Ronald Thwaites | Mandatory military service

It is time for a discussion to promote a period of compulsory military service for all unattached and idle youth in Jamaica. It ought not to have come to this, but it has.

Too many families are broken, community ties are weak and more intergenerational antisocial tendencies are embedded in a dangerously significant number of young people who can be recruited into any one of the 381 gangs identified in Parliament by Dr. Horace Chang last Tuesday.

As is, they can’t resist the money-men who finance crime in this fair land, none of whom, curiously and scandalously, have, since Dudus, ever been brought to book. And him, embarrassingly, not by us.

Take the case of the church that organised a training programme for 25 ‘corner youth’ recently. For free, they would be offered a skill, a course to reclaim lapsed literacy and numeracy, as well as resocialising and behavioural change, along with a modest stipend so as to take home something to their mothers and babymothers. A few were sceptical because they had been promised similar opportunities before and nothing had come of it.

On the starting Monday, the bus provided for the first day had to wait on those who could not wake after the party which had run till dawn with liberal dosages of whites, Hennessey, and Boom. Then two dropped out and others hissed their teeth when faced with the rule that the customary underwear show-off with one hand nursing their crotch, as if defending against assault, would not be acceptable.

But the biggest problem turned out to be the ubiquitous spliff, substitute for breakfast for some, but not to be surrendered.

“Fadda, yu no know say weed get free up?” was their defence.

Things did not improve during the programme itself.

Punctuality and attendance became problematic when the bus was not on hand; the stipend was demanded at the end of every day and for many, early hunger, attention disorder and boredom reduced efficiency.

At the end, five of the cohort completed satisfactorily, while 10 more insisted on being “graduated”.

“Too much rule in the system. Is better we jus cool and depend pon the likkle Western Union at month end,” was the riposte of a few.

Houston, we have a problem!

This story is not unique. Check the expensive CAP programme, where many more enrol than regularly attend. Talk to the school principals at their wits end with pupils and teachers who are chronically and purposely late.

Remember that Dr Chang told us that 70 per cent of the male youth in his constituency drop out of high school. Even watch Parliament with its unrepentant and disrespectful late starts and sleazy agenda.

Of course, there are many instances of courageous, even heroic, conduct by those from whom we expect least. Just remember the cohort of young men with nothing to gain and everything to lose, who rescued immobile residents from Fr Richard Ho lung’s burning home in Central Kingston a few months ago.

These great stories prove that we have the capacity to excel. It is the motivation and training which is lacking.

JDF BEST EQUIPPED

This is why I am recommending a period of military training for all unattached youth who are not in a real job (not the play-play work we now want to celebrate), not in school, and who cannot give good excuse for their idleness.

The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) is the best equipped institution to inculcate physical and mental fitness, effectively offer skills, and engender character reformation.

The JDF is being wasted as police auxiliaries, superintending crime-fighting measures that can have no sustained effectiveness unless complemented by a state of emergency that aims at behavioural change, character reformation, skills proficiency and hard work for the some 200,000 unattached in our midst.

Devote at least half of HEART’s ample $12-billion yearly budget to such a venture. Commission the command of the army to link with appropriate professionals in our universities and elsewhere to develop a plan, a curriculum and a strategy for implementation. Schedule it around a three- to five-year time frame.

If successful, youths like those described earlier might be weaned towards value-added work and further certification. This is one way to offer an antidote to crime and rescue the rest of us from a present and future of expanding inequality and miasmic growth.

Ronald Thwaites is member of parliament for Kingston Central and opposition spokesman on education and training. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.