EDITORIAL - Signs of Kingston's disorder

If anyone doubted that Jamaica's capital is in disarray, the recent banner-trashing efforts of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) should put things into perspective.

Promoters need licences to stage events, and they must get approval to erect promotional banners. This is one way in which the local authority earns its revenue. It is galling to see how many persons have simply ignored the law by erecting banners at every vantage point, oftentimes defacing other people's property. In fact, political banners from the December 2011 general election remained in place many months after the elections were over.

Every once in a while the KSAC gets tough and does a clean sweep of illegally erected banners and signs, reinforcing the message that promoters and business people must pay their due and get the requisite permits to stage their money-making events. In this latest clean-up effort, the town clerk gleefully discloses to the media that $1 million has been collected so far from tax cheats.

Enforcement has always been a problem for the KSAC. Former Mayor Desmond McKenzie tried the huff-and-puff ad hoc approach, which had sketchy gains. Then he seemed to have run out of steam, and the signs have reappeared.

The crackdown, financially driven as it, seems to embrace the correct principle - that the city is governed by a set of laws and all should obey. It is grossly unfair to the formal business operator who plays by the rules and honours his/her commitment.

FLOUTING LAW AND ORDER

So while the crackdown is necessary, long after the illegal banners have been taken down, the basic problem of the flouting of law and order, by so many Jamaicans, remains unresolved.

This explains why motorists and pedestrians pay scant attention to the traffic laws. It is the same abhorrence of the law that accounts for the fact that construction is regularly undertaken without the necessary permits. It is also why there are so many tax dodgers who have invented elaborate schemes to avoid honouring their obligations.

It would be a mistake to assume that by squeezing out compliance fees, the KSAC is finally getting through to the population. Enforcement is one thing, but we have no clear perspective on how a transformation can be effected. And frankly, we doubt that there will come such a time when promoters will see it as part of their civic responsibility to acquire the necessary permits.

It really comes down to a question of how we want to live. Do we want a society in which there is chaos with each man deciding which laws are worth obeying and which should be ignored? Or do we envisage a society wherein the majority of law-abiding citizens appreciate the important role of municipal government in delivering services to the community?

Let's see if the current mayor of Kingston, Senator Angela Brown Burke, can stitch together a strategy that will persuade business people to honour their commitment, so the KSAC will not have to take out the whip year after year.

Every effort has to be made to engage business people so that they can become part of the local decision-making. Then, maybe, more people will shun tax avoidance.

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