Ronald Thwaites | Straight thinking and root causes

At last, some straight thinking from Mr Audley Shaw regarding the dangerous mayhem of the taxi system. He is reported as recognising that serious retraining is required for those entrusted to transport the public. I hope he is serious. He calls it a “process of certification”. At least he is not entirely buying the pabulum of the Road Safety Council, that the tougher fines of the Road Traffic Law will stanch the blood flowing on the roads.

Audley, for your enduring legacy and our safety, persuade your government to acknowledge the root causes of the carnage and disorder. Most of the taxi drivers were never properly taught to drive, bought their license, often are overtired, under punishing stress to make money, addled with Boom or weed, and beholden to some officer of the State.

Keeping the traffic courts as agencies for revenue collection rather than dispensers of mandatory attitude and technical retraining is a prime instance of superficial and crooked thinking. We are satisfied to do something wrong and strong. The contempt for the ticketing system should stimulate deeper thinking.

Audley, please don’t buck your toe by asking Cabinet today to concede time to pay for overdue tickets. A fine imposed for a breach of the law is different from an overdue water bill. The terms on which a traffic fine is to be paid is a matter for the courts, not the Cabinet. There is an important principle here. The political directorate must set policy and make just laws – not interfere with adjudication.

MOTORCYCLISTS

I think the ‘leggo beast’ behaviour of the motorcyclists has been allowed to deteriorate beyond any point of correction. No road code can stop them now. Where I drive, the police have given up. With skill, impunity, no helmet, no silencer, no training; many dispossessed and disrespected, looking power and thrill, the riders have conquered. They run things. They get through. They are a template for the disorder of a society which believes that getting ahead by whatever means is the real purpose of life. Straight self-indulgence. No notion of a common good.

WHAT’S CAUSING THE KILLING?

How about some straight thinking about the root causes of crime as well? Listen to the superintendent of police for Manchester telling the parish council last week that the majority of the murders in the parish are committed not by gangs, but by unemployed youth – murderers and murdered – over the spoils of lottery scamming. Which state of emergency (SOE) can curb that? Which public agency or government leader is asking the question, why are youth gravitating to such deadly behaviour? And what is a constructive response? Crime must never be excused, but its root causes must be understood.

We know now what to expect from this government. Last week, the prime minister, just like Donald Trump, expressed a resolve to change the Constitution to make it easier to invoke emergency powers; that is to more easily access the only arrow in his quiver – the SOE. This is dangerous. They can’t even get the regulations straight.

The warped thinking escalates when the default position of the JLP satraps is that it is the PNP that really doesn’t want to stop crime and now, with desperate frenzy, that all who oppose preventive detention, read the Bar Association, the NGOs and most churches, are really accomplices of wrongdoers.

When those with state power deny respect to others, they rob it from themselves. The give-away ‘Shearers’, the escort cars, flashing lights, showing off their self-importance by breaking the traffic lines and speed limits , only accentuate the bitter gall of arrogance and hubris which our ruling class displays and engenders contempt, not admiration.

Why do ministers have to be protected by battalions of armed policemen anyway? What are they in danger of? If you walk the streets of the country asking people to vote for you, why do you have to be protected from them when you are elected?

WILL AMERICA HELP?

Mr. Holness was impressive in his appeal to persons in the security apparatus of the United States to help stop the flow of guns into Jamaica. But how much help can we really expect from a nation which prides itself in the unrestricted ownership of and access to firearms and which earns billions from indiscriminately exporting firepower to the world? Is it likely to be an American priority to protect us from ourselves, especially when they know how many of we same Jamaicans, with impunity, are big in the gun-runnings? The family names of the “most wanted” in West Kingston tell the story of a still-festering infection.

SAVAGING THE SCHOOLS

The absence of straight thinking continues unobtrusively and disastrously in relation to the funding of education. Last week I became aware of one excellent high school, operated by a church, which has had to cut back on most of their humanising and character-building programs for lack of funding. It would be much worse if the religious body didn’t subsidise.

This is happening because the $19,000 maximum which government offers per student is hopelessly inadequate and parents feel no obligation to contribute because this government has told them they need not and has lied about the sufficiency of public funding. Reckless harm is being imposed on a generation of children.

Why? Who else feels the need for straight thinking about the root causes of our social maladies?

Rev Ronald G.Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.