Ronald Thwaites | The pursuit of virtue

From Aristotle to Confucius, wise men have taught that virtue, that is the foundational principles of truth, honesty, self-respect, compassion for others and self-discipline, are the necessary building blocks of a flourishing society ,as they are for ordered personal life.

WE DISAGREE

Obviously, we disagree. We operate a political system where the winner takes all, and compromise, the bedrock of all healthy relationships, is discouraged. Political advertisements paid for with public dollars tell half-truths and outright lies. Disrespect for “opponents” is the stuff of campaigning.

For the most part, citizens are indoctrinated by example and modelling to habits of selfish advantage or unconcern. Just look how many will forego the sacred responsibility to vote this week.

WHAT VIRTUES DO WE ESPOUSE?

It will hardly be otherwise unless we resolve to infuse into our parenting and schooling, with strong ethical tenets, robust religious and humanistic instruction and particular subjects like Garvey’s teaching.

Our default is the origin of social maladies like crime, casual interpersonal relations, and low productivity. Did any of this feature in the manifestos and debates of last week? Before Wednesday, ask yourselves whether the superstructure of tax policy, anti-crime legislation, infrastructure decisions and all the other promises flying around can be achieved without solid virtuous foundations.

TEACHING VIRTUE

Which is why the Respect Agenda curriculum instituted as a voluntary exercise at UTech and Excelsior Community College by a group headed by retired permanent secretary Reginald Budhan is of such crucial significance. The mindset change acknowledged by the university students who participated is evidence of the worth of this specific syllabus, and more so the infusion of value-rich elements in every subject.

UTech is planning to introduce the course as one of its required foundational offerings. It can be delivered virtually in every school and community. The vital issue of forming virtuous consciences, the capacity to determine and distinguish right from wrong, is what is at stake. Dissemination of stories of how our common life should be lived should take the place of the insipid “follow line” content of public media.

BURDENSOME AND UNFAIR

Last week, I attended a branch of National Commercial Bank to satisfy their ‘Know Your Client’ requirements. The process could not be routinely completed because, as they very politely reminded, I am a “politically exposed person”. This a full five years after retiring from active political engagement. This leprosy which we have allowed to be attached to political service is apparently a life sentence inflicted on a politician’s wife and children as well. An annoying inconvenience to me: an unfair and unjust imposition on them.

FORGET PRIVACY

I wonder how many of the candidates for this week’s election realise that their constitutional right to privacy is on the line the closer they come to victory. They had better get used to it. Apart from such local and international regulatory requirements as described, prepare to be the subject of lies, innuendos, gossip and intrusive scrutiny into every aspect of one’s life.

So, look at what we have done to ourselves. To seek sworn electoral responsibility to uphold and extend individual rights, candidates have to accept their own rights being diminished .

TWO WAYS

There are only two ways to recover from this self-imposed pox. The first is to scrupulously fulfil even the most onerous requirements for transparency. The next is to show more respect for each other and avoid the calumny which now dominates pre-election discourse.

Which is why it is so much to be regretted that one party leader, despite every urging and forbearance, has failed to avoid the moral, and maybe the legal, felony of non-certification by the only competent authority.

CHOOSING JAMAICA

All of us who are going nowhere else have already decided to “Choose Jamaica”. That choice does not mean voting for a particular party. A different selection does not imply any want of patriotic commitment . So, stop the silly cant. And, in what should be a serious debate about precarious national prospects, a challenge about birth certificates (Barack’s or Mark’s) is low-life and trumpish.

DO WE PREFER DISTRACTION?

This is not what we should be debating. We need to hear how the minimum wage can become a living wage. There should have been robust argument about how ordinary Jamaicans can produce more and better food to avoid the ransom price of imported items and the scourge of non-communicable diseases.

We needed to hear how to really (not form-fool) change up the public school and healthcare systems and get better performance from the big-money public officials who get fat while the majority ‘mawga down’. The pursuit of civic virtue requires equity, not yawning and embedded advantage-taking.

Lazarus is no longer content with the crumbs from Dives’ table. Offering teachers two per cent when inflation is likely to be six per cent is to promise less purchasing power, not virtuous justice.

ILLITERACY COMPOUNDING

“I never knew the problem was so serious”, was the comment of an expert education statistician assessing the literacy challenges of high-school students. The effort at remediation is exponentially more expensive, and the results less certain than to have got it right the first time.

The entering students at a school I am watching show higher levels of reading deficiency than those who came last year. At Godfrey Stewart High, the press report has it that, although the PEP grades rank many students proficient in language arts, in-school testing shows up much lower achievement. Where else is this happening?

HIDING!

In the recent national debate line-up, it was noticeable that the ministers of health and education were absent from the occasion when their portfolio subjects were up for discussion. Why?

Suppression and distortion of truth is a recipe for bad government. Recently, I and others were denied access to the full results of the recent CXC examinations. Similarly, the report we all paid for into the highly suspicious affairs at Stock and Securities is being withheld.

“Woe unto those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees, depriving the needy of judgment and robbing the poor of their rights”(Isaiah 10 v31-2)

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com