http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20041205/focus/focus4.html

Kevin O'Brien Chang

JAMAICA'S MOST regularly re-run headline is surely, 'Murder count soars'. With the murder total poised to top 1,500 this year, it's hard to believe now that 'only' 423 Jamaicans were murdered in 1989. That's a mind-boggling 350 per cent increase in 15 years.

It's doubtful any other country, not at war has seen such a dramatic increase in violent deaths over the same period.

One would think the citizens of a country experiencing such a homicide explosion would be cowering behind grills and afraid to venture out after sunset, yet this is not so. Although Kingston is quite possibly the murder capital of the world, by all accounts, nightlife in the Corporate Area has never been livelier. New clubs and restaurants seem to open weekly and big dances are held almost every night. It doesn't add up, but then not much in this island does.

A government presiding over such a litany of slaughter ­ over 13,000 killed in 15 years ­ should have been booted out long ago. Furthermore, since 1989 our national debt has risen to record levels and the Jamaican dollar has lost more than 90 per cent of its value, a decline documented by that other constantly recurring headline, 'Jamaican dollar plunges'.

Despite this dismal record, the PNP has been re-elected three consecutive times. And though this year's murder rate is up more than 50 per cent, it still won the two by-election seats contested recently. Has any government anywhere so strikingly combined administrative failure with electoral success?

THE JLP TRUMP CARD

Of course, this has only been possible because of another incessantly repeated headline ­ 'JLP in turmoil'. For politics is a zero sum game. You don't have to be good to win an election, merely better than your challenger. And as bad a government as the PNP has been, Labour has been an even worse opposition. Having won only one contested general election in 37 years, the JLP must be a strong contender for the title of 'world's worst established political party'. Seemingly bereft of discipline and common sense, it constantly parades its disagreements in public. Its officers show little understanding of the golden political rule that 'half a loaf is better than none'. Apparently, like Julius Caesar, they would all rather rule a desert than be second in Rome.

Had party executives united around heir apparent, Bruce Golding and sent the even then weary looking Edward Seaga packing after a second straight landslide defeat in 1993, the JLP would have been well-placed to return to power. Instead, they foolishly allowed Seaga to continually divide and rule, oblivious to the blinding reality that constant disarray plus an unpopular leader virtually guarantees electoral defeat. Predictable losses followed in 1997 and 2002.

Fifteen years in the wilderness should have made the JLP hierarchy hard-nosed realists. But despite the return of the still popular with the public, Golding, they adamantly refuse to unite.

Last year's local government victory made Labour a strong favourite in many quarters to win the next general election. Now it's in the process of suing itself. You can almost hear the PNP ad writers rubbing their hands in glee ­ 'How can you trust a party, which doesn't trust itself?' is one obvious tag line.

On current form, some of the JLP's best known members will end up having spent close to a generation of their lives in politics without tasting ministerial power. What a study in irrationality!

At this point a columnist normally launches a furious tirade of indignation against our irresponsible politicians and trumpets a call for reform of our corrupt political system. But there's nothing above I haven't said before in my five years or more of opinion writing. I seem to have progressed from boring readers to boring myself. So let's change the subject and try to amuse ourselves by predicting which other headline re-runs we can expect in the near future.

OTHER HEADLINES TO LOOK FOR

One we all expect to see in the week after Christmas is that traditional holiday favourite 'Chaos erupts at Sting'. Which deejay clash will cause the bottles and gunshots to flow this time around? It's incredible really that despite the regular mayhem at big dancehall stage shows, no spectators have died. Even more incredibly, fans keep packing these events. Maybe it's the lure of unscripted pandemonium that draws the crowds. At any rate, let's hope our luck holds again.

'Flood disaster' is another hardy perennial, which generally gets trotted out during the May or October rainy seasons. But we didn't see it last year, so maybe the authorities are finally using common sense and clearing the drains and gullies in April and September.

In the 'names change, but the story remains the same' category 'Millions missing in big government scandal' is sure to pop up again sometime soon. This PNP regime may or may not be our most corrupt ever, but it's certainly faced the most feeble opposition. And when government officials know they can brazenly raid the public purse and still get re-elected ­ well temptation is awfully hard to resist.

Another unfortunately too familiar headline is, 'Exam results worse than last year'. Education is one area where all our governments have tried hard, for Jamaica ranks among the world top 10 in 'percentage of GDP spent on education'. But still hordes of our boys leave school unable even to read and write. But again, I hear myself regurgitating beaten to death arguments. Apparently Edna St. Vincent Millay was not far off ­ "It's not true; life is one damn thing after another; it's the same damn thing over and over."