EDITORIAL - KD's start on reforming the gangs of Gordon House

Mr K.D. Knight is on the right track, but as yet does not apprehend the enormity of the mission, or fails to fully articulate the scope of the task.

For, based on his remarks in Montego Bay last weekend, he appears to presume that once one of the gangs of Gordon House, the People's National Party (PNP), of which he is a member, shakes out some of the rot and cobbles together standard-bearers who are honest, the job of national restoration will be substantially complete.

"The rescue mission that it (the PNP) must now provide must show the people that there can be a restoration of faith in the political directorate," Mr Knight told fellow PNP adherents.

But the analysis by Mr Knight, a former Cabinet minister and star attorney of the enquiry into the Christopher Coke extradition scandal, does not go deep enough.

It is perhaps to Mr Knight's credit that the contortion, obfuscation and prevarication by too many officials appeared to have sharpened awareness of, if not caused, a Pauline conversion from the miasma that underlies Jamaica's politics.

fundamental transformation

The tone of his rhetoric, though, appears to be that "while we have some problems, things are not nearly as bad on our side as theirs".

So, the PNP can do a bit of spring-cleaning and be burnished as the wholesome national political enterprise. Except that the gangs of Gordon House require more than tinkering, but fundamental transformation.

Whatever may have been their original intent, the parties have evolved into gangs; that is, they are closed groups concerned only with grabbing state power so as to control its resources, primarily for the benefit of adherents. They adhere less to ideology and philosophy than symbols - colours, gestures, etc. - and ensure conformity to the cult with strong-arm enforcers and the creation of colour-coded ghettos.

Indeed, it is not accidental that the Jamaican political process has spawned those zones of exclusion that are called garrisons, presided over by dons, who gain legitimacy, in substantial part, because of their party affiliations.

more than recruits

Recruiting new clean members is an important, but not sufficient step towards the rehabilitation of the parties. As we have noted before, they have to operate with organisational transparency and conviction to change, lest the recruits are soon overwhelmed by the cult.

For instance, it belies modern institutional arrangements for top management to be chosen largely by beer-guzzling, smoke-addled throngs, whose sentential qualification for the task is having time on their hands and uncritical allegiance to the cult of the gangs.

Moreover, those who would be leaders must have arrived at an acceptance of the rot. They must then chart clear, step-by-step paths to recovery, including, as Mr Knight implied, chucking out the crud.

They must eschew the symbols and speech that mark their organisations as gangs, establish and enforce standards of integrity for members, and set programmes and policies in the genuine interest of the society rather than for the benefit of the gangs.

Neither side has a monopoly on the crisis. One is not less scarred than the other. Recovery cannot be singular. In any event, the process demands more than declarations or cursory actions.

Mr Knight's statement, though, is valuable.

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