We have the power

The Editor, Sir:

The present Dudus/Manatt, Phelps & Phillips crisis has provided us Jamaicans with a golden opportunity to recognise that as a people we have power.

In the face of corrupt politics, politicians embedded with organised crime, garrisons and our own apathy we do, as civil society, have power that goes beyond blocking roads and making noise.

We have the power to call elected officials to heel. We have the power to demand from politicians, behaviour that is in the best interest of the country. In our respective spheres of influence - the church, the media, the private sector, the workplace, the public space of communities, roads and workplaces - we can make our voices heard with some effect.

Chattered away

This power is actually the norm in a functioning democracy, but here in Jamaica we have not recognised or used it, and have simply chattered away or turned a blind eye while various forces and politicians of all stripes have done as they pleased with us and with our country.

What will we now do with this power? Will it be business as usual, once we feel relatively comfortable again will we lock our grills, renew monthly contracts with security companies, retreat into our own respective corners without a care for others and close eyes and ears to the disorder around us?

The Dudus/Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair should spur us to further hold all politicians to account, to hold our security forces to account, to support nation building, dismantle garrison politics and show solidarity with fellow Jamaicans in garrisons and embattled communities, who are trapped in a criminal-political structure that takes away their freedom and forces them to accept this warped reality as the norm, to even embrace it in the face of an absence of alternatives.

Could we have a unified response and outcry, like the one we had over the past few weeks, for every abuse of power, every criminal act, every case of corruption, every moral outrage? This response could be the first step in a long journey back from the brink.

I am, etc.,

Ready to Act

for Change