Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jul 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Orlando Patterson
Note: Orlando Patterson, a professor of sociology at Harvard, was special 
adviser for social policy and development to Prime Minister Michael Manley 
of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980.

THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT IN JAMAICA

OCHO RIOS, Jamaica -- During the spasm of violence in Jamaica earlier this 
month, my wife and I spent a quiet afternoon on the veranda at the home of 
my 84-year old mother, in a part of Kingston less than three miles from the 
center of the conflict that, over four days, left more than 25 people dead. 
We felt about as safe as we would anywhere in New York or Boston.

Jamaica is a 144-mile mountain range jutting out of the Caribbean. The 
capital city of Kingston and the homes of most of the country's 2.5 million 
inhabitants are on the southern coast. Nearly all the hotels worth visiting 
are located a huge mountain and a social world away, on the northern coast. 
Jamaica does have a higher level of crime and violence than most other 
nations, but the violence is largely confined to particular urban 
neighborhoods in the southern part of the island. And the recent clash 
between police and politically motivated gangsters was restricted to one 
small section of the western urban slums of Kingston.

What is really going on here?

Jamaica is a test case of all that's best and worst about democratic 
regimes in less developed countries. It shares with most of the other 
Caribbean islands of the British Commonwealth a deeply rooted commitment to 
personal freedom and democratic governance. Voter participation rates here 
put the United States to shame. What's more, unlike Japan and many other 
modern democracies, Jamaica has repeatedly passed the ultimate test of any 
thoroughly institutionalized democracy: it has had several changes of 
government since independence in 1962, the two dominant parties each having 
ruled and been thrown out of office by the voters about the same number of 
times. Supporting this democracy are a free and vigilant press, a 
sophisticated tradition of social and political discourse, and a vibrant 
civil society. The country also has a complex and highly developed popular 
culture and intellectual tradition. That's the good news.

The bad news is that Jamaica's attempts at economic development have 
largely failed. Here, as in Puerto Rico and most other Caribbean islands, 
post-independence attempts at industrialization have fallen apart. Jamaica 
now has vast shantytowns; unemployment at depression levels; and high rates 
of economic inequality, crime and drug abuse. The government has met many 
conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund in return for 
much-needed loans: a stable annual inflation rate of 5.8 percent, falling 
interest rates, adequate international reserves and the return of positive 
growth. But at the same time, public debt is nearly 160 percent of the 
gross domestic product and interest consumes more than half of all 
government expenditure, leaving little to address the social problems.

External migration and a thriving informal economy have been safety valves 
of the system. Between a quarter and a third of all Jamaicans live abroad, 
most in the United States. Secretary of State Colin Powell, a 
second-generation Jamaican- American, is the most visible symbol of 
Jamaicans' achievements in America. Even Jamaicans who have become American 
citizens tend to maintain strong ties with the island, making Jamaica in 
effect a transnational society. And the money they send home ranks second 
only to tourism in contributing to the economy's net foreign earnings. This 
half explains the large villas sprouting all over the countryside in spite 
of years of negative economic growth.

The other half of the explanation is in the darker side of the informal 
economy: the drug trade. Marijuana has traditionally been used in Jamaica, 
but more sinister, the island is increasingly used as a transshipment 
center by Colombian dealers feeding America's insatiable demand for 
narcotics. And as in America and other parts of the world, guns and turf 
wars follow the illicit drug trade. The dons and drug gangs of the slums 
are often more heavily armed than the security forces waging losing battles 
to control them. The police have increasingly resorted to illegal tactics 
that violate the rights not only of the criminal elements but of innocent 
residents trapped in the neighborhoods where the criminals operate.

Jamaica's parliamentary democracy, on the British model, interacts badly 
with this turbulent socioeconomic mix. A politician's political survival 
depends entirely on his or her ability to win repeatedly at the local 
level. One sure method of ensuring repeated victory is to create what is 
called a garrison constituency: a pocket of housing erected with public 
funds, with carefully screened residents who will constitute the unbeatable 
core of the politician's voters.

These began with Edward Seaga, now the leader of the Jamaica Labor Party, 
when he was in office during the 1960's and 80's. The leading politicians 
of the other main party soon followed his lead. There are now about 15 
hard-core garrison constituencies, and political fights between them during 
elections have spilled over into broader, ongoing turf wars. The resulting 
gangs, initially formed for political purposes, now also serve the drug 
trade. During the 80's, many of these gangs migrated to America, where they 
became known as posses and soon forged a reputation for violence.

These gangs have increasingly worked to generate unrest as a political 
tactic. This may have been a cause of the recent violence, which was as 
much a police riot as a counterattack by political thugs against police. 
The violence took place in garrison constituencies loyal to the opposition 
party, and many commentators here see it as an attempt by the opposition to 
pressure the government to call an early election (the next scheduled 
election is not until next year).

Last week Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, leader of the People's National 
Party, ordered a commission of inquiry to determine the causes of the 
recent violence and propose steps to fight criminality. Mr. Seaga had 
called for such a commission.

Today Jamaica, like the few other genuine democracies in the third world, 
is attempting to do what history has so far found to be impossible: develop 
a successful capitalist economy after first embracing freedom, allowing a 
vigorous trade union movement and guaranteeing universal adult suffrage. 
Economic failure and mass poverty have in no way diminished the nation's 
passion for freedom.

The United States should recognize its interest in supporting this small 
struggling nation right at its doorstep -- especially since a healthy, 
functioning democracy there would be better able to resist the drug trade 
that harms both countries.

Orlando Patterson, a professor of sociology at Harvard, was special adviser 
for social policy and development to Prime Minister Michael Manley of 
Jamaica from 1972 to 1980. 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom