They just can't help themselves

By Peter Espeut

They know we're watching. They know we're asking ourselves what we've really achieved as a nation over the last 50 years. They know that tribalism among the average Jamaican is at an all-time low (along with voter registration and voter turnout). And yet our two tribes just can't seem to help themselves; almost by reflex, it seems, they lunge at each other's throats, descending into a shouting match, a partisan blame game.

"While we fight one another / for the power and the glory / Jah Kingdom goes to waste."

Fifty years after Independence, we still have a colour problem. First it was leaving the green out of the 'flag' in Montego Bay, and earlier this week, the 'flag' was allegedly recoloured to black, green and orange, which led to Parliament descending into chaos.

Before they do things like this, don't they look ahead to what people might think? Maybe they just can't help themselves.

"Can't build no dreams / on a fuss and fight."

Even though their leaders negotiated for it at Lancaster House in London, Independence does not belong to either the People's National Party or the Jamaica Labour Party. They forget their place if they think so. Nor does celebrating its 50th anniversary belong to them. It is up to the Jamaican people to celebrate if we want to, or to be sombre as we think of what could have been.

The cass-cass over the song to be used as the 'official' 50th anniversary anthem is so archetypal: "Use my song, not your song." They just can't help themselves. In the spirit of anti-tribalism, the people say, "We want neither," just as we want neither of you - neither the bell nor the trumpet. "A pox on both your houses."

"Are we building a nation / or are we building a hut?"

WHAT ARE WE CELEBRATING?

One thing the two tribes agree on, though, is that the 50th anniversary celebrations must be a time to applaud them for the great job they have done since 1962. Never mind that they have both borrowed us into penury, and have little to show for it; or that they have both built garrisonised zones of exclusion and impoverishment; or that they have both allied themselves with criminal thugs to intimidate voters and consolidate their power.

Never mind that 50 years after the departure of the colonial masters, there are still only a few really good high schools in Jamaica, almost all built before Independence by churches and trusts.

Never mind that Kingston Harbour is polluted and toxic and dead, that we have some of the most overfished waters in the world, and that relatively recently we had the highest rate of deforestation in the world.

Never mind all these negatives, the 'JLPNP' sing in chorus: we must still celebrate their achievements. After all, aren't we going to strike gold at the Olympics? Didn't we bring cellphones to Jamaica? And cable TV? Haven't we swapped power between ourselves in an orderly manner over the years?

I am impressed with the political maturity we are showing as Jamaica turns 50. Only the deep tribalists (including some columnists and talk-show hosts) are still prepared to follow their leaders till they die, while the majority of us want performance.

We see through the efforts of politicians to take credit for the phenomenal effort and self-discipline of our athletes, and the inevitable advance in technology globally. Our politicians just can't resist jumping on the bandwagon. They just can't help themselves.

Thanks to Glenroy Anthony Michael Archangelo Smith (better known as Ernie Smith) for his wonderful song, The Power and the Glory, just as relevant today as in 1976 when it was written.

CORRECTION

Making the point last week about the phenomenal growth and progress of the Catholic Church in Africa, I wrote that John Evans Atta Mills, the president of Ghana, was Catholic, as well as Kwame Nkrumah, the first president and the first prime minister of Ghana. In fact, President Mills is a Methodist. His two predecessors - John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor and Jerry John Rawlings - are Catholic, as was Kwame Nkrumah.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.