EDITORIAL - Gangs of Gordon House busted

We can, in this case, find no pleasure in saying "we told you so". Indeed, we, in this case, would have preferred that it were not so.

But the raw, uncomfortable and ugly fact is that that the overwhelming majority of Jamaicans, pretty much the entirety of the adult population, agree - as the findings of the opinion poll published yesterday revealed - with this newspaper's characterisation of the country's major political parties as gangs.

According to the survey, conducted between late May and early June, 54 per cent of voting-age Jamaicans strongly agree with the sentiment, while 37 per cent agree.

Or, looked at another way, when these figures are combined, 91 per cent believe that the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP), which between them have been in charge of Jamaica's affairs for more than 60 years, including nearly five decades of independence, have operated in a manner not in the pursuit of the national good, but partisan interests.

What the numbers say

A couple of points are to be noted from these findings. The first is the fact that the poll's margin of error is plus or minus four per cent, so neither party can appeal to sampling error for this finding.

More significant, though, is what the numbers say about what the supporters of the JLP and the PNP believe about the structure of the parties, and the messages that their leaders ought to take away from this.

Roughly, it is estimated that each of the big parties has core support of around 25 per cent of the voters, or, combined, around half of the people of voting age. Even if all the independents, or floating voters, were of the view that the JLP and the PNP organise themselves more like rival gangs, it would still require large swathes of their core supporters to hold that view to reach the 91 per cent who see the parties as gangs.

These findings ought not to be read entirely separately from the 60 per cent of Jamaicans, who, as we reported before, believe that Jamaica, and their personal circumstances, would have been better if the island had remained a colony of Britain. Both speak to the mess that the gangs of Gordon House have largely made of the country's affairs, represented by decades of little or no economic growth; high rates of joblessness; low productivity; poor educational outcomes; endemic corruption; and the one of the world's highest rates of crime.

Bad political choices

These are primarily the results of bad political choices, which have impinged on and shaped economic and social policy. First, the parties have, like gangs, for which gaining hold of state power is very much gaining turf - areas from which to sack for spoils for the pack.

Indeed, it is this political model that has delivered the garrison communities, political turfs maintained by the street toughs who form the praetorian guard that maintains these zones of exclusion in the interest of the parties. The good thing is that even hard-core party supporters recognise the behaviour of the parties for what it is: gang-like. Hopefully, they will exert pressure for change.

But if the leaders of the gangs of Gordon House are as perceptive as we assume them to be, and if they have the capacity for shame, they will embark on an era of reform.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.