Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, meets with police personnel who demonstrated outside his
ministry on Monday, May 9. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE OPERATING culture of only responding to protests and threats was clearly at work last week when the Government responded to the Police Federation's wage hike requests. It is never a good thing to respond when you are under threat, as you usually do not think clearly in such circumstances. You are far less likely to make mistakes, or do things that you may well regret, if you were to sit down and contemplate your best options. In essence, what seems to have happened was that decisions were made that could well be likened to 'operating under the gun.'
Let us start with the obvious. A good government never bargains while there is industrial action underway. It comprises the sense of order and despite what the Federation may say about a sick out that is not a sick out, the action will set a precedent for future industrial action by this group, and any other group. It is ironic that the lawmen seem bent on breaking the law, when sworn to uphold it. When a government capitulates, however, in the face of public fears and an Opposition that seeks to make political capital out of the situation (by supporting these increases), then future disorder will prevail.
RESULTS OF INDISCIPLINE
It is usually a golden rule that there be no industrial action in the background when one gets involved in conclusive talks, since in this case we seem to be operating under the gun as it were. The guns did not suddenly get silent during last week and the actions of the indisciplined rank and file did nothing to help. Commendations must go out to those who realise that they have an essential duty and stayed on the job and did their work. Who, however, will pay for the disruptions at the law courts during the time of protests? What about the witnesses who wasted their day? What about the huge backlogs in the courts? 'It's not our business' no doubt the Federation will say, but then
we all pay for the failure to follow through the legal system.
Then we wonder why convictions are so difficult to secure in our system of injustice.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
The intervention of the prime minister also seems to have contributed to undermine the very process of law and order in the country, since it seems to reinforce the impression that if you want to accomplish anything in Jamaica, you can only do so by protesting and demonstrating. The fact that after a year of negotiations, a solution was only found after the latest events, demonstrates the object lesson in civil disobedience, that will be absorbed and learnt elsewhere. Pity future governments when Mr. Patterson has retired and departed the scene.
I am sure that when this is analysed in the cold reality of the need to restore public order, in order to stem the very crime rate that has so much of us worried, the events of the past week were a poor way to run a country. Alas, those who perpetuated garrison politics and started roadblocks as a way of protests, did not truly realise what they have unleashed on the country. We pay for the sins of the fathers today and will continue to pay in the future.
