Skyrocketing crime, daily roadblocks, corrupt elections, incompetent politicians - Jamaica is simply a disaster. The system just doesn't work, so let's throw it out. Anything must be better than what we have. Things are so bad, they can't get any worse.

So goes the cry on the cocktail and verandah circuit, and you hear many foolish solutions advanced. But the benevolent dictator advocates stand out for sheer idiocy. They claim Jamaicans are too easy going and fun loving to compete in today's ruthless global marketplace. Only a maximum leader who brooks no dissent can make us a disciplined and hard working people. Human rights are a luxury this country cannot afford. A firm ruler who cracks down ruthlessly will eliminate crime and lead Jamaica into the 21st century. When the proper habits have been inculcated in the masses we can then dispense with this iron-fisted head of state and return to democracy. Half-baked intellectuals reel off names like Lee Kuan Yew, Pinochet and Félix Houphouët-Boigny as fine examples of strong one party rule. But what of disasters like Peron, Marcos and Amin who set their countries back decades? 'Good strong guys' have always been in short supply, but never tyrants - Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Mobutu, Castro, Saddam Hussein - the list goes on. A country never knows in advance what type of dictator it is getting and unfortunately the only ways to get rid of a bad one are assassination, revolution or civil war. At least we can still vote out unpopular leaders. As Winston Churchill said, democracy is the worst system of government ever invented - except for all the others.

Equally silly is the 'bottom out' concept. This claims Jamaicans put up with bad leadership because they have not suffered enough and won't change until things are so bad they have to. Those trying to bail out this sinking ship are wasting time and energy. Let the country run itself into the ground. When everything crashes and people can't get food and water and light then everybody will cry out for change. Then we can make a fresh start and get the IMF and World Bank to rebuild Jamaica from scratch. Sure some people will suffer, but you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. Now this is a stupid argument on grounds of self-preservation alone. Broken eggs might include them, you or me. And countries which hit rock bottom do not bounce back easily. Most languish a long time in the pit before climbing out and some never do. Look at Afghanistan, Haiti and Cambodia,

A wise man, they say, learns from the mistakes of others. And ‘benevolent dictator’ and ‘bottom out’ extremists should remember Liberia. From 1944 to 1980 Liberia was a functioning, quasi-democratic republic with an American model constitution. But corruption under the minority Americo-Liberian dominated Tolbert regime was so bad, people said then, things could get no worse. Yet no credible forces for reform from within emerged. Liberia’s elite ignored the responsibilities of privilege. Those with economic and political clout were either too busy feathering their nests or despairingly considered the political system an irredeemable failure. So when change did come, it came from below.

Still, when army sergeant Samuel Doe overthrew William Tolbert in 1980, joy was unconfined even among the educated classes. Here was the long awaited new beginning. Initially Doe did speak the language of democracy, human rights and economic freedom. Even some foreign commentators spoke in terms of a 'liberated' Liberia. But Doe's regime proved brutal, incompetent and corrupt. The granting of a new constitution was followed in 1985 by rigged elections. But opposing parties refused to accept the results and headed for the hills with their guns. The country's infrastructure and economy collapsed and again the cry went up, things could get no worse. But the time for rational reform was past. Politics now meant bullets, not ballots. Armed rebels overthrew Doe in 1990, civil war engulfed the nation, and Liberia disintegrated into bands of warring factions, a country in name only. Liberia had finally hit rock bottom. This time things truly could get no worse.