Columns

Al Miller

Sunday, July 09, 2017

We are at a crossroads in the arena of Jamaican football and also in our nation. An interesting parallel is before us with many similarities from which critical lessons must be learned.

Both football and the nation are very close to the hearts of many Jamaicans — certainly to mine. Both are full of potential and have within them what it takes to succeed on the world stage. Both have had their share of struggles and yet have made strides and seen measures of success. Both are fraught with challenges in various areas and searching for the breakthrough to sustainable growth and development. Both are trying to earn a place among the top nations of the world. Both have had fluctuations and differing leadership styles.

In football, and in the nation, decisions and actions must be taken now to determine the future. A good example is seen in the decisive, focused, committed and visionary leadership of Captain Horace Burrell, who took us to the promised land of the World Cup. He inspired hope. On the national side, no one has given us more than a glimpse of that new Jamaica so that we can aspire to it.

The Burrell Method

Burrell was a leader with conviction; he knew what he wanted, where he was going, and he invited us to come along and move towards it. His approach was, if you coming with me, come! If you not coming, get off the bus and don't hold me up!

If the system didn't have the money he used his own or got it from others. He negotiated, as necessary, to get the deal to accomplish the purpose. He never accepted “can't”. He used to say, “ Rev, we are going to do it! With everybody's help and prayer, we will make it.”

The nation needs that kind of tenacious leadership now! Football also needs similar leadership for the next phase; leadership that will grab hold of a lofty goal and work assiduously to achieve it; leadership that will not be daunted by circumstances or past failures.

Subbing Out

Both football and the nation are at the point of leadership change. Burrell has passed away, bringing a momentous era to a close. Portia Simpson Miller has bowed out, and so did Bruce Golding. We must honour and thank them for the tremendous service given to their country. However, the game goes on and fresh leadership legs must take to the field.

Football is sending a signal: Time for change. The nation is also in a season of changing leadership from one generation to another. Football and Jamaica must move into a new season. We appreciate the past, and wil learn from it, but we can't get stuck there and revel in it. We must shake it off, look ahead, and act now to produce the preferred future.

Goals win games

Jamaica Football Federation, like the nation, needs to adopt the positives of the Burrell era. The priority is to outline a clear vision for football. Where do we want to go? What will it take to get there? Who can best lead us there? The organisation cannot go back to what it was and it cannot afford to have leadership without a vision of the destination. It has to carefully select a leader and team with the vision and competence to build the vision into reality.

The leader for this stage does not have to be like Burrell in style or temperament for different eras need different approaches. However the new leader will need the same clarity of vision, commitment and focus, along with the ability to organise systems and engage and excite the people to come together to lift our beloved football to new heights. The leadership must have a long-term development focus, while not ignoring the need for short-term success.

We need a clear Jamaican philosophy of football that captures our strengths. Additionally, we must employ the requisite technical expertise to make all of this a reality. Competence is made up of three critical components: knowledge, skill and attitude. They work in tandem.

We have a tendency to love the players with fancy footwork, those who can dazzle us with brilliant passes and neatly executed turns. Unfortunately, flashy play doesn't always end in goals scored, and it's the goals that win games. As a nation, we also seem to prefer the loud-talking, sweet mouth, patronising type of politician, rather than the determined, goal-centred and developmen-driven leader.

A determined striker

The wrong type of leader at a can destroy the gains of the past. A selfish striker can waste all the work of the defenders and the midfield to move the ball forward when he goes for a flashy move rather than a clean strike. We need a determined striker — one who can see the goal clearly and who knows how to get around the obstacles and put the ball into the net. In other words, results are more important than style.

In my view, the current national leadership approaches are more style than substance. For example, the additional methods being initiated to deal with the crime monster are well-intentioned, but cannot solve the problem, or even make a significant dent in it. Baptising and renaming does not create change. The same people doing the same things in the same old way are guaranteed to fail.

I said, in 2010, prior to and after the Tivoli invasion, that the strategy to target and harass certain communities — where the don would be taken out — could not solve the crime problem but would worsen it. I predicted that the effect would be a temporary lull but that crime would come back worse. That strategy would only multiply dons and gunmen, not reduce them.

That is exactly what has happened. We are right back at 2010 levels of murders. More policemen and more vehicles cannot bring lasting change. Any apparent change is cosmetic and cannot last.

Focus on the youth (U-25)

Similar to the football federation, Jamaica now needs a new clear and compelling vision. Where do we want to go and who can best lead us there? Both the nation and the football programme must focus on the development of our youth if they are to survive and fulfil the vision of a prosperous Jamaica. The football grassroots programme is vital to building for the future.

We need to cream off at least the top 100 players for placement in a concentrated development programme. When Burrell instituted the football camp, a controlled environment was created in order to increase the influence of the coaches on the Reggae Boyz. For some, this was to also take them out of the negative environments in which they lived and place them into a disciplined and structured community.

Similarly, the nation needs to select from across the country 10,000 of the most vulnerable, most problematic, most negatively engaged youth and place them in a well prepared, transformational programme of work, training and behaviour modification for at least a year. Such a programme must include literacy, skills training and attitude adjustment in order to prepare them for the work world. We must give them hope and break the back of our negative cultures. We must achieve mindset change. We must give them skills that they can use in the job market.

Some have said that these young people are incapable of change and that they have no interest. That has not been my experience, having worked in and interacted with nearly every hot spot community past and present. The majority of these young men who end up involved in crime are not necessarily there because they desire to be criminals, but because they have nothing to do and often live in dire need. Many feel so hopeless that they cannot see another means of survival. They end up having children and so have mouths to feed. Plus, they can't be seen to be going against the don.

I believe that many of these young men will change if given the opportunity to do so. There are, of course,. those who are thoroughly hardened and who do not wish to leave the criminal lifestyle. Those are much fewer in number, and they are the ones who are the appropriate targets for hard policing.

The model for the nation

It was football that united the country in 1998. Jamaica came together around a single, achievable, and clearly defined goal. We threw our resources and energies behind it as a people. We have seen the power of sports on a whole, and football in particular. The values that we need to instil in our young people are evident in sports: teamwork, discipline, responsibility, sharing, order, respect for the rules and authority. All these can be taught through sports. They are the tools for change.

We find ourselves at a crossroads. Which way will we go?

Al Miller is pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle. Send comments to the Observer or pastormilleroffice@gmail.com.