies suffers no such delusions. In his published statement, "A paradigm shift in Jamaica's inner-city governance", he displayed rare courage for one who at the time was in pursuit of the country's highest political office.
"The status quo which prevails in our inner cities is profoundly undemocratic. Too often, it places community power in the hands of a minority who, through fear born of their possession of firepower and their willingness to use it ruthlessly, control and restrict the capacities and aspirations of the ordinary citizens of these communities. For decades, Jamaican politicians have avoided coming to terms with the need to turn all this on its head. Many who have represented so-called garrisons have fallen in line with the system, dispensing whatever patronage they can muster, thereby reinforcing the dictatorship of the don."<P class=StoryText align=justify>But it is the next point by Davies that is most profound and far-reaching in its implications. "Changing the status quo in political garrisons requires great moral courage and honesty, and a willingness to endure criticisms. Its success requires the support of those who want Jamaica to become a civilised place for all its citizens.
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Henley Morgan
Thursday, February 15, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=88 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Henley Morgan</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Some points I have put into print before are worth repeating.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Garrisons are illegitimate; having been created by some of the worst acts of political gerrymandering and electoral manipulation seen in any democratic country in the second half of the 20th century. The advent of garrisons marked the descent of Jamaica into anarchistic behaviour. Today, they are, without exception, zones of exclusion characterised by endemic poverty, an absence of social services, crumbling infrastructure and appalling sanitation, making them breeding grounds for criminality. Having been allowed to continue unchecked for over 40 years, garrisons and the associated behaviour have become institutionalised and are spreading. Perhaps as many as 50 per cent of the populace live in political constituencies that have strong garrison features and although they represent only 20 per cent of the total, constituencies so characterised account for close to 80 per cent of the homicides. Even with some politicians in these areas practising a different brand of politics, the problem remains intractable; solutions are hard to come by.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Besides garrisons and the atrocities that attended their establishment, there is nothing peculiar about Jamaica's past that explains its current position at the top of the world's murder capitals. Other countries have endured slavery in their past, have known poverty, suffered uprooting of families, passed through periods of incompetent governments and experienced wars. Yet they have managed to overcome history, tradition and disasters of one sort or the other to achieve a semblance of normality in their social relationships, economy and politics.<P class=StoryText align=justify>For Edward Seaga to write about "Some shameful sins of slavery" and attribute Jamaica's current debacle totally to that period in our history, not only tells us the man is living in denial, but that he is disingenuous. His failure to make any reference to garrison politics as a causal factor when his time at the top of Jamaican politics converged almost precisely with the rise of the garrison phenomenon is itself shameful and a sin.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Omar Davies suffers no such delusions. In his published statement, "A paradigm shift in Jamaica's inner-city governance", he displayed rare courage for one who at the time was in pursuit of the country's highest political office. "The status quo which prevails in our inner cities is profoundly undemocratic. Too often, it places community power in the hands of a minority who, through fear born of their possession of firepower and their willingness to use it ruthlessly, control and restrict the capacities and aspirations of the ordinary citizens of these communities. For decades, Jamaican politicians have avoided coming to terms with the need to turn all this on its head. Many who have represented so-called garrisons have fallen in line with the system, dispensing whatever patronage they can muster, thereby reinforcing the dictatorship of the don."<P class=StoryText align=justify>But it is the next point by Davies that is most profound and far-reaching in its implications. "Changing the status quo in political garrisons requires great moral courage and honesty, and a willingness to endure criticisms. Its success requires the support of those who want Jamaica to become a civilised place for all its citizens.
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