Heads, I win; tails, you lose

"The bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel." - Proverbs 20:17

Prime Minister Bruce Golding is trying to put his best foot forward despite being burdened by his declining popularity, the sobering poll findings that the majority of Jamaicans lack trust in him, and his now entrenched arrogance.

He is encouraged that the increasing necessity of early elections seems to appear less daunting with the People's National Party's (PNP) languid attitude of waiting for political power to fall in its lap. Its long-promised Progressive Agenda is still, to the public, a mirage frustratingly unreal and its inept handling of its next generation, as exemplified in young Damion Crawford, has not enhanced its progress among young voters.

Added to the PNP's dilemma is the party having itself to deal with dual-nationality issues and its reshuffling attempt of its shadow Cabinet perceived as insufficient and badly timed, deflecting some public attention from the initial WikiLeaks exposure of the Government. The party has still neither generated any energy nor a sufficiently fresh team to seem new and invigorated, while avoiding some of the sins of the past as perceived in FINSAC and more recent WikiLeaks reports which might have tarnished at least one of its more senior members

Mr Golding's Reality

The now-motivated Mr Golding has also shown himself clad in his party greens and pretending to be champing at the bit in trying to appear eager for an election when his own position in the party is still not as secure as he would wish. After all, he had ditched the party in the past, and in this second phase of membership has brought it into further disrepute and to the edge of losing power. The public now acknowledges him as having a solid grasp of the country's ills, but perceive him unable to translate this into positive action. Further, the party's one-time power base, Tivoli Gardens, is no longer so. His decided policy now seems to be to call all Labourites to unite behind an aggressive election strategy while maintaining the posture of prime minister to all Jamaicans.

In keeping with this role, he exhorted the Parliament in his Budget Debate contribution to a new united thrust for national development. This exhortation came, ironically, after the end of the 'hearings' segment of the (will-not-go-away) Manatt, Phelps & Phillips (MPP) commission of enquiry which exposed, to any objective observer, the depths to which our politics had descended. Yet, despite the seriousness of the event in terms of the identification of error/ineffectiveness in order to pave a better way forward for our nation, party loyalty and self-interest made it clear that the nation's interest is a distant third behind these two realities.

What also was made clear was the seemingly studied unawareness of our politicians of the harm done by their ineptitude and arrogance, and the perception of Jamaicans that our politics and political leadership have been a major national obstacle to development for at least 30 years. In true Jamaican political tradition, accountability has been as absent as Gordon House freezing over. This has been our reality since colonial times, and through political independence into this new colonialism our politicians, aided by the private sector, have led us into. Certainly Mr Shaw's typical braggadocio that the Government has already moved beyond the MPP international controversy seems based on the reality of this culture.

The MPP issue aside, how else can anyone interpret Mr Golding's daring, in-your-face admission that as prime minister, he knew that some of his members of parliament were, in respect of dual nationality, in their seats in contravention of our Constitution? And as leader of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (his other separate personality), he less than honestly, and against his oath of office, kept this secret from the proper authorities until, over time, he could legitimise their position through individual constituency elections.

If we continue as we are, what does it matter who wins the next election? Accountability continues, in reality, not to be an option at all, and as usual in our country, whether (dependent on which party is in power) trumpeted or pealed into the ears of our masses, wafts the anthem of those who rule over us, 'Heads, I win; tails, you lose.'

The Untouchables

Absent from any serious discussion at the Manatt commission of enquiry or even pretending to wield any importance, was the reality that the mass of Jamaicans (including the two million and more in the diaspora) must live with the continuing ripple effect, on the regional and international stage, of the damage done by the prime minister's monumental blunder in the MPP issue. The result of this is a worldwide perception of a government in league with alleged international drug smugglers and gunrunners and the negative, ever-spreading ripples engendered by Mr Golding's ill-conceived and continuing foreign affairs endeavours. Of serious concern for our future, is the seeming ineffectiveness of his senior officers in Cabinet and the party, in heading him off from the precipice of irrationality from which he figuratively jumped with much exuberance.

We shudder at the realisation of the rapid lessening of principles and morality as reasons requiring resignation from office. Yet, when Cabinet ministers lose their memory before the commission and are being helped, substantially, by The Gleaner's publishing of the WikiLeaks messages, our prime minister charges this newspaper of selective publishing in order to broker political power. The whole truth in the beginning would, of course, have forestalled all this, but in these days and culture, the truth is not considered smart.

Just as the commission of enquiry is likely to prove to be largely an inconclusive talk shop, avoiding the blaming of politicians, so inevitable is the Jamaican tradition of our leaders not being made accountable. Our Jamaican proverb declares, 'Muddy the 'ead a de stream, the 'ole riber get muddy'; irrevocably, the major destruction is downstream where the ordinary people, the majority, are, but then, who cares? It's, 'Heads, I win; tails, you lose' anyhow.

The Ineptitude of Local Government

But it's no different downstream of Gordon House.

The highest investment most Jamaicans are likely ever to make during their entire lifespan is on a house. It is the responsibility of the parish council to issue building permits and the zoning of especially urban communities based on credible development plans which, among many things, secure property values while ensuring orderly, structured development. Local government, however, despite the enormity of this investment of constituents and the importance of creating homes and the rearing of families, has seemingly neither found the ability nor the resolution to fulfil this mandate to citizens. This failure of our parish councils is one of the major contributors to the depreciation of communities, the negative pressures on families, and the slide into what are euphemistically called 'inner-city' communities.

The concept of 'mek man live' cannot be observed to the detriment of the majority and in opposition to those laws which do exist, especially where not only are the value of homes drastically reduced over time but the societal environment, standards and security gradually undermined. The situation is exacerbated by the central government's failure to even begin to substantially reduce the shortage of housing. The ineptitude of parish councils results, for example, in the conversion of single-family homes into multiple-family tenements in communities not equipped to handle the range of needs created by this situation - overcrowding, fire hazards, sewage degradation of the water table, etc. But who cares about the common people? It's yet again, 'Heads, I win; tails, you lose.'

Such common Jamaicans migrated to countries which provided them with the modicum of an opportunity and made a success of their lives and (at a cost) benefited their families at home and abroad. That's all our people ask for - an opportunity. Instead, these same common people here are forced, out of necessity, to rent into substandard situations or tolerated to squat on lands (such as University Hospital lands) living in subhuman circumstances, where the only winners seem to be those within whose constituency as viable votes they are allowed to remain and whose chorus seems always, "Heads, I win; tails, you lose."

The Sacrifice of Many

Appealing to our national leaders, at best, gains only surges of responsiveness soon returning to the (for them) accustomed pattern of self and party or corporate interests. And to think that most of our ancestors came here in the bottom of a slave ship, but political independence seems only to have meant swapping the white British colonialist with our own people who, but for skin colour, are, for the most part, indistinguishable from their predecessors from Britain. No wonder so many are bleaching their skin!

But how will we get back the country Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle, George William Gordon, Alexander Bustamante, Norman Manley, Charles Hyatt, Louise Bennett-Coverley, Wesley Powell, Bishop Percival Gibson, Rose Henry, Horace Barber, Jimmy Hamilton, Daphne Wilson, Don Bryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown and so many others, by their every effort, have sought to build with us in mind?

Of a truth, our leaders, whether or not they deserve to be, are our mentors, and set the tone of our societal environment. As Larry Wynn puts it, "Without values, freedom becomes lawlessness, which leads to every man doing what is right in his own eyes. That, in itself, will destroy a nation." We see it already on our streets and in every aspect of our secular lives. For sure, there will be, for many, an unavoidable and frightening fate when very soon they hear, "Heads, I win; tails, you lose," says the Lord God Almighty.

Errol Hewitt is an ICT consultant. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.