Letter of the Day | Correct the wrongs of the past

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Roughly a week ago the prime minister made a public announcement that lands adjacent to the Clifton community in St Catherine belonging to the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) Holdings would have structures demolished and occupiers removed.

The posture for this being that these lands were being sold illegally by gangs operating in the area. We are yet to hear of any of these gangs being brought to justice for their illegal activity. Yet, so many homes were destroyed.

I wondered, for a while, why it was necessary for the prime minister to make this announcement himself; there are far greater matters that would require his comment, where he has remained very silent – the matter of policy interest rates by the BOJ jump readily to mind.

However, the matter of squatting in Jamaica has again become the topical issue. There is no going around it, 20 per cent of Jamaicans are squatters and government after government has had to tackle squatting with no end in sight.

But how can there be any end in sight while we continue to champion the British cause? It is not obvious but that is, in fact, what we are doing. Slavery brought Africans to Jamaica and at the end of the day, slaves were freed but given no lands – where were they to live?

When we received independence 60 years ago, no effort was made to correct this wrong as an independent nation, no lands were simply given to newly minted Jamaicans to correct this wrong.

As one interviewee commented when his property was being destroyed, “So dem expect mi fi live in a di air?” Clearly, removing a squatter from lands who has no where to live means he will squat elsewhere, because he can’t live in the sea and he can’t live in the air.

It is indeed a callous government that overlooks the past and strengthens his previous captor’s position by enforcing that all lands belong to the King and the people without capacity to purchase land should do without. The position of those who were never able to acquire some form of wealth is dismal. There is no starting point, not even a mailing address.

Perhaps the government can help these people who have not been fortunate enough to own lands or homes. Do we really believe a man without an address can accrue NHT benefits sufficient to borrow and build?

How about the government owning 25 per cent of all lands in Jamaica subdivide lands sufficiently small to build a small house, then place on the title strict covenants to prevent the lands being sold for the next 30 or 40 years? Then how about ensuring that only squatters get these lands as a first step in correcting the wrongs of the past?

The British gave us Jamaica when they left, and unlike Haiti, we have not been burdened with repaying our colonisers, so why doesn’t our government do likewise and distribute state land to people in need?

We continue to teach the inequity in the distribution of land after slavery but we are willing to do nothing meaningful to correct it.

ROBERT HOWELL