Ronald Thwaites | Opportunity to unite?

The pain and loss being experienced by the western half of Jamaica raises serious questions as to the calibre of national leadership and the ethical basis of public expenditure. Look how there were endless resources deployed to prime voters but disgracefully inadequate money to clean the drains and train the rivers in advance of the hurricane season.

It is very likely that, if basic infrastructure had been in order as the councillors and members of parliament pleaded, much of the present destruction and death would have been averted.

BIG MONEY SCAM

Watch out now how the plenty, plenty relief money is filtered. Who will monitor the contracts for supplies and ensure equity in their awarding? Already, the favourites are lining up. Because of the emergency, most contracting will evade normal procurement safeguards. So every supply and works contract over a low minimum threshold ought to be made public with names attached. Include the conveniently split-up ones too.

CONSIDER THE LOSS

Incalculable material wealth was lost to Jamaica last week. The remnants of valuable peasant culture - homesteads, food cultivation and cottage industry have been compromised. We have to be very careful that, in this aftermath, equal positive spiritual energy will not be forfeited for good. Money can be replaced more easily than fractured goodwill and trust.

Think it through. Each of the houses flattened or damaged, however humble, represents the investment, the stability and the peace of mind of a family. Relationships are put on edge by want, education disturbed (ignore the impractical call to revert to online learning and put the teaching on free-to-air radio and TV); productivity diminished.

Can we comprehend the depression and panic of a farmer who watches his family income washed away; the householder who knows he will not be able to meet the mortgage payments for his devastated dwelling or the bank instalment on the taximan’s Probox. Or the ravage of the looters. National mental health is essential to recovery.

PRETTY TALK

When people justifiably feel depressed and weary, they become angry and cynical. The Government has done a commendable job in first announcing preparations for Melissa and now promising relief measures. Trouble is, delivery never matches need or expectation. Ministerial statements breed scepticism rather than confidence. Especially when there was no working toilet or food at the shelter or when aid gets distributed on a partisan basis.

COMMON CAUSE

If ever there were a time for a true national front to ensure fairness, revive spirits and downplay divisions it is now. This administration clings to a small majority in Parliament chosen by an embarrassing minority of those, without whose energy, commitment and trust, Jamaica cannot recover stronger, no matter how much zinc, plyboard, bully beef and cash is dashed out. And it’s going to take years to rebuild.

SYMBOLS ARE SIGNIFICANT

Standards demonstrated by leaders can have great persuasive effect. A huge step towards generating and retaining the trust, the spiritual capital – more important than any catastrophe insurance, would have been garnered if both Andrew and Mark had travelled together to St Elizabeth, Westmoreland and wherever.

The reality is that no single administration can garner the support to galvanise most of us to strain towards rebuilding what was lost materially and spiritually last week.

ARROGANCE BREEDS FAILURE

The election is over. The authority of the present administration is undoubted. If they think that this means they can achieve restoration and growth without Opposition and broad public support, they are morally and practically arrogant, defensive and immature – all to our peril and their own eventual political failure.

Power is most effectively displayed in times like these when it is shared and disbursed. The municipal corporations who know the crevices of need better than any bureaucrat, following the principle of subsidiarity, ought to have a prominent role and be held strictly accountable in the process of reconstruction.

It is reasonable to have Cabinet-led committees to mobilise ministries beyond routine functions - if even ministers can do that. The precedent of an overarching National Reconstruction Council, broadly constituted on a non-political basis and with wide oversight authority, should be instituted without delay.

Think of it: if Melissa-borne distress can be the catalyst for a greater praxis of national unity, we shall have snatched a measure of salvation from the pain of “crosses”. What greater proof of political legitimacy could there be?

Such a pilgrimage of hope demands more modelling than mouth-watering statements and repetitive public relations jargon about doing things together. This effort must touch our hearts and consciences.

Many PNP sufferers feel they won’t be treated fairly. Many JLP partisans feel they should get first share. The majority whose lives have been damaged don’t care about political sides. Check the angry and hungry people in Black River last Friday long after the PM, like Bedward, had left in the sky.

Inclusive political leadership can send a strong signal that, this time and onwards, the nation will be guided by better spirits of equity and inclusivity. Will we?

BARRY G

Barry’s first assignment at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation was as a production assistant for The Public Eye. His energy and engaging spirit added to his raw talent as a communicator. I encouraged him to aspire to take over the microphone in due course. But his dream was bigger and better. He would go on to fuse music and commentary in a unique style, engaging a much wider audience. Once a fervent caller mistook the programme times and asked if I was ‘Barry G’. In a hopeless effort to attach myself to his bandwagon, my reply was that I was ‘Ronnie T’! Those became our names for each other thereafter and, I hope, hereafter.

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com