Corruption again? 'Judge' carefully

Orville Taylor, Contributor

Once more, Transparency International (TI) has held a candle to Jamaica and we are still seen as a very corrupt country. Last year, the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) was publicised as 3.8 on a scale of 10, indicating that there was a well-entrenched belief that Jamaica is a decadent society.

We are looking at the obvious. However, the reality is that there is dirt in the entire stream, and the most worrisome is not the most publicised.

The 2013 survey has indicated that 40 per cent of respondents believed that Jamaica has become more corrupt. Heading the list of the most deviant are the three evil Ps: Parliament, parties and police. Among the surveyed, 86 per cent felt that the cops were venal, but almost 75 per cent of their bosses, who pass the laws, were thought to be degenerate, and political parties were in a statistical dead heat with the constabulary, with 85 per cent. Remember, these figures are people's views, not facts.

On reading some news stories and listening to some journalists, one can understand how the media got a rate of 30 per cent, and I am thankful that my substantive career, education, is seen as no more corrupt than the Church, with both at 19 per cent.

Sympathies for my erstwhile colleagues, the civil servants, who not only have a wage freeze, but a view by 46 per cent of their country folk that they are deviants. Nonetheless, they are still a percentage point better than Your Honour, the same category of public servants who Marcus Garvey was incarcerated by in 1929 for suggesting that some of them might be corrupt. It is more than a belief; there is substance.

With all the 'bandooloo', it is hard to accept that only 36 per cent of Jamaicans felt that businessmen were corrupt. So what about the breaches of labour laws, the underinvoicing, unpaid taxes, uncustomed goods, and the refusal to pay over statutory deductions? Can we ask the National Housing Trust and National Insurance Scheme if only 36 per cent of employers fail to comply?

Nonetheless, belief is a hell of a thing. Oftentimes, perhaps, the perceptions and ideas we have about the world are anchored in reality. So, we look at the average Jamaican and assume that the majority of our citizens are of African descent. That is relatively easy. Yet, how many times have you called someone 'Indian' only to realise that his surname is Chin and the only roti he knows of is roti-sserie chicken?

Misconceptions

And how many of you believe that the Syrians, Lebanese and Jews in this country are white? Indeed, even with dogs, one sometimes thinks that the robust aggressive puppy is a male, but as it turns out, perception is a bitch.

Many misconceptions which are taken as gospel abound in Jamaica. For example, the mayor of Portmore, clearly with a different view of reality than the trained demographers, is convinced that more people live in that municipality than is recorded. Actually, he may be on to something, because there was a period in our not-too-distant political history when more persons, than were on the voters' lists, marked their X in constituencies that some current politicians know intimately.

Other well-known myths include the fables of increased teenage pregnancy, which are perpetuated by incredulous grandmothers and grandaunts, who got married with a soccer-ball 'tummock' while celebrating their 16th birthday, and their first child being the flower girl. Similarly, nobody seemed to have read Edith Clarke's classic, My Mother Who Fathered Me, because it revealed that 70 per cent of households were male-headed and Clarke was trying to explain the 30 which were not.

We find it convenient to believe that the majority of unemployed youth from inner-city communities have deep palms, drink insipid, warm alcoholic beverages, and stand on the corner not looking for work and are engaged in gang activities. If this were true, the more than 60,000 jobless youth would form a gang so large, they couldn't hold in the mayor's Portmore.

Nevertheless, the very policeman who comes from inner-city neighbourhoods seem to forget that the majority of youth, like him, are law-abiding and not gunmen and 'gunbags'. Yet, when he patrols with his squaddies, he treats his former 'paaries' like dirt, despite the protestations, "Paul, Paul, you no memba mi? You know mi anno shatta!"

Similarly, I dare anyone in this country to jog his or her memory of the households in his or her community of origin. Bet you that you will find the majority of households having a resident father. How many of the children in your primary-school class had a typical, 'wutluss puppa'? Were they the majority?

Yet, the insidious lie that we strangely embrace is that Jamaican men do not want to be in their children's lives, despite 70 per cent of them hurrying to affix their names on the 'birth paper' before the baby leaves hospital.

Reality check

Did you know that more children are injured by aggressive chickens, who carry out their fowl deeds, than by croaking lizards, who have no teeth to bite us? Yet, poor 'lizaz' whom the cock will peck to death and swallow is a source of terror for Jamaicans, who, for bizarre reasons, think the reptile is dangerous. And please note that unless you try to eat a toad (bull frog) or put your hand in your mouth after 'fingling' it, you will not be poisoned. And no! They do not spit 'cocobey'.

All of the foregoing says that perceptions do not have to match reality.

What is more instructive in TI's data is the number of Jamaicans who have first-hand experience with corruption. That is not perception; that is reality. The police come out on top, but not as badly as one would 'perceive'. Some 12 per cent say they have paid a bribe to Constable Tekka and Corporal Licky-Licky. That is a hell of a gap between belief and proof. Furthermore, doesn't this also imply that one out of every eight Jamaicans is also corrupt, because the police can't bribe themselves?

Eight per cent reported that they have dropped money on the light and water man. Well, the respondents might have been anonymous, but they certainly didn't want to be in the dark, and the men with the hacksaw and monkey wrench didn't avoid disconnecting the supply because the delinquent had good water ratings.

In all of this, the scariest is something that I have long suspected. If the same bar association produces squaddies among judges, prosecutors and lawyers, why would judges be exempt from devious conduct? 'Milord' doesn't mean Our Lord.

Every day, lying and thieving lawyers enter innocent pleas for guilty clients, and a few, when their culpability is irretrievable, get disbarred. So, why would you expect that judges are not corruptible too? Well, six per cent of Jamaicans, just a half of whom admit bribing the cops, have sweetened the pot of the judiciary.

For all the beliefs about the dishonesty of the law enforcers, the High Command has kicked out scores of dirty cops in the last few years. However, Parliament has censored no one, and the parties have not given full disclosure to some of the mysteries and scandals which still puzzle us.

Now we know that judges are also in it.

Chat all the bovine excrement you wish, but six per cent experienced corruption in the judiciary is far more dangerous than a perceived 80-odd per cent in politics and police.

Judge for yourself. Garvey was right.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in sociology at the UWI and a radio talk-show host. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.