Andrew Holness
THE EDITOR, Sir:
AS A Member of Parliament, in many ways I play a role similar to that of a pastor. Some may think the forgoing blasphemous, but I only mean in so far as assisting the family of deceased loved ones with counselling, moral support, financial support and of course attendance of the 'ninth night' and funeral. Recently, I had the occasion to visit two mothers who reside in the constituency I represent (less than a mile apart from each other) and whose daughters were murdered recently.
Seventeen years old, 4th grader of Jose Marti High, Yannies Hall, was fatally stabbed outside her school on March 10, 2005 in an incident involving a cellular phone. Irene, the mother of the second girl, was at work scarcely a week later talking to colleagues about the gruesome murder of young Yannies, a situation which touched her deeply seeing that her daughter was a 17-year-old 6th former at The Queens High School. It was with great trepidation that she received the news later on the same day that her daughter was in the Kingston Public Hospital as a result of a stabbing incident. She held out hopes that everything would be alright and that her daughter would not be a part of this sad ironic tale. On March 16, 2005 Mesha-Gay Tamlin was fatally stabbed during the robbery of her cellular phone in a taxi in the vicinity of Waltham Park and Nelson Road.
No one is safe in Jamaica, this same ironic tale could have happened to anyone of us. I tremble when I consider that there is a higher chance of being murdered in Jamaica than being killed in a traffic accident, and murder continues to be one of the leading causes of death in urban young people. Our society has lost its moral compass, the value of life is now measured in a cellular phone! Our youth are not only the highest perpetrators of crimes, they are also the highest victims of crimes and recent trends suggest that women and children are becoming targets.
Yannies was still trying to find her way through adolescence and Mesha-Gay had already decided on Law. Now the value of those two young spirits to our society is lost forever, cast out to the sea of unfulfilled dreams by the crimson tide of crime flooding every avenue and corner of our society. To look those mothers in the eyes and see their anguish is the hardest part of my job; there is nothing I can say or do that can make the situation better for them. I cannot say to those mothers that I am going to ensure that these terrible crimes are not repeated again in our society. I cannot say to them that I am going to ensure that those evil men responsible are caught. I feel as helpless as they do, and it leads me to question my use to them as their Member of Parliament. Surely, my role must be more than commiserating with the family, or offering token financial assistance to bury their loved ones.
Ordinary Members of Parliament like myself control no resources, and outside of our Cabinet colleagues we have very little influence over policy and legislation. However, we are the closest thing to government the people will ever see, we get all the cussing and all the blame, we hear the cry of the people the loudest, yet there is very little we can do within the present structure of government and governance in our country. Still, MP's are paid to talk and that is what we have not been doing. Our silence is deafening, as if we have accepted the present situation. Maybe we should be more like pastors and begin to preach out against the increasing crime and moral decline in our society. Then just may be the truly powerful amongst us will act.
I am etc
ANDREW M HOLNESS MP
West Central St. Andrew
