Letter of the Day | Provide sensible solutions to tackle squatting
Published:Tuesday | October 18, 2022 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Squatting in Jamaica is a social issue created by an antecedence reflecting the control of land, the first factor of production, by a privileged few. They, at one point, also controlled labour via oppressive and criminal means, through physical slavery. Even while slavery was abolished, the control of land still rests with the privileged club or governments controlled by those with reach and influence. Interestingly, it appears that those of the privileged league who occupy or acquire land illegally are not considered squatters.
Even as we speak of squatting and its causative factors, we cannot ignore the nexus between land deprivation and the continued discounting of the value of labour. This has been evidenced in the recent debate regarding the status of employees in the private security business. The ownership of land and the value of labour are determined solely by those with power who extract the greatest benefits. This is simply providing succour for informality.
Jamaica continues to grapple with formal access to land ownership for the simple reason that, like crime, we have chosen to politicise social issues. Unless we embark on a path of strategic national development, instead of the interests of the privileged few and politically connected, we will continue to encounter squatting.
The longer-term challenges, if we do not address the informal and unstructured acquisition and development of land, are many and varied. We are currently repeating whirlwind as manifested, inter alia, negative environmental impact, rising crime, inadequate infrastructure and a general lack of order. As a nation, we must therefore find thoughtful and sensible solutions to housing and land use, devoid of manipulation and political expedience. We should by now be mature enough as a democracy, to identify unified national objectives around which we may all coalesce.
Just as we cannot expect a hungry man to understand and observe environmental preservation when exploiting the environment will fill his stomach, so, too, is the case with shelter. Unless we provide affordable housing and infrastructure, a homeless man will do whatever he needs to provide shelter for his family. We are being intellectually dishonest if we argue otherwise.
The partisan chatter and bravado by the two tribes are not cutting it, for neither can boast of clean hands in the mushrooming of squatter settlements. Both have given tacit approval when it is opportune, and both have benefited from the creation of squatter communities, which often evolve into politically aligned enclaves and, equally, the command centres for criminal enterprise, driving fear and mayhem throughout the country.
The issue at hand is far deeper than the illegal occupation of land, but are we interested in creating a just and ordered society? If we are, then let us get on with it.
MARK HYLTON
Montego Bay