Ronald Thwaites | Moral entropy

The guy who needed to chat as we waited for delayed flights at JFK in New York had graduated from a revered North Street institution before migrating. He was very bright. “Why you fight against us so hard”?, he attacked. “Don’t you realise that scamming is the only way black people like me are ever going to get reparations from the white race”?

He continued. “You and the university people want the queen to give money. But that will never happen and in any event, even if it did, I would never get any.” His command of the English language was perfect and his reasoning apparently persuasive to the small group who had gathered around us by then.

“So what is the connection between the slave traders and the people who are being scammed now”? He cut me off with a shrug. “You supposed to know that even the Bible says the sins of the fathers are visited upon the third and fourth generation. You taught me history. The violence and discrimination during slavery and since then, never took personal responsibility into consideration. If you were black you had to stand back. The stupid old people who believe they have won the lottery are mostly white people who have no use for their money. I am dealing with them on the same racial basis as their race treated mine.”

The calling of my flight coincided with his parting shots. “Tell the Jamaican Government to leave this one alone. It is bigger than them. This business is putting many more ‘pots on fire’ than they can. You don’t see how much construction is going on? Do you think that money comes from selling yam and bananas? And anyway, plenty politicians and police getting a cut.”

‘CRASHED CASES’

That episode came to mind last week with the news that “dozens” of lottery scam cases before one parish Circuit Court had “crashed” because technical evidence required to establish the offences was not available from the relevant police department. Really? That should cause a national stir and heads of agencies should resign. There are bound to be international consequences. Are the local law enforcement and judicial system serious about curbing scamming?

No, they are not. As we begin our 62nd year of independence with all the fizzy euphoria of profiling and circus, we are proving my guy in New York to be right. Add corruption to inefficiency and moral ambivalence and you describe our reality.

Who takes responsibility for the crashed cases? What do the prosecutors have to say? And the police? And the minister(s)? Who is in a position to make things change administratively and judicially and, most crucial of all, to recreate an ethos which does not spawn more of us who believe that scamming, chopping, skimming and gambling are OK?

FACING REALITY

Truth is the indispensable requirement for effective treatment of any malady. Several instances of our penchant for self-deception were manifest last week.

Police officers are resigning from the Force in large numbers but we console ourselves with the placebo that since more are being recruited, the resultant manpower problem balances itself. That can’t be true. The loss of experienced professionals cannot be substituted by barely trained rookies. Poor preparation of cases is the consequence. Will someone tell the minister of justice that it is prompt convictions, not mere detentions and arrests, which make for a successful justice system. What is the policy to retain talent in the security apparatus anyway?

Similarly, there is the silent exodus of teachers. Look at the advertisements in the Sunday press and listen to the school principals who are facing unplanned resignations and recruiting from just – qualified applicants hired to fill gaps. Watch for a further watering-down of standards or continued terrible results unless we confront that truth instead of denying it.

CREDIBLE NARRATIVE

The reality which the authorities cannot bear to acknowledge is that middle- and working-class professionals are losing faith in the country because the official version of progress, purpose and prosperity does not jive with the demands and aspirations of their existence. There is need for a narrative describing what social justice must look like in Jamaica.

CIVIL SOCIETY STRENGTH

Less delusion would lead to a different type of engagement such as that called for by National Integrity Action as the basis of their refusal to be drawn into the secret charade being passed off to us as consultative constitutional reform.

National Integrity Action is one of the most credible civil society groups in Jamaica. They would forfeit that reputation if they allowed themselves to be co-opted into a process where the committee refuses to be totally transparent as to what they are planning to do with our freedoms and lives.

It is as stark and vulgar as that. By their arrogant or cowardly secrecy, they are denying us the whole truth of the reform process. The majority of people, exhibiting passive resistance or a sneer of disinterest, have disengaged. This is another “crashed” case.

AN ALTERNATIVE

Those in civil society, the church, the media and elsewhere, who are committed to an authentic and vitally necessary process of constitutional reform, will now have to operate on an independent and parallel path to determine and guide public opinion on the subject, difficult and expensive as that will be. Otherwise there will be no change. Call the referendum any time soon and the likely outcome will be a protest vote about the process or a derisively low turnout.

Lastly, why do you think the government wants ministers to sit on the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee? This is an intentional conflict of interest given the mandate of the commission to investigate the very ministries, departments and agencies which ministers preside over.

Secret proceedings, undermining independent institutions and arrogating more power to the Executive are clear totalitarian tendencies.

“Conversation is impossible without fealty to truth. In the realm of common life, gnats can undo the work of giants. The threat to moral entropy is intense”. (Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind)

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at the UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.