Peter Espeut | The garrisons can be dismantled

I will never forget the unsolicited proposal submitted by Chinese interests to convert National Heroes Circle and surrounding communities into the Government Oval, hosting all the ministries of government, as well as supporting residential and commercial areas.

The plan called for the demolition of the present buildings around Heroes Circle housing the Ministry of Education (two five-storey buildings), the Ministry of Finance (one six-storey building and five three-storey buildings), and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (one five-storey building), and their replacement by the new executive complex.

The plan, contained in a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government dated March 9, 2017, also required the demolition of the entire residential communities of Allman Town, Woodford Park, and Kingston Gardens to make way for “gentrified” housing (as they put it) to support the government zone.

I must confess that my first reaction when I saw the master plan was a feeling of vindication. For decades, in this column, I have been calling for the dismantling of political garrisons, the zones of political exclusion created by politicians to ensure ‘safe seats’. I have proposed that the government acquire the land on which the garrisons are built, demolish the structures on them (they are mostly unsightly and run-down anyway), and construct modern neighbourhoods – with housing, shopping areas and social amenities – in which any of us would be proud to live. Kingston would be renewed, and brought into the 21st century.

Of course, these new neighbourhoods would be populated in a transparently non-partisan way.

My ideas were pooh-poohed as being unworkable. “You can’t demolish whole ghettos like that,” I have been told. But look: the Government is, or was, proposing to demolish whole lower-middle-class neighbourhoods to suit itself.

NOTHING IS FREE

The garrisons can be dismantled by any government of any party, if they choose to do so.

Last week, I explained how governments of both political parties serially created garrison communities, placing their supporters in residence. In return for their certain votes, they would have free residence (without rent) and free utilities.

As I explained last week, of course nothing is free. We paid for their water and electricity in our bills, and continue to do so today.

It is time for this travesty of justice to come to an end.

When analysts begin to assess the political climate before a general election, the first step is to check off the garrison constituencies whose votes are unchanging by definition; the politicians can then campaign and do their politicking to fight over the rest.

Garrison constituencies are a blot on the political record of Jamaica; they were founded to subvert our democracy, and they have done that, and continue to do that; they have also been the seedbeds of political thuggery and criminality.

SAME TREATMENT ACROSS THE BOARD

If the statue of Christopher Columbus must come down because of the outrages committed by those who followed him, then the statues of Bustamante and Manley in the centre of city Kingston must also come down because of the political travesties committed by their followers, down to the present.

Jamaica in 2020 is different to the days when it was politically imperative to create political garrisons. In my view, the present generation of post-Independence politicians must commit themselves to undoing the dastardly deeds of their predecessors.

The garrison parts of Kingston and St Andrew are run-down ghettos. I believe that we have the brain power and the national spirit to demolish them and ‘gentrify’ the parts of our capital city that lie below the two clocks. Demolishing the garrisons would initiate an era or urban renewal that would make us all proud.

I hereby renew my call: demolish and dismantle the political garrisons now.

Peter Espeut is an environmentalist and development scientist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com