Rights violations and other matters

Today I depart from my usual single-theme column to experiment with touching more briefly upon a number of issues of concern.

HUMAN RIGHTS - ISLAM, HIV

Last Monday, this newspaper carried two human-rights items which caught my attention. Unfortunately, human-rights concerns as pushed by zealous activist groups are excessively weighted towards police abuses, with not enough attention being paid to other areas.

The first Gleaner item was a news story, 'Islamic leader calls for level playing field for Muslims'. In it, Imam Muhammed Shafiqul Islam complained that Jamaican Muslims "feel like unwanted children" in their own country. The imam cited several instances where he believes the State is showing bias against Islam. One such instance was the non-acceptance of documents certified by Muslim clergy and not recognising recommendations provided by them, as is the case for Christian clergy.

I do not know the full facts of the case, but Government needs to act to rectify any discriminatory practices of the state against Muslims and to accord them, as individuals and as a religious institution, the full protection of their constitutional rights and freedoms.

Mark you, a number of religious organisations, among them Christian denominations, when they are in ascendancy and in control of state power, are not willing to recognise such rights and freedoms for others; but this is Jamaica, land we love, constitutionally a secular democracy and a beacon to the world for religious tolerance and the protection of religious rights and freedoms.

We must continue to guard against the control of the State by any religion or combination thereof. Usually, their first order of business is to oppress others by denying them their religious rights and freedoms.

The Muslim community must help its own cause a little better by lodging formal and specific complaints with the state authorities and seeking the assistance of advocates of religious freedom. The Jamaica Union of Seventh-day Adventists, for instance, operates a branch of the 118-year-old International Religious Liberty Association, which has been standing up around the world since 1893 for the religious rights and freedoms of all, not just for members of its founding Christian denomination.

The other rights item in The Gleaner last Monday was medical doctor Garth Rattray's commentary, 'Stop HIV pre-employment testing'.

Rattray wrote, "I found it shocking and deeply disturbing [as I do] to learn that several businesses and institutions of learning still insist on 'routine physicals' that include HIV-antibody testing as a precondition for employment or admission for studies."

He rolled out a string of policy declarations, from the International Labour Organisation to our Ministry of Labour, which forbid HIV-antibody testing for work. The thing is to enforce those policy and legislative provisions.

HIV is not transmissible by mere presence or casual contact. How far will we take disease screening? The fact of the matter is, everybody has something wrong, especially when you get down to genetic predisposition for disease. And diagnostic tools are becoming more and more powerful and accurate. Functional people who are no risk to others must not be screened out of employment, which is a distinct possibility when testing is done for diseases with high social stigma attached to them.

We have, to a large degree, made work gender- and colour-blind in Jamaica. In my 'Faith and freedom' column on May 8, I called for us to redouble our efforts to make work and education religion-blind. We must also redouble our efforts to make work and education disability- and disease-blind as far as is possible and reasonable.

THE OCG vs THE NWA

Last Monday also, the Office of the Contractor General wrote to the National Works Agency (NWA) "to outline details of the NWA's failure, to date, to comply with the statutory requisitions of the [OCG] for the provision of information regarding the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP) project."

The Opposition, with its great familiarity with the political pork-barrel potential of the biggest infrastructure-development project in the history of the country, had been seeking answers in Parliament to questions about the operations of the JDIP. Dissatisfied with the response of the Government, the Opposition referred the matter to the OCG for investigation. And in typical Christie fashion, the OCG has rolled into action. According to the OCG in its press release, it has been "encountering 'certain obstacles' in the pursuit of its efforts to monitor the works projects which are being executed under the US$400-million JDIP project".

I am writing ahead of the deadline of noon on Friday, May 20, for the NWA to comply with the "outstanding Requisitions of the OCG". But the OCG has forcefully reminded the NWA that "a failure by any person to comply with a lawful requirement of a contractor general, or to obstruct a contractor general in the execution of his functions, constitutes a criminal offence under Section 29 of the Contractor General Act".

And who is going to force the Government, through the minister of finance, to pay into the Road Maintenance Fund of JDIP the due percentage of the special consumption tax on gasolene and all amounts outstanding? It is much easier to bring arrogant civil servants to heel than ministers of Government. But they ought not to be left undisturbed in their breach of commitments. If there is no available law to force Mr Shaw's hand, the Opposition must be supported in bringing political pressure to bear for the correction of the dishonourable withholding of the committed allocation. The Reform Agenda requires this level of honesty and fair play.

VAZ: COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY?

Meanwhile, Minister Daryl Vaz, communications point man for the Government (and the party?), calling in from London while on vacation, has said that the governing JLP is prepared to put country before party in advancing the Reform Agenda, even it means losing the next general election constitutionally due in 15 months. "We are taking the right and responsible action, even if it is not politically beneficial," the minister declared.

Nice to see ministers taking vacations - and not hiding it - and in thoroughly civilised places like London where public services work like a charm and civility is the norm. The ministerial pretence of being superhuman, knowing all things and being able to do all things is so hollow.

But it is even nicer to hear from the horse's mouth that political parties in Government have not been in the habit of putting the country's interest above the interest of the party, a point which The Gleaner's 'Gangs of Gordon House' editorials have been hammering. The pronounced switch of priority is "the real deal this time," Vaz declared. "If I can't believe my own words, I will walk away (from politics)." We'll see. For the majority of Jamaicans, jaded by party-first politics, seeing will be an absolute necessity for believing!

EDUCATION FINANCING

And I am having great difficulty believing my eyes and ears that Minister of Education Andrew Holness is prepared to shift tertiary-education financing from institutions to students largely through a much-improved loan facility.

This is not just "a step in the right direction", as UTech-based education-financing expert Dr Kofi Nkrumah-Young put it in his piece in these pages last Sunday, it is a giant leap which I didn't expect to see in my lifetime and which I give a high five. It is a revolution! Few countries on the planet have been this bold in resisting the pressures from the giant education Establishment to pour more and more resources into its institutions and for staff salaries.

Students, armed with their fees (on loan!), will be smartly shopping around for best educational deals, like any other consumer, driving competition, quality improvements and cost-effectiveness and efficiency in the system. Government can use scholarships to steer students into areas of national interest which may be undersubscribed.

An adequately capitalised revolving loan fund can free up millions of tertiary-education dollars from subsequent budgets to be deployed lower down the system and even in different areas of national need, with security and justice at the top of my agenda for more as the core business of Government.

And while the approach of giving students education dollars directly to spend in institutions of their choice is good for the operations side, Government has to give serious thought to how the capital-development side will work for maintaining and expanding education infrastructure. The kinks can be ironed out. This is a great move.

TIVOLI GARDENS: A YEAR AFTER INCURSION - THE FREEDOM STORY LARGELY IGNORED BY MEDIA

A year has gone by since the military-police invasion of fortified, don-controlled Tivoli Gardens and the pacification of anti-state forces there. One aspect of the event and its aftermath, which has been seriously underinvestigated, under-reported, and underanalysed by media is the freedom story.

We have been overdosed with the support for Dudus (much of it forced), the trauma and the deeply regrettable deaths, the excesses of the security forces (under conditions of war) and the impact upon the political fortunes of MP Bruce Golding and of the JLP in Government. The story of the liberation of a captive community and of the people's grasp of the prospects and opportunities of freedom needs a better telling, although lingering fear does hamper investigation. Other citizens are awaiting their promised liberation from the garrisons, a liberation which must be executed smartly with greater finesse, and far less violence and destruction.

Martin Henry is a communications specialist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and medhen@gmail.com.