Facts on 1980 murders
Published:Wednesday | November 23, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
"By the time of the first election in Independence on February 21, 1967, guns had begun to replace bottles and stones in cross-party political conflicts and 'zones of political exclusion'." - Martin Henry, The Sunday Gleaner, November 20, 2011.
It was somewhat amusing when Prime Minister Andrew Holness, during his inaugural speech, romanticised an era of peaceful election campaigns which previously existed, before the turbulent period of the '70s.
Martin Henry's article gave valuable insights regarding the history of electoral violence in Jamaica, and he must be specially commended for the clarification he has brought when he reminded us of "that 'murdersome' election year of 1980 which saw the national murder numbers doubling from around 450 the year before to more than 880".
For the past three decades, many social commentators, the media in general, and politicians had been distorting our political history by claiming that the more than 800 persons killed in 1980 were due to political violence. Even the November 17, 2011 editorial of another newspaper reminded us of "the almost yearlong election campaign in 1980 which led to at least 800 recorded deaths". What a distortion of historical facts!
The fact of the matter is that Jamaica had always had a relatively high murder rate before 1980. We should never attribute all the murders in any election year to political violence. It is, simply, inaccurate. Based on police statistics, in one non-election year this figure of 880 murders (in 1980) was almost doubled when 1,680 murders were recorded in 2009!
For the sake of the current and all future generations, let us stick to the facts and stop distorting that very unfortunate and most regrettable chapter of our history.
DAIVE R. FAICEY