THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE STORY of the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) in successfully hosting perhaps the fairest elections in our modern history, this year, was not something achieved overnight, nor did it happen by accident. It was the result of pressure from both local and international sources. Our politicians were finally convinced that if we did not clean up our act in this regard, we would most certainly be ostracised from the rest of the democratic world and would be looked upon as just another failed state.
Is it possible that we can replicate this success story in our fight against crime?
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, in my opinion, is a good and decent man, who really wants to find a solution to the crime situation. But I must admit that I felt crestfallen, while watching him on Sunday December 1 outline his crime-fighting measures. He repeated the old clichés without indicating any new thinking.
The Security Forces, particularly the Jamaica Constabulary, in its present form, is woefully inadequate to tackle the problem. Its very members lament the pervasive corruption therein. The reality is that the criminal elements that control turf mainly in our inner-city communities, exert more influence and power than the Security Forces. They provide their own system of settling disputes and perhaps, most important of all, provide security for their particular community.
The perception in the community is that the people are better off keeping the 'status quo,' rather than supporting the state forces of law and order. Some politicians are so intricately intertwined with this villainous conspiracy that they appear to have little interest in seeing to its demise.
So perhaps, we need to put conventional wisdom aside and try something new and bold.
First we must accept the realities that the existing nature of power and domination in the community controlled by so-called Dons cannot be easily replaced by legitimate forces of law and order without a holistic and drastic change in the way Jamaica is governed. The Dons filled a vacuum caused by state neglect of community management. They grew in power, from control of resources and added drug-related earnings. They matured in style to become hero-worshipped by the majority under their control.
Unless the integrated state mechanisms become the systems of choice for the very people who now pay homage to the Dons, there can be no penetration. This is not to be taken lightly. Dons did not appear overnight.
Their demise will require a sustained and comprehensive programme to recapture the trust, faith, hope, loyalty and pride of every citizen in their country, Jamaica, and in its state mechanisms. This will take time, but the process must be started now.
This could be Mr. Patterson's legacy, if only he could escape the trap of conventional wisdom.
I am, etc.,
DOREEN MORGAN
Lakehurst Drive
Kingston 8
