HISTORICAL events can only be properly understood if they are placed in context.

Much is being said about the development of political garrison communities which could be loosely defined as areas completely supportive of one political party to the enforced, and as required violent, exclusion of all others.

Inevitably, because of the happenings of recent times, the ‘mother’ of those garrisons, Tivoli Gardens, is now the centre of attention.

How did Tivoli and the other garrison communities that followed come about? It occurred in the context of the extraordinarily rapid expansion of influence by the political parties over Jamaicans, and a concurrent growth in hostility and demarcation along party lines.

At Political Independence from Britain in 1962, only 19 years had passed since the formation of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in 1943 — from the body of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) — for the purpose of contesting power with the People’s National Party (PNP), formed five years earlier.

In those 19 years — at a time when television was for all intents and purposes non-existent, radio was more the exception than the norm and relatively few people read newspapers — political demarcation had evolved to such an extent that a large portion of the Jamaican population swore undying allegiance to one party or the other. Indeed, the historical records suggest that by 1949, just five years after the very first General Election under Universal Adult Suffrage, voter support had already significantly hardened along party lines.

The sheer speed of that evolution boggles the mind. It surely must be close to being some sort of record if compared to similar developments elsewhere.

That was the context in which the two political parties, while in control of government, indulged in the vulgar ‘land grabs’ of the 1960s and 1970s.

Tivoli Gardens, with its well-planned and laid out infrastructure, could have been the model for positive urban development throughout Jamaica had the then ruling JLP not succumbed to partisan political considerations. By accommodating only its supporters in the spanking new schemes in Tivoli and nearby Wilton Gardens (Rema) in lower Trench Town, the JLP set a terrible precedent.

On taking power in 1972, the PNP set about with equal cynicism to build its own fortified communities, most notably Arnett Gardens (Concrete Jungle) next door to Rema.

It is in that context that enmity and hatred of one community for another developed to the extent that it did. In the process, as political parties and their supporters sought to defend and acquire territory, political violence evolved from mostly sticks, stones and bottles in the 1940s to high-powered guns and bottle bombs.

As history has unfolded, the politicians have, over time, lost influence and control over the gangs that operated as their enforcers. Many of those gangs today retain only nominal and convenient allegiance to the political parties.

We should note that the police, in search of fugitive Mr Christopher Coke, are entering not only those communities traditionally associated with the JLP, but also the PNP-affiliated communities. It would appear that the long feared collusion between former enemies in gangland is reality.

The threat from those who believe they can operate as an alternative or even as a substitute for the State remains. Against that backdrop, the security forces must not relent in the drive to crush gangs and dons. It can’t be that when Mr Coke is taken into custody the drive ends. Jamaica’s future as a viable nation rests on the long-term success of the anti-crime campaign, both in terms of hard policing and comprehensive social interventions.

Further, it seems to this newspaper, the Jamaican populace and civil society need to ensure that never again should politicians — or anyone else for that matter — so indulge themselves as to endanger the nation, as was done through ‘garrisonisation’.