THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA ON SECURITY AND GOVERNANCE TO THE DIASPORA
Mr. Joshua Polachwck, counselor for Public Affairs U.S. Embassy, Kingston, Ambassador to the UN Curtis Ward, Former Councilwomen Una Clarke, His Excellence Ambassador Ralph Thomas and Mr. Earl Jarrett, General Manager of JNBS
By: C. Harrison/5/23/2016
At a time when people need to be reassured about a lot of things politically and due to the recent election that took place in Jamaica, it was a respected time to discuss Security and Good Governance. Thus, an event held in Manhattan, brought about topics regarding Good Governance in a very public forum called Dialogue Between Democracies. The forum took place at the Mercury Ballroom at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel. The event was brought to us by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute and the United States Embassy, Kingston.
First, at the very outset we learned that The United States and Jamaica have a very healthy relationship regarding interactions to each other and sound security bonds. Perspectively though, we would have to get into the contents of Good Governance and its meaning before we can begin to discuss the issues in Jamaica. Here, we have to define what is Good Governance; Good Governance is accountability, transparency, following the law, be responsive, equitable, inclusiveness, effectiveness, efficiency and participatory. “Good Governance is the process by which authority is exercised in the management of the economic and social resources, with a view to development and the capacity of governments to formulate polices and have them effectively implemented,” according to the world bank.
Good Governance should be use to sustain and bring about reform depending on the priority of that country’s society. In other word, Good Governance is about meeting the need of the masses not a selected group. And I stress select group…because half of the time it feels like certain select groups are who the governments caters to most and not the masses.
At the forum we also learned that although the Jamaican Government do cater to its people in some ways it is lacking in others, such as transparency and the fact that the business of the government goes hand in hand with certain criminality; which, one panelist Mr. Earl Jarrett, alluded to have been going on for far too long in Jamaica, even though it’s in the face of vast improvements.
In addition, the panel’s explanation of violence were that the amount of violence in Jamaica is unrelated to crimes on the island. Violence they asserted was encouraged from school age. The two they countered are related only in a sense that 44% of Jamaican’s youths are unemployed and half of its population are under the age of 21. And surely poverty breath crimes.
And while everyone was asking questions and getting answers, no one seemed to know how to combat the latter, which was the most important. The latter could also be the key, as to why so many other areas of concerns in Jamaica have not improved over the years. Here, the reference is lack of leadership in certain areas or unwillingness to step in on the part of Government. Again, according to Mr. Jarrett, the Jamaican Government and its businesses have always had a criminal aliment in terms of how business have to comply, report, and do transactions…via the need for more aircrafts, more tourist interactions, job offers, and more security clerks at airports,” “we see a lot of scams,” he said.
Not to down play the many projects going on in Jamaica, such as the big plan for a hub, a plan for trains to start running again and a massive roadway development which has already started and people can now get documents a bit quicker via a lot more places to bank and draw money from as well as the Islands’ modernizing of just about everything. So yes, the improvements are there but, it is coming along side by side with the criminal elements which no one needs. Really and truly this is the draw back.
Accordingly, Security seemed to be the bigger issue on everyone’s mind. People complaint about not getting enough of all kinds of things; standing in their way, security and those in charge. The bigger concern though was the wider topic of international security; especially, with the Caribbean Hub on goat island soon to come. Furthermore, one has to add terrorism to the list, while it has not happen thus far in Jamaica, it has to be considered and put into perspective. These were topics that his Excellency Ralph Thomas, Jamaican Ambassador to the United States, was concerned about. He also made reference to the fact that Jamaica needed more money to sure-up or beef-up more security now. The concern is an issue that all parties involve wants to see an overhaul on.
In addition, others were calling for the Jamaican police force to be retrained and some inside the force to be oust, very specific demands. Is the Jamaican Government making the best decisions; policies wise and implementations for its nation—the answer is probably not.
The answers to these questions and the security concerns were summed-up by Ambassador Thomas, who said, “The gap is huge in national, regional and international security even though Jamaica’s security is in excellence shape. My contention is that the Caribbean Basin Security initiatives: training and technical assistants, need more money to help guard off threats to the Caribbean islands; while Jamaica has the largest security force in the Caribbean Basin, it’s only in maritime security.”
“Thus far, no resources have been put into Jamaica’s security in the drug interaction passing through the United States to Jamaica.” On other hand, 200 people were trained for the united terrorism taskforce in Jamaica. “Jamaica has failed in ways of getting funding for Jamaica’s security, gathering and sharing information. The role of intelligence must be including in any security funding package.
Additionally, Thomas also made it clear that growth is essential for any country to move forward and that Jamaicans have to change the orientation of Jamaica’s leaders and make them see that they work for the people , not the other way around. Has for cyber crimes in Jamaica, the United States embassy is working on a program and there are firms here in the States, that are monitoring cyber space and crimes in Jamaica.
In rapping up the segment, Una S. T. Clarke, former NYC Councilwoman, who stood in for her daughter, sitting NYC Councilmember, Yvette Clarke; noted that if Jamaicans come together and do what needs to be done then more of everything can be done.
The bottom line is that while a lot has been done in Jamaica, Jamaica has a long way to go and it has a lot more implementation to do to please its populous. Most believe that brand new Prime Minister, Andrew Holiness, will not change much of anything.
The welcome remarks was done by Dr. Damien King Executive Dir. of Caribbean Policy Research Institute. Greetings staged by Mr. Gary ‘Butch’ Hendrickson, CD Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Continental Baking Company Limited. Special Guess Mr. Derron McCreath, Deputy Consul General for Jamaica to New York.
Panelists consisted of: Mr. Joshua Polacheck, Counselor for Public Affairs, Embassy of the United States of America, Kingston. Former Councilwoman Una Clarke, who stepped in for Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, United States House of Representatives. His Excellency Ralph Thomas, Jamaican Ambassador to the United States of America. Ambassador Cutis Ward, Former Jamaican Ambassador to the United Nations (Security Council Affairs) and Mr. Earl Jarrett, CD, General Manager Jamaica National Building Society.
photo by: Donald Levy
His Excellence Ambassador Ralph Thomas, C. Harrison and Mr. Earl Jarrett
