EDITORIAL - Become an involved citizen

Once more we hear an important voice lamenting how the paucity of jurors is hampering the administration of justice in the courts. Mr Justice Horace Marsh has added his voice to the loud chorus calling for more Jamaicans to accept their citizenship responsibility and submit to jury duty when they are summoned.

The learned judge went further, advocating the inclusion of civics in the school curriculum to prepare young people for their eventual roles as responsible and engaged citizens.

To measure the deficit in civics education in our schools, one need not look beyond the local school quiz programmes aired on television. Here are some of the brightest and most informed students in our schools who find it difficult to answer questions relating to Parliament and parliamentarians, yet they will readily identify an American Idol.

So we endorse Mr Justice Marsh's call for a reintroduction of civics in the curriculum to teach the next generation about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. But more than that, we hope that civics will not be seen as merely a subject taught in school, but principles that should be practised in real life.

Another thing, we don't believe public remonstration or sharp words from the Bench are enough to address this problem of jury shortage. The laws need to be revised to deliver punitive fines to those who shirk jury duty.

Rights and responsibilities

There are rights and responsibilities attached to citizenship. Jury duty happens to be one of those responsibilities, and should not be seen as an imposition or intrusion into one's life. Dozens of people have shirked this duty, finding all kinds of excuses to stay away.

The result is the colossal backlog of cases, many of which have stalled for years, because of the lack of jurors. We look to the courts to deliver justice to the victims of crime, but justice takes a back seat when, either through apathy, laziness or other expedient reasons, citizens fail to do their duty.

Undoubtedly, persons are inconvenienced when they are called for jury duty. They must miss work, and rearrange their domestic affairs to be in court, usually for three or four weeks.

If one is inclined to think that is way too much trouble, spare a thought for an accused who has been brought to court 30 times without being put on trial, or a victim who has to return to court again and again over eight years waiting for justice.

Those who resile from jury duty are no different from persons who shrug their shoulders at election time and declare that they have no interest in politics. But politics has a direct impact on all our lives, for the people who are elected to govern make important decisions about taxes, health care, the economy, the environment and the infrastructure. How then can one be a disinterested bystander?

This apathy can be traced back to the breakdown in communities where citizens see no evil and hear no evil. People are not motivated to call Crime Stop and report criminal activity. Everyone knows that the don is a criminal, but no one is willing to tell what they know.

We got to become an independent nation partly because of citizen involvement. A firm commitment to a better Jamaica is the best way in which we could commemorate this 50th anniversary of Independence.