According to Professor Anthony Harriott one of the main causes of the nation’s high murder rate is the inability of many Jamaicans to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. He says the sharp drop in homicides in some inner city communities over the past two years was partly due to conflict resolution programs established there. He reckons that if such programs were put in place island-wide, our murder rate could drop by 40%.

The inability to resolve conflicts amicably is often associated with a lack of education. Well-educated persons should be able to reason logically, define terms clearly, and see things from other people’s point of view. But in Jamaica it often seems that even the well educated have trouble coming to a mutually satisfactory understanding when they have disagreements.

Take for example the Jamaica Labour Party “Gang of Five” argument. Few remember now what started the quarrel that resulted in allegations being flung back and forth and members being suspended and then ordered to “sing a sankey and find your way home”. But the train of events it started ended in Bruce Golding’s departure from the JLP and the forming of the National Democratic Movement.

Even that did not stop the JLP’s squabbles. Such is the lack of trust within the party that in its last internal elections Electoral Advisory Council director Danville Walker was called in so that everyone would be satisfied there was no cheating. The same Danville Walker of course who JLP leader Edward Seaga had castigated during the run up to the 1997 general elections as “incompetent and corrupt” or words to that effect. Is it any wonder that the Labour Party is at its lowest standing ever in the national polls?

Not that such behaviour is confined to the JLP. A few months ago Mr. Golding himself launched a lawsuit against the Jamaica Observer for defamation. Now whatever the rights or wrongs of the case, from a practical point of view it is nearly always a no win situation for a public figure to involve himself in litigation against the media. And to an objective observer the matter which prompted Mr. Golding’s action hardly seemed worth worrying about. Couldn’t he and the Observer and the author of the disputed letter not have resolved the matter in private? Washing dirty laundry in public rarely makes anyone look good. 

(Incidentally, one wonders what has become of the lawsuit. We have heard nothing of it since. Nor for that matter have we heard anything about the one Mr. P.J. Patterson launched against Mr. Golding over remarks he made over the Montego Bay Street People affair. As a friend once remarked, it is pointless to write political satire in Jamaica since our politicians often seem engaged in a farcical comedy of errors. And our thin skinned leaders’ specialty appears to be making mountains out of molehills.)

The most recent example of such public disagreements is the contretemps between the police and Jamaicans For Justice, which is an especially disappointing development. In the past year or so JFJ has done an excellent job as establishing itself in the public mind as a genuinely non-partisan group interested only in seeking proper justice for all Jamaicans. Commissioner Francis Forbes even commended the group for the way in which it conducted demonstrations. And both he and JFJ’s leader Dr. Carolyn Gomes spoke highly of each other. The Group seemed to be serving as a crucial and necessary link between the police and persons who felt their rights had been abused by the security forces.

But ever since the police shooting of Punky Wint in the Mountain View Area on April 26 and the murder of two policemen the next day, an alarming degree of hostility has sprung up between JFJ and the police. The police have accused JFJ of being politically involved while JFJ have responded with talk of possible legal action against the police.

I for one was amazed with the Commissioner’s thinly veiled innuendo against JFJ. Now one could fully understand police resentment and grief over the killing of two colleagues in one day. But were they trying to smear this non-partisan group with the taint of tribalism merely because it was questioning the actions of certain policemen? The Police Federation’s threat to start monitoring JFJ seemed especially strange and even a bit sinister.

But I was even more startled to hear that JFJ’s leader Dr. Carolyn Gomes was the brother of Evon Thwaites, an aspiring JLP constituency caretaker who was allegedly involved in the demonstrations against Punky Wint’s killing. To be sure we are not responsible for our relatives’ beliefs. (And as Dr. Gomes points out she is also PNP MP Ronnie Thwaites’ cousin.) But her argument that “I don’t see why this should make the organization I represent suspect” is, from the point of public perception, at best naïve and at worst arrogant.

Many people gave their full support to JFJ because they saw it as a truly non-partisan organization completely free of the tribal curse that is eating away at Jamaican society like a cancer. Sometimes it seems there is no one who does not have a vested interest somewhere and hence no one we can trust to tell the whole truth. After the Mountain View disturbances JFJ should have made a full statement making clear Dr. Gomes’ relationship with Evon Thwaites and disavowing by name any linkage with him. When an organization makes a great issue of its ideological purity, as JFJ does, it cannot afford to leave any room at all for doubts. Hence it is surely incumbent on JFJ to reveal any possible sources of conflict of interest before the media does. Caesar’s wife must not only be faithful, she must be seen to be faithful.

Yet despite all this the police clearly went too far in making threats against JFJ. Part of their animosity seems to have sprung from TV reports that JFJ held a press conference condemning Punky White’s shooting. But JFJ flatly denied this report, and contrary to the belief of some police, did release a statement expressing “its profound sorrow at the killing of Corporal Roland Layne” the evening of the day he died.

If the police do have proof that JFJ “can and have been hijacked by persons with illegalities as their objective” let them make it public. Otherwise Commissioner Forbes should allow that he and his colleagues over reacted in their comments. And Dr. Gomes should be big enough to admit an error in judgement on JFJ’s part in not being more forthright. When the forces of law and order and the defenders of citizen’s rights start fighting among themselves the only winners can be the criminals. (e-mail changkob@hotmail.com)