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Can Tivoli work again for the PNP?
Mark Wignall
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tuesday morning's brief, but intense exchange of gunfire between about 250 members of the security forces (army and police) and armed street forces loyal to the tenets and the socio-political culture of West Kingston has once again brought into focus how much of a political knife-edge there is between the PNP and JLP.
At a public level such as in the present parliamentary debate, we see and hear speeches being made and we witness the friendly if sometimes crude crosstalk. From this the naive may be fooled into believing that that is the extent of political rivalry in this country. At another level, not so far from public pronouncements from the Peace Management Initiative and meetings between top-level PNP and JLP personnel, lies the risen ghost of all things Machiavellian.
All too often the public is fed a diet of "peace", while simultaneously the orders issued on the ground is to "hot it up". As long as the shiny haloes of the front-liners distance themselves from the bloody carnage on the ground, the public is fooled into believing that somehow the violence comes from Jupiter or some other celestial body outside of our local sphere of influence.
It is done in the political parties and to a lesser extent it exists in the security forces.
Long before the Woolmer murder, it was becoming obvious that DCP Mark Shields, by his visibility in the press, was becoming the de facto head of the JCF in Jamaica. Since the Woolmer killing, Shields has given a white face to Jamaican policing and some have been saying that this has been good for us because the international community tends to trust white faces more than it believes in the capacity of blacks to punch our way out of a paper bag.
That said, I still repose some measure of trust in Commissioner Thomas and his ability to handle his job better than most of the commissioners of police in the
post-independence period. Being no stranger to the job, Commissioner Thomas knows more than most about the socio-political significance of West Kingston and especially Tivoli Gardens.
First it is the most loyal community to its political architects, the JLP, and especially Eddie Seaga who has god-like status there among the older heads. As one of - if not the first garrison communities in Jamaica - it is the heartbeat of West Kingston and represents the centre of JLP strength. Third, from its inception, the PNP set about under the late Tony Spaulding to replicate many pockets or zones of exclusion for the PNP. Lastly, in the past such as in the days (the 1970s) of the worst long-term demonstration of our tribal politics, there was never any love lost between the PNP garrisons and the JLP ones.
The three factors which brought about the advent and the maintenance of these communities are politics, poverty and criminality. Most of these communities were, in my boyhood days of the late 1950s, little more than scrap heaps of human habitation. Petty crime was always high and if one wanted a gun in those days, the place to go would have been the city's west end.
The politicians co-opted the poverty by building government houses and packing them with people loyal to the prevailing party. Recognising that they could not stem the violence among people steeped in poverty and ignorance, the politician redirected it to his control by "buying" the natural leader of the streets, providing him with arms and bringing him into national focus. That national focus also made "the don" a feared man, by the man-on-the-street, those loyal to "the other side" and the police.
In the decade of the 1970s, PNP bad men of note could afford to thumb their noses at the police and if they were taken in, bail would be operative in the first hour. In the 1980s the same scenario operated, but on the JLP's behalf.
The problem with West Kingston/Tivoli Gardens is its geographical configuration in the midst of hostile PNP communities. Over time this has forced Tivoli Gardens to become not just the best-organised garrison community, but the most heavily armed. One of the "collateral positives" of this is the order in the community and the protection it offers to its sister communities in nearby Denham Town and as far away as Park Lane and Common off the Red Hills Road, Grants Pen and even to its forces in Spanish Town in St Catherine and Flankers in St James.
Another problem which singles out Tivoli Gardens from all other communities in Jamaica is the manner in which it is approached by the police. Because of the organisation of the community which has a president, second-tier leaders, a justice system which includes prosecutors and those meting out instant sentences, the community tends to believe that it is a government unto itself.
The fact is, among all garrison communities, it maintains peace within unlike, say, Arnett Gardens and Jones Town which have been rocked by renewed violence in the last five years. Although the police are not loved in those areas, there seems to be a softer approach to policing in pro-PNP areas.
Because recent history indicates too many instances of "coincidence" between large police operations in Tivoli Gardens and the timing of general elections, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether it is a police fight against raw criminality or the ghost of Machiavelli at work.
In mid-1997, the police entered Tivoli Gardens, shot up the coffin of a dead man (said to have been a criminal don) and for about two days the entire community was surrounded while gunmen and police exchanged gunfire. That was an election year and the PNP won.
In 2001, the police force began to move in sand bags in the "white house", that building at the north end of Darling Street, days before the most massive four-day assault on Tivoli Gardens. After many thousands of rounds exchanged between highly organised street forces loyal to Tivoli and the security forces, 27 bodies were picked up off the mean streets of West Kingston. The Commission of Inquiry which followed took us into 2002, another election year. The PNP won again.
One wonders whether that policeman of recent note was acting on his own or some Machiavellian entreaty has been made to "draw out Tivoli - an election is near". With the present set of politicians more versed in their tribal ways and their gnawing need to "eat well" again rather than developing policies for the benefit of the people, my first response is caution and healthy scepticism. (A wonder what Mark really saying here?)
A cornered mongoose can become a dangerous beast when its survival is threatened.
- observemark@gmail.com
Mark Wignall
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tuesday morning's brief, but intense exchange of gunfire between about 250 members of the security forces (army and police) and armed street forces loyal to the tenets and the socio-political culture of West Kingston has once again brought into focus how much of a political knife-edge there is between the PNP and JLP.
At a public level such as in the present parliamentary debate, we see and hear speeches being made and we witness the friendly if sometimes crude crosstalk. From this the naive may be fooled into believing that that is the extent of political rivalry in this country. At another level, not so far from public pronouncements from the Peace Management Initiative and meetings between top-level PNP and JLP personnel, lies the risen ghost of all things Machiavellian.
All too often the public is fed a diet of "peace", while simultaneously the orders issued on the ground is to "hot it up". As long as the shiny haloes of the front-liners distance themselves from the bloody carnage on the ground, the public is fooled into believing that somehow the violence comes from Jupiter or some other celestial body outside of our local sphere of influence.
It is done in the political parties and to a lesser extent it exists in the security forces.
Long before the Woolmer murder, it was becoming obvious that DCP Mark Shields, by his visibility in the press, was becoming the de facto head of the JCF in Jamaica. Since the Woolmer killing, Shields has given a white face to Jamaican policing and some have been saying that this has been good for us because the international community tends to trust white faces more than it believes in the capacity of blacks to punch our way out of a paper bag.
That said, I still repose some measure of trust in Commissioner Thomas and his ability to handle his job better than most of the commissioners of police in the
post-independence period. Being no stranger to the job, Commissioner Thomas knows more than most about the socio-political significance of West Kingston and especially Tivoli Gardens.
First it is the most loyal community to its political architects, the JLP, and especially Eddie Seaga who has god-like status there among the older heads. As one of - if not the first garrison communities in Jamaica - it is the heartbeat of West Kingston and represents the centre of JLP strength. Third, from its inception, the PNP set about under the late Tony Spaulding to replicate many pockets or zones of exclusion for the PNP. Lastly, in the past such as in the days (the 1970s) of the worst long-term demonstration of our tribal politics, there was never any love lost between the PNP garrisons and the JLP ones.
The three factors which brought about the advent and the maintenance of these communities are politics, poverty and criminality. Most of these communities were, in my boyhood days of the late 1950s, little more than scrap heaps of human habitation. Petty crime was always high and if one wanted a gun in those days, the place to go would have been the city's west end.
The politicians co-opted the poverty by building government houses and packing them with people loyal to the prevailing party. Recognising that they could not stem the violence among people steeped in poverty and ignorance, the politician redirected it to his control by "buying" the natural leader of the streets, providing him with arms and bringing him into national focus. That national focus also made "the don" a feared man, by the man-on-the-street, those loyal to "the other side" and the police.
In the decade of the 1970s, PNP bad men of note could afford to thumb their noses at the police and if they were taken in, bail would be operative in the first hour. In the 1980s the same scenario operated, but on the JLP's behalf.
The problem with West Kingston/Tivoli Gardens is its geographical configuration in the midst of hostile PNP communities. Over time this has forced Tivoli Gardens to become not just the best-organised garrison community, but the most heavily armed. One of the "collateral positives" of this is the order in the community and the protection it offers to its sister communities in nearby Denham Town and as far away as Park Lane and Common off the Red Hills Road, Grants Pen and even to its forces in Spanish Town in St Catherine and Flankers in St James.
Another problem which singles out Tivoli Gardens from all other communities in Jamaica is the manner in which it is approached by the police. Because of the organisation of the community which has a president, second-tier leaders, a justice system which includes prosecutors and those meting out instant sentences, the community tends to believe that it is a government unto itself.
The fact is, among all garrison communities, it maintains peace within unlike, say, Arnett Gardens and Jones Town which have been rocked by renewed violence in the last five years. Although the police are not loved in those areas, there seems to be a softer approach to policing in pro-PNP areas.
Because recent history indicates too many instances of "coincidence" between large police operations in Tivoli Gardens and the timing of general elections, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether it is a police fight against raw criminality or the ghost of Machiavelli at work.
In mid-1997, the police entered Tivoli Gardens, shot up the coffin of a dead man (said to have been a criminal don) and for about two days the entire community was surrounded while gunmen and police exchanged gunfire. That was an election year and the PNP won.
In 2001, the police force began to move in sand bags in the "white house", that building at the north end of Darling Street, days before the most massive four-day assault on Tivoli Gardens. After many thousands of rounds exchanged between highly organised street forces loyal to Tivoli and the security forces, 27 bodies were picked up off the mean streets of West Kingston. The Commission of Inquiry which followed took us into 2002, another election year. The PNP won again.
One wonders whether that policeman of recent note was acting on his own or some Machiavellian entreaty has been made to "draw out Tivoli - an election is near". With the present set of politicians more versed in their tribal ways and their gnawing need to "eat well" again rather than developing policies for the benefit of the people, my first response is caution and healthy scepticism. (A wonder what Mark really saying here?)
A cornered mongoose can become a dangerous beast when its survival is threatened.
- observemark@gmail.com
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