After 48 years of political independence Jamaica finds itself at a cruel crossroads. The years have not been kind to the bright hopes that captivated everyone in the 1960s. Poets wrote about a fair land that inspired and hills that scorned death and failure. Politicians promised a perpetually newer and better day. Nowadays that unbridled optimism seems a dim and distant memory. The confidence of a better day for Jamaica that infused those early years of independence has slowly given way to a paralysing collective sense of disappointment and inevitable failure.

Jamaica is not yet a failed state, however. It might not even be a failing state at the moment. But prognoses for the future are not encouraging. With each passing year more citizens lose faith in their government, in their churches and in their leaders. Many resign themselves fatalistically to inexorable decline. Others simply resort to the dubious consolation of exile. Neither fatalistic resignation nor foreign flight offers a constructive response to the punishing dilemma of Jamaica’s reality. Jamaicans must sooner or later confront the uneasy and discomfiting challenges of change. Their fate lies in their own hands. The soul-searching will not be easy for the world today is harsh and unforgiving. Nevertheless there is no other way.

Jamaicans must take a hard and sober look at themselves and their country. This is not the time to expect help from foreigners. Instead, it is time to reflect on the remarks of Cassius in the first scene of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Julius Caesar: “Men at some times are masters of their fates:/The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars,/But in ourselves that we are underlings.” If Jamaica is to be turned around, the initiative must come from Jamaicans and the diagnoses and prescriptions must come from as wide a cross section of the population as possible, since original ideas have not been streaming downward from the present leaders.

Change will be difficult, even painful for some groups and some classes. Any new order requires the surrender of some comfortable and familiar conventions. There is no reason to expect otherwise in Jamaica. To be efficacious change must be pervasive, affecting all aspects of the Jamaican society. Half-measures will not work.

Given the low esteem in which politics and politicians are held at present, revamping the political system should be the first priority. The constitution needs to be revised. The present House of Representatives is way too large and too costly for a small country. A national population of about three million can be effectively served by around 30 representatives. Any MP unable to service a constituency of 100,000 should find another line of work. No parish outside the Corporate Area needs more than two MPs and one senator. The country does not need more than seven ministries to administer its international, political, economic and social affairs.

The constitutional system of enshrining two political parties should be scrapped. It has not worked in decades. A better system would be: have any party register a list of candidates up to the number of constituencies and then assign seats based on the proportion of votes garnered in the general election. The prime minister should be the individual capable of commanding a majority either from his or her own party or from a coalition of parties. There is nothing sacrosanct about the two-party system and in many ways it merely serves to undermine true democracy and representative government. Multiple parties would expand electoral participation.

The role of a governor general also could be reconsidered. In 1962 Jamaica opted to be a constitutional monarchy, retaining as its queen Elizabeth II. The governor general represents the queen and fulfils functions of state equivalent to those of the queen in the English Parliament along with her symbolic function as head of the Church of England. If Jamaica wants to breach protocol and view the position of governor general as ironically symbolic, it might want seriously to revive the idea of becoming a republic like Trinidad and Tobago or Guyana.

Revamping the political structure should include reconstituting and reinvigorating the parish councils and the creation of three workable county councils. The three counties (now almost forgotten by the young) and the 14 parishes should be given extensive administrative responsibility. They would probably do a better job regulating education, police, as well as local issues such as road construction and repair. Devolution of some tax measures to the county councils would greatly enhance administrative efficiency. Indeed, the national government should restrict itself to the collection of personal and corporate income taxes and value added taxes while the counties should set and collect property taxes. Along with fiscal devolution should be a redefinition of the respective roles of national, county,and parish governmental structures. Investing meaningful responsibility at the local level provides an opportunity for expanding the training base for political leadership across the island. Working out the complex details should be done by a committee drawn from government, the private sector, the universities and rank-and-file representatives from across the island. This way it could be shown that wisdom is not an inherent prerogative of Kingston and St Andrew.

Many Jamaicans regard the collapse of law and order as warranting urgent attention. Reconstituting the political structure would be futile if the principal instruments of collective security have broken down. No one doubts the need to clean up the army and the police. With a responsible, properly trained and motivated security apparatus, it should be possible to remove the large number of firearms in private hands. If guns are deemed legal only in the hands of officials of the law, then the penalty for private individuals violating the law should be extremely severe. Restoring the old gun court might just be the answer to the prolific use of guns. Eliminating guns in civilian hands is the necessary prelude to reducing domestic violence.

Civil society cannot be restored and enhanced simply by enacting stringent measures that threaten democratic practices and human rights. The root causes of criminality and civil disobedience require the same careful attention given to political reorganisation or economic reconstruction. Government, the private sector and the universities working independently or cooperatively must develop creative ways to bring young people into the mainstream of civic life. Alienating the youth nourishes social delinquency, thereby increasing the costs of social control. Jamaica cannot afford to spend much of its limited resources on police measures at the expense of essential educational and social services. Change is required before the country finds itself beyond the pale of salvation.