Basil Jarrett | Courage is a rare commodity

LAST WEEK, I wrote an article asking for modern-day Jamaican heroes to step to the fore and to put in a shift in the country’s fight against corruption and crime. Aside from giving me an excuse to play over three hours of some of Rihanna’s skimpiest music videos on repeat, it also led to a number of emails from readers suggesting their own nominations for the title of Jamaican National Hero. The usual suspects were there; Bolt, Marley, Miss Lou, and some singer named Shenseea.

Apologies if I didn’t spell that right, but apparently she had a hit with some other guy named Drake and it broke the Internet some time ago. (Or so my nine-year-old tells me). But the other noticeable thing that came out of that article was a very solid point from a reader, who agreed with me that yes, Jamaicans seem to have lost interest in their civic responsibilities, but bemoaned the fact that displaying that heroism could very well make you an outcast these days. And she’s right. When one looks at our traditional heroes, there is a single common thread running through all of them. Paul Bogle, Batman, Santa Claus. All have demonstrated that one characteristic that every hero should embody – courage. And just in case you think the latter does not belong in that category, just ask yourself if you’d be willing to drive through certain parts of Kingston at 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve, with a trunk full of valuable merchandise exposed in the back of your car trunk. Poor Santa. Courage is such a rare commodity these days that many persons don’t even recognise it when they see it.

BE UNCOMFORTABLE

True courage requires you to make uncomfortable, unpopular decisions, which may very well leave you feeling like a loner, as not many of your peers will be willing to stand with you in standing up to insurmountable odds and an entrenched organisational culture of ‘links’ and contacts. It can be very hard to say no when everyone else is saying yes, especially when jobs, promotions, contracts and positions are hanging in the balance. Some may even wonder if you’ve lost your mind. Thankfully, however, our laws are helping to make it a bit easier to find that courage.

Take, for example,the Protected Disclosures Act, 2011, commonly known as the ‘Whistle-blower Act’. This act “to encourage and facilitate the making by employees of specified disclosures of improper conduct in the public interest”, is specifically geared towards protecting employees who provide information regarding improper public-sector conduct. This piece of legislation provides top cover for employees to demonstrate the true courage and moral strength it takes to unveil and expose corruption and misconduct in the public sector. Where the act falls short, however, as argued by some critics, is that it doesn’t come with a legislated mechanism to provide funding for a reward system, which has been proven over and over to be one of the most powerful motivating factors to encourage persons to come forward.

In some jurisdictions, for instance, whistle-blowers who provide information that leads to a recovery of government revenues can actually receive a percentage of the funds recovered as a reward. In Nigeria, for example, their whistle-blowing laws reward whistle-blowers with up to five per cent of cash or assets recovered as a result of the information provided. Talk about an incentive! But in the absence of a legislated system of monetary rewards, are we doomed to continue this see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, apathetic attitude towards corruption, crime and other social ills? Or is there some intrinsic part of our national psyche that can be tapped in order to spur action and activism?

FED UP CITIZENS

Already, we can see signs of true courage being displayed by ordinary citizen soldiers. There is a popular acceptance among the law-enforcement community that the vast majority of crimes in Jamaica have either a witness or someone with intimate knowledge of the perpetrators. More and more, we are seeing true moral and physical courage being displayed by persons who are fed up with our continued downward spiral, disgusted with our crime, corruption and murder rate, and truly want to see a better Jamaica for ourselves and our children. Those persons who are making the phone calls to the tip hotlines and sending in the text messages, voice notes and videos are just as heroic as the police and other law-enforcement operators who are running into buildings with arrest and search warrants. Their bravery must continue to be applauded, recognised and encouraged, so that it becomes as infectious as COVID and as commonplace as bad mind.

Certainly, no conversation on whistle-blowing and confidential informants can be complete without addressing the multimillion-pound gorilla in the room, one which I won’t dare name, out of fear of giving it more oxygen than it needs. The same gorilla that led hip-hop artistes Shef G and Lil Bibby to proudly proclaim that they would never call the police, even if someone killed their own mother. Yes, a lot of trash really does wash ashore on the Internet while you’re busy searching for rare Ri-Ri videos. Sadly, that ‘thing’ still exists, but I think we can take comfort and encouragement from the rash of leaks, exposés and breaking news that have dominated our headlines in recent times, that there’s still a lot of fight left among those of us who still believe in this great country.

Major Basil Jarrett is a communications strategist and CEO of Artemis Consulting, a communications consulting firm specialising in crisis communications and reputation management.