Truth and reparations for garrison politics

Henley Morgan, Guest Columnist

On January 30, 2014, at the well-attended Unite for Change National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, something remarkable happened. It was not reported in the press, nor has it been given the public mention it deserved. In one of the plenary sessions, People's National Party Member of Parliament for St Andrew Eastern, Andre Hylton, boldly called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as an essential step toward the political system expunging itself of the corrupting influence of tribalism.

Unless there is a circumcision of the national conscience to expose and treat the wickedness of garrison politics, the next 50 years will be like the first 50 years of independence - development against some key measures (e.g., life expectancy, infant mortality, access to electricity and safe drinking water), but without releasing the true greatness of the Jamaican character.

Other than political garrisons and the atrocities that attended their establishment, there is nothing peculiar about Jamaica's past that explains its current position near the top of the world's murder capitals.

The advent of political garrisons marked the descent of Jamaica into anarchistic behaviour. Today, they are zones of economic and social exclusion characterised by endemic poverty, an absence of social services, crumbling infrastructure and squalor; making them breeding grounds for criminality. That is a fact that many would rather not face. Truth telling will set us free and heal our nation.

Unknown to much of the nation, the Truth and Justice Action Group - comprising church leaders, academicians and social activists under the auspices of the Jamaica Council of Churches - has been looking at a truth-telling mechanism.

Time for revelations

In a United Nations Development Programme-sponsored research conducted by truth commission expert, University of the West Indies lecturer, Dr Jermaine McCalpin, this was the chief question: Would you support a call for a truth commission? The breakdown of the responses was as follows: 65 per cent - yes; 15 per cent - not sure; 10 per cent - no response and 10 per cent - no.

Dismantling political garrisons and reversing the effects of a system of subhuman bondage will require the moral equivalent of war. To be fully effective, truth telling must be coupled with a process of reparation, i.e., payments for garrison victims. The government-appointed Reparations Commission, chaired by Professor Barry Chevannes until his death in November 2010 and after that by Professor Verene Shepherd, is caught up with the emotional exercise of seeking reparation from the British government for the descendants of slavery. The energies going into this exercise would be better directed toward seeking an apology from our government for political garrisons and reparation for individuals and communities that have been victims.

The following is an imaginary closing argument made before the also-imaginary Truth and Reparations Commission for Garrison Victims:

"Government-sanctioned tribal politics which hold citizens hostage within garrison communities ranks among the worst of all violations of human rights and the founding ideals of our nation. The practice, at its height, was characterised by systematic discrimination on the basis of politics, forced eviction and other insidious institutions and practices directed with inhumane and malicious intent toward Jamaicans whose only sin was in being poor. Thousands have died violently in what have come to be known as the killing fields. Countless others have been dispossessed of opportunities to develop their God-given potential in these man-made zones of exclusion. The legacy of poverty, ignorance and hopelessness cannot be fully assessed in monetary terms, but righting this wrong requires that an attempt be at least made."

Look at Australia, CANADA

Jamaica would not be the first country to seek to benefit from such a catharsis. In a historic parliamentary vote a few years ago, lawmakers in Australia unanimously adopted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's motion apologising to thousands of Aborigines for "the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss".

On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered an unqualified official apology to leaders of Canada's one million First Nation Inuit and mixed-race people, following an earlier announced CDN$2 billion settlement in 2005.

The prospects of Jamaica following the example of these countries are not good; at least not on the evidence of the actions being pursued in the aftermath of the operation by the security forces in Tivoli. Among the recommendations contained in the public defender's interim report, the greatest weight is on social and economic renewal; eliminating the effects of the garrison process; and finally setting the people free. Yet, I have not heard a single comment from an elected official on this recommendation.

The idea of a Truth and Reparations Commission is not about fixing blame. It's about taking responsibility for creating the conditions pursuant to Vision 2030: Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business.

Dr Henley Morgan is founder of the Agency for Inner-City Renewal. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.