Connecting the Tivoli dots

Colin Steer, Associate Editor - Opinion

It was the stuff of area legend for a long time - an ugly incident by any standard, yet one discussed with a macabre sense of humour among residents of sections of west Kingston. It is not unconnected to recent happenings in Tivoli Gardens and surrounding areas.

It had to do with a day in March 1975 when People's National Party (PNP) officials led by then Prime Minister, Michael Manley, accompanying the funeral cortège of Winston 'Burry Boy' Blake on its way to the May Pen Cemetery, were forced to scamper, under a hail of bullets, some leaving their shoes behind after they had turned from Spanish Town Road into Tivoli Gardens.

Burry Boy was the PNP's ruthless enforcer in the Corporate Area; a chief beneficiary of state contracts, and as far as the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters of 'Gyarden' were concerned, their sworn enemy. He and his cronies had often trained their guns on them in drive-by shootings. So, to have this procession passing through Tivoli Gardens was not only seen as an act of gross provocation - there was no compelling reason for the mourners to turn into Tivoli - it was considered a major dis.

One can make allowances for some amount of exaggeration as to whether people ran, leaving their shoes along the roadway. The other facts are not in dispute: Michael Manley was at the head of the procession of the notorious gunman; there was an outbreak of sniper fire from the high-rise buildings as the cortège entered Tivoli; and mourners were forced to abandon the planned route.

Thirty-five years later, amid the usual pontificating about the Tivoli 'situation', many of our media commentators have failed to distinguish between the forest and the trees. Indeed, the only things missing from some of the analyses are some dancing girls with pom-poms singing Happy Days Are Here Again! After all, Christopher 'Dudus'Coke has been captured; the Jamaica Labour Party's operational centre in Tivoli has been smashed; the soldiers are in charge; and now we can sleep with our doors open again! Hip, hip hurray! If only life were that simple!

Economic conundrum

Tivoli Gardens is roughly rectangular in shape, perhaps symbolic of the many sides that have contributed to making it the political, policing, social and economic conundrum that it is. It is also just a small part of a large swathe of the Corporate Area that is a picture of social decay, decrepit public infrastructure, a mass of unemployed youth, and criminal enterprise.

Yet, one of the questions which the wider society must ask as we champion the cause of dismantling this so-called mother of all garrisons is this: Should the people of Tivoli be allowed to be fiercely loyal to and unapologetic about their support for the JLP and not be punished for it? For, despite the many attempts to rewrite and reconfigure history, Tivoli has not only been a centre from which vicious gunmen have operated, it has also long been the focus of targeted political machinations and violent attacks from its opponents - the recent Dudus affair notwithstanding. Everything is connected.

Consider this. The PNP has formed the government for 26 of the past 38 years. How much of the crumbs from the many state contracts awarded to connected companies fell to the people of west Kingston when the JLP was not in power?

How many of the young people - some educated to high school and tertiary levels - born and raised in the area were able to obtain decent jobs on their own merit, using their real addresses? The ease with which some school leavers were able to get even lower-level clerical jobs in government offices is something outside of their experience. Where others faced hurdles in the search for employment, they encountered mountains. For some residents, even to get a job as a janitor is dependent on when "Labour Party government" is in power - and they lose them when governments change.

It is in this context that someone like Dudus becomes a major centre of influence in west Kingston. For, with the inability of the political system to channel 'benefits' into the area in sufficient quantities, a national economy that is anaemic and the well-documented rise in the narcotics trade - which, of course, involves people of all classes and backgrounds - the growth in alternative economic and criminal lifestyles has mushroomed. This is not just a Tivoli or Shower Posse phenomenon.

Bubbling cauldron

Of course, people should not have to be dependent on the State for survival, but in the absence of structured, focused development and sustainable economic activities, people will find their own means - legal and illegal - to eke out an existence. When the nasty underbelly of partisan politics is added to the mix, the cauldron bubbles even more violently.

These deep-rooted social problems will not be solved by curfews, the malicious destruction of people's furniture and appliances, and the folly of Jamaican-style 'hard policing'.

And yet, Tivoli is but the tip of the iceberg. In the absence of wholesome, effective community leadership, the wider west Kingston has lost much of its cultural and social vibrancy. Once-thriving small businesses have disappeared and relatively decent homes - in the context of an inner-city area - have been gutted, all victims of political wars and urban blight.

So, unless there is a massive injection of social and financial capital in this and other sections of Jamaica, we will repeatedly be dropping explosive devices on 'garrisons', followed by the pretence of trying to cultivate a decent working relationship with inner-city people.

We disrespect people, treat them like animals and then punish them for behaving accordingly and further chastise them for having 'a victim mentality', to our own peril. For, despite all the massive investment in private security, 'Sen Andrew' will continue to feel the effects of our social dysfunctions. Sooner rather than later, they will make their way to our doorsteps. Mandela said it a long time ago: both the jailer and the jailed are in prison.

Meanwhile, the incumbent member of parliament cannot escape these realities by fleeing to a 'cleaner' constituency with less baggage. He may succeed in deflecting some of the personal political propaganda that would be targeted at him, but his character would be further diminished. Even while acknowledging the present strained relationship with residents, he must stay there and work with them, helping to bring those who want to operate outside the law under the umbrella of good, decent and appropriate behaviour. He must help them to affirm their sense of dignity, and work with them to repel the widely held view that it is the centre of all that is evil in Jamaica.

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