WHO among us have slept through this nightmare visited on us and who are the few among us who did not see this coming, this manifestation of the vile nexus between politics and criminality?

At whose feet must we lay blame for the lives of the many innocents slain in this battle between armed criminals and the state? Must we not rise up and stare down those who have supported criminals, made a sham of leadership, bastardised it and continue to pretend as if their faces, their voices and the fickleness of their words are representative of our own faces, our voices and our fears and concerns and say to them, “Depart from us, we no longer know you, no longer desire your presence.”

Who are these people who came to us with sober words and suits to match to con us and make us buy into the belief that they were real leaders? By their actions they deserve nothing more from us – no ear to listen to them so that they can continue to poison our souls. Damn you, you “honourables”.

In 1972 when Michael Manley had captured the hearts, the ears and eyes of most Jamaicans, he was the most loved leader in the post-Independence period. By the late 1970s when widespread violence was visited on this land of ours and then Opposition leader Eddie Seaga had convinced many of us that Manley was the spawn of Satan, there were times when Manley’s face appearing on the television made me want to hurl a rock at it just to get rid of him.

I am at that place now with Bruce Golding.

Three days ago on Labour Day at a time when the nation was gripped with raw fear and our people needed a leader to address the problem of criminals threatening the state, the prime minister appeared on television to give his Labour Day message. I was totally blown away!

The prime minister’s message indicated a man and a speech writer who had taken some flight of fantasy far from the realities of Jamaica – land we love – but also land of guns, criminality and nasty politics. I have not had the stomach to listen to him or to hear his voice since Monday because anything he says now must be taken with more than a pinch of salt. Has he not demonstrated that?

Both the PNP and the JLP have their professional callers to talk shows and in recent days the JLP has unleashed its devotees on the airwaves in the hope that the IRREVERSIBLE damage done to the administration can be reversed. Is there a way out for the prime minister to save his skin in this chaotic time?

If the prime minister can advance the argument that had he acted earlier, say, seven months ago, the carnage, the loss of innocent lives and the widespread fear would have been more than obtains now and that reasoning is bought by a population of people hardly in any mood to see his face and hear his words, then he would have a chance. But, on what basis could he raise that argument?

Can the prime minister now come to a nation of shell-shocked people who are close to having collective cardiac arrest and convince us that his decision to delay the extradition request and to telegraph it by announcing it on national television did not precipitate the scourge which has been visited on us? I would love to see him make a grand attempt at that.

The heavy-arms fire which reverberated across the Kingston Metropolitan area and Spanish Town, since the beginning of this week, has in some sick way provided us with our escape route from criminal politics.

When roving bands of gunmen from, I will not say where, because of the stringencies of the Emergency Regulations, went on a shooting spree and shot dead 19 citizens in the environs of Spanish Town, that was enough to tell us that we had bottomed out, had wallowed too long in the filth of criminal politics and needed to seize the moment to say to the present leadership, “For the love of God, just go!”

The fact is, security operations inside Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town and the sporadic clashes all across the city are not a solution to this nation’s ills, but that heavy hand must be applied to deal with the immediate problems. Many of the gunmen have escaped from the focal point and that will prove to be a security nightmare. In the interim, the cache of arms and ammunition must be discovered.

There has been much talk about a government of national unity. National unity on what? Criminal politics? While it is obvious that this government has run its course and is spent, what is it about the PNP that can convince us that even if some of its members should team up with some in the JLP, it will not just be a freshly painted tomb with the same stinking body inside?

Weeks ago when calls for Golding’s resignation were met with the usual responses and collective endorsement from JLP senators who toed the party line and the PM came to the nation with words of contrition, some were prepared to accept his staying on. Now that all of his actions since the extradition request last August have indicated a man more disposed to toying with the people’s business, and his horrible leadership of subsequent matters being perceived as leading to our present state of widespread criminality and fear, it is likely that the nation will want more than his scalp.

What sweet words can any single Cabinet minister say to anyone of us now to convince us that the government deserves to remain in power? That the PNP is no better? Is that it?

That we are definitely at the most important crossroads in the modern history of our development is an understatement. Garrison politics was created by diverting state resources not specifically to develop the infrastructure of poor communities needing it, but to inculcate in the minds of the people living there that they should hate those supporting “the other side” and fight to the death for their own party.

As the state retreated and patronage dried up, the community leadership which sprang from criminal politics distanced itself from the political leadership while drugs, extortion and guns provided the fuel for the new independence. Many of the women (and men) who dressed in white and demonstrated outside Tivoli Gardens were weaned on the politics of donmanship, because the state had long retreated and the proximate leader was no longer the man in Gordon House.

Was that a factor in Eddie Seaga leaving his beloved West Kingston and Tivoli Gardens? Don’t hold your breath in awaiting an answer even though he ought to have a much bigger story to tell.

There are no easy answers from here on, but it is very certain that we can no longer continue in this manner and with the present leadership.

In the interim, we need to support the hand-picked members of the security forces who are involved in these operations against ruthless criminals and offer our condolence to the relatives of the innocents killed.In these difficult times our work has just begun, Jamaica.

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