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Garnett Roper at his best! (A dis yah fool a lead congregation?)
I am indebted to the Leader of the Opposition for bringing to the attention of the public the overwhelming number of cases that go through the Resident Magistrate Courts in Jamaica. According to the Leader of the Opposition who was making his contribution in the 2007/08 Budget Debate this past week and who was citing the 2006 Survey of Living Condition (SLC), there is an accumulated backlog of 360,000 cases before the RM Courts and a total of 228,000 cases were disposed of between January and December 2006.
That is a remarkable number of matters for such a small country as ours. Those numbers mean that more than 10 per cent of Jamaica’s population had matters before the RM during the course of last year. The Opposition leader highlighted these things to serve his greater point of the need for fundamental reform in the criminal justice system.
He indicated correctly that he has been invited by the Prime Minister to name a representative on the task force reviewing the justice system. The report of the task force is anticipated by the end of June this year and therefore he was prepared to await the findings of the task force to make any further comments.
However, the Opposition Leader said enough during the course of his speech to indicate that he believed that the problems in the justice system could be solved by fiscal measures. In presenting the plans for a Bruce Golding led government, he promised free education, five US cents per pound subsidy to cane farmers for every pound of cane they produce, free diagnostic and dialysis centers located in all health regions in Jamaica, and though he did not go that far, social medicine to all that need it in Jamaica.
Mr. Golding forgot to say where he was going to find the money to do all of this, unless of course, this also would come from multi-lateral low interest cost financing. One would therefore not be surprised if in the spirit of his intended fiscal prodigality, Mr. Golding promises to appoint hundreds of new judges and build new courthouses all over the country to solve our creaking or collapsing, as he puts it, justice system.
Societal issues
However those numbers from the SLC along with the anecdotal evidence we all know do tell us that there are profound societal issues, which would also need to be addressed before we make any lasting progress in justice reform.
To begin with, the fact that so many in the Jamaican population are seeming to require the services of the justice system indicates that we have an upside down society. It seems to me that the intention was that only a small minority of any population should have cause whether as accused persons or complainant to interface with the courts system.
One wonders whether comparative data is available to indicate how the Jamaican situation, with the number of cases before the RM courts, match up per capita to other countries in the world. On the face of it, it seems fair to say that there are too many criminals in this country and too many criminal-minded persons let loose in the society.
This brings me to an appalling front-page story in the Daily Gleaner published the same day that Mr. Golding made his contribution to the Budget Debate. The newspaper story reported that the DPP had entered a nolle prosequi in a matter involving Jeremy Chen, the general manager of Super Plus Food stores.
The allegations were that some time last year April, two employees of Super Plus Food Store in Mandeville were alleged to have been abducted, beaten severely and gun-butted by Mr. Chen and four other persons, because the two employees were alleged to have stolen goods valued at $5,000.
The original reports suggested that the lives of the two employees were spared only because the police got wind of what was happening and rescued them from the house to which they had been taken. When the allegations first surfaced the entire town of Mandeville was properly and uncontrollably incensed. If fact, the accused person had to be protected by the police because of threats to their person from mob violence. However one year later the matter has had to be thrown out of court because the complainants failed to show.
There have been many instances in the past in other places in Jamaica less salubrious than Mandeville that matters have been settled in this matter. There are witness protection programmes because when persons bring charges against certain persons, their lives are placed at risk. Many witnesses and complainants have been murdered in Jamaica.
Others do not show because money has spoken and the course of justice has been perverted.
We have no reason to know whether the witnesses in this matter were intimidated or corrupted. We only know that they did not show up. What is worrisome is that the entire reputation of Super Plus Stores is undiminished despite such damaging allegations. It seems to me in any other jurisdiction, with the possible exception of Italy, such a reputable company would do everything in its power to see to it that the matter was fully adjudicated so that it could be vindicated through the courts.
Confusion and opportunism
The question is: if the population places no real value on justice through the courts, of what use will be the enormous expenditure to clear backlog before Her Majesty’s Courts?
However, the Mr. Bruce Golding ought to be commended for his interest in this matter of the lack of effectiveness and efficiency in our justice system. He must also be commended for the research he has done into this matter. To be complete one only needs to assess the quality of the sincerity of Mr. Golding’s commitment to justice. Are these matters being raised by the Opposition leader because of a sincere and thoroughgoing commitment to ensure that the quality of justice available in Jamaica is one that secures the rights of the citizen? We do not look very far for the answers.
During his presentation Mr. Golding betrayed himself in discussing the problem of police corruption; he said, “If I have to choose between prosecuting crime and protecting human rights I will have to protect human rights.”
He said this to thunderous applause from his side of the House. This is a remarkable statement, which betrays both the confusion and opportunism of the Opposition Leader’s remarks. In the first place, a choice between prosecuting crime and protecting human rights is a false dichotomy. Secondly, such a choice if it is to be made at all is a matter for a judge in his courtroom; it is not a decision that can be made in the precincts of Gordon House or Jamaica House for that matter. At any rate every crime is a violation of human rights, it is not only accused persons that have human rights, victims also do.
Mr. Golding was not ready to offer his solutions when he made his presentation on Thursday but we can tell where his head is going. Spend some more money on the justice system, get a World Bank loan if you have to, there is cheap money available, put the police on the defensive by telling them that they are corrupt and the BSI is a public relations gimmick and leave the major source of the problem untouched because we want to protect human rights.
There is a need for the expansion of the capacity of our RM courts and our entire justice system. The problems however, cannot be solved by adding more courthouses and more judges. The society is at odds with itself in terms of supporting its own justice system. There are too many in the society that are willing to pervert the course of justice and there is no social opprobrium that punishes those who appear to do so.
It is now good politics and good copy to undermine the work of the security forces even as they attempt to prosecute crime and enforce the rule of law. Communities demonstrate openly in favour of criminals and gunmen against the police. Media spend long hours discrediting the security forces even as they salivate to report the latest spectacular multiple homicide.
A political leader, convinced that he has already won the election not yet called, does not demur; has the temerity to seek the support of the vote of the citizens while he pledges to be soft on criminals and handle them with kid gloves. In that context to speak about backlog in the courts and expanding the capacity of the RM courts and our justice system is a contradiction in terms. It has only a sound bite effect; it is fundamentally inadequate.
If we are not careful “one’s day in court” may come to mean only ‘one day in court’ nothing else. Crimes will not be solved only disposed of since we do have witnesses and ethos to support an effective justice system. I hear you Mr. Golding, but your words lack credibility.
I am indebted to the Leader of the Opposition for bringing to the attention of the public the overwhelming number of cases that go through the Resident Magistrate Courts in Jamaica. According to the Leader of the Opposition who was making his contribution in the 2007/08 Budget Debate this past week and who was citing the 2006 Survey of Living Condition (SLC), there is an accumulated backlog of 360,000 cases before the RM Courts and a total of 228,000 cases were disposed of between January and December 2006.
That is a remarkable number of matters for such a small country as ours. Those numbers mean that more than 10 per cent of Jamaica’s population had matters before the RM during the course of last year. The Opposition leader highlighted these things to serve his greater point of the need for fundamental reform in the criminal justice system.
He indicated correctly that he has been invited by the Prime Minister to name a representative on the task force reviewing the justice system. The report of the task force is anticipated by the end of June this year and therefore he was prepared to await the findings of the task force to make any further comments.
However, the Opposition Leader said enough during the course of his speech to indicate that he believed that the problems in the justice system could be solved by fiscal measures. In presenting the plans for a Bruce Golding led government, he promised free education, five US cents per pound subsidy to cane farmers for every pound of cane they produce, free diagnostic and dialysis centers located in all health regions in Jamaica, and though he did not go that far, social medicine to all that need it in Jamaica.
Mr. Golding forgot to say where he was going to find the money to do all of this, unless of course, this also would come from multi-lateral low interest cost financing. One would therefore not be surprised if in the spirit of his intended fiscal prodigality, Mr. Golding promises to appoint hundreds of new judges and build new courthouses all over the country to solve our creaking or collapsing, as he puts it, justice system.
Societal issues
However those numbers from the SLC along with the anecdotal evidence we all know do tell us that there are profound societal issues, which would also need to be addressed before we make any lasting progress in justice reform.
To begin with, the fact that so many in the Jamaican population are seeming to require the services of the justice system indicates that we have an upside down society. It seems to me that the intention was that only a small minority of any population should have cause whether as accused persons or complainant to interface with the courts system.
One wonders whether comparative data is available to indicate how the Jamaican situation, with the number of cases before the RM courts, match up per capita to other countries in the world. On the face of it, it seems fair to say that there are too many criminals in this country and too many criminal-minded persons let loose in the society.
This brings me to an appalling front-page story in the Daily Gleaner published the same day that Mr. Golding made his contribution to the Budget Debate. The newspaper story reported that the DPP had entered a nolle prosequi in a matter involving Jeremy Chen, the general manager of Super Plus Food stores.
The allegations were that some time last year April, two employees of Super Plus Food Store in Mandeville were alleged to have been abducted, beaten severely and gun-butted by Mr. Chen and four other persons, because the two employees were alleged to have stolen goods valued at $5,000.
The original reports suggested that the lives of the two employees were spared only because the police got wind of what was happening and rescued them from the house to which they had been taken. When the allegations first surfaced the entire town of Mandeville was properly and uncontrollably incensed. If fact, the accused person had to be protected by the police because of threats to their person from mob violence. However one year later the matter has had to be thrown out of court because the complainants failed to show.
There have been many instances in the past in other places in Jamaica less salubrious than Mandeville that matters have been settled in this matter. There are witness protection programmes because when persons bring charges against certain persons, their lives are placed at risk. Many witnesses and complainants have been murdered in Jamaica.
Others do not show because money has spoken and the course of justice has been perverted.
We have no reason to know whether the witnesses in this matter were intimidated or corrupted. We only know that they did not show up. What is worrisome is that the entire reputation of Super Plus Stores is undiminished despite such damaging allegations. It seems to me in any other jurisdiction, with the possible exception of Italy, such a reputable company would do everything in its power to see to it that the matter was fully adjudicated so that it could be vindicated through the courts.
Confusion and opportunism
The question is: if the population places no real value on justice through the courts, of what use will be the enormous expenditure to clear backlog before Her Majesty’s Courts?
However, the Mr. Bruce Golding ought to be commended for his interest in this matter of the lack of effectiveness and efficiency in our justice system. He must also be commended for the research he has done into this matter. To be complete one only needs to assess the quality of the sincerity of Mr. Golding’s commitment to justice. Are these matters being raised by the Opposition leader because of a sincere and thoroughgoing commitment to ensure that the quality of justice available in Jamaica is one that secures the rights of the citizen? We do not look very far for the answers.
During his presentation Mr. Golding betrayed himself in discussing the problem of police corruption; he said, “If I have to choose between prosecuting crime and protecting human rights I will have to protect human rights.”
He said this to thunderous applause from his side of the House. This is a remarkable statement, which betrays both the confusion and opportunism of the Opposition Leader’s remarks. In the first place, a choice between prosecuting crime and protecting human rights is a false dichotomy. Secondly, such a choice if it is to be made at all is a matter for a judge in his courtroom; it is not a decision that can be made in the precincts of Gordon House or Jamaica House for that matter. At any rate every crime is a violation of human rights, it is not only accused persons that have human rights, victims also do.
Mr. Golding was not ready to offer his solutions when he made his presentation on Thursday but we can tell where his head is going. Spend some more money on the justice system, get a World Bank loan if you have to, there is cheap money available, put the police on the defensive by telling them that they are corrupt and the BSI is a public relations gimmick and leave the major source of the problem untouched because we want to protect human rights.
There is a need for the expansion of the capacity of our RM courts and our entire justice system. The problems however, cannot be solved by adding more courthouses and more judges. The society is at odds with itself in terms of supporting its own justice system. There are too many in the society that are willing to pervert the course of justice and there is no social opprobrium that punishes those who appear to do so.
It is now good politics and good copy to undermine the work of the security forces even as they attempt to prosecute crime and enforce the rule of law. Communities demonstrate openly in favour of criminals and gunmen against the police. Media spend long hours discrediting the security forces even as they salivate to report the latest spectacular multiple homicide.
A political leader, convinced that he has already won the election not yet called, does not demur; has the temerity to seek the support of the vote of the citizens while he pledges to be soft on criminals and handle them with kid gloves. In that context to speak about backlog in the courts and expanding the capacity of the RM courts and our justice system is a contradiction in terms. It has only a sound bite effect; it is fundamentally inadequate.
If we are not careful “one’s day in court” may come to mean only ‘one day in court’ nothing else. Crimes will not be solved only disposed of since we do have witnesses and ethos to support an effective justice system. I hear you Mr. Golding, but your words lack credibility.