THE MAINTENANCE of law and order is the primary function of government. Where a government is derelict in that duty the result is anarchy.
Blockading the frontage of the Kingston Parish Church in downtown Kingston is a textbook case of anarchy. The precinct of the church, representative of so much of Jamaican history, has become a haven for ganja smokers, a toilet for street vendors and their customers, its access and egress blocked by vendors plying their trade.
In most societies a functioning 300-year-old building, much less a church, would be considered a national treasure to be cared for and zealously preserved. The building has been held hostage and desecrated by a mere twenty to twenty-five vendors even amidst threats to "burn down the place".
The officials of the KSAC and MPM, including Mayor Atkins and Town Clerk Errol Greene, as well as Minister of Local Government Arnold Bertram should all hang their heads in shame. Extracting some form of promise from the Island Special Constabulary Force to take care of the church on a Sunday is an abysmal abdication of responsibility and a display of impotence. What happens on Monday through to Saturday?
Now we learn that the vendors are willing to "cut a deal", they will take down their stalls on a Saturday night to facilitate church on Sunday and if the church informs them in advance of special functions they are prepared to co-operate.
The vendors, to judge from their reported comments, have no intention of moving, and they will do what they can to "accommodate" the churchgoers "as much as possible". The attitude smacks of contempt for those who are supposed to be in charge.
Labour Day tomorrow has as its theme "Let's make Jamaica Nice and Clean" and the emphasis is on the cleaning up of town centres, beaches or parks. The KSAC, with a hint of irony, will concentrate its efforts on the clean-up of St. William Grant Park across the street from the Kingston Parish Church. We hope that they invite Prime Minister Patterson to their clean-up so that he can see for himself the desecration of the Kingston Parish Church; and repeat for his direct hearing the lack of human and financial resources the Town Clerk has complained about.
If Mr. Patterson stays aloof, it would seem to us that the portent of September 23, 1998 has truly come to pass. That was the date when Area Leader Donald 'Zeke' Phipps was asked by police themselves to speak from a station balcony to 'cool' a protest demonstration. The real power brokers had taken charge in the vacuum of abdication.
