Dear Editor,

It is overdue for a much wider public to be engaged in structured discourse on Jamaica’s future. There might never be a more opportune time for those civic bodies and individuals who signed public advertisements, otherwise argued for integrity in government and cast dubious glances at the current crop of political leaders, to lead the way in convening a national convention, an indaba if you will, to chart a way forward for the country. Out of this should come greater public involvement in the actual process to make Jamaica a better place in which to live. Up to now, this conversation has been left up to professional politicians and those who are socially well placed, with the rest of us as disgruntled followers, cynical bystanders or unquestioning sheep.

Any such indaba would take into account that, as valid as the trust deficit might be, Jamaica’s real problem is much more fundamental. It has been argued with persuasive credibility that no meaningful progress will be achieved if the society remains disoriented and disorganised, without a genuine knowledge and appreciation of who we are as a people, without a real understanding of the theory and practice of democracy. Genuine social transformation requires that every village be taught a probing and balanced history of our country – social, economic, political and cultural. This calls for an intensive national effort to re-educate our people from the earliest years into adulthood. Otherwise, Jamaicans are unlikely to involve themselves as fully committed and empowered participants in the process of development.

For one thing, such enlightened re-education would reveal the historically under-appreciated revolutionary involvement of “ordinary” villagers as builders of their communities, and by extension, their parishes and country. More and serious research needs to be done at that micro level, and made widely available, in order to stimulate local pride and sense of ownership of the country’s past, present and future. That is the route to psychological empowerment of the ordinary folk.

Unlike some newly independent Third World nations, Jamaica is in the enviable position of having an institutional framework within which efforts of this kind can effectively take place. Also, the human resources are available here and in the diaspora. They exist in our educational institutions, in voluntary organisations, churches, service clubs, as well as at the individual level. However, focused will and a vision to sustain long-term coordinated effort are necessary to make that critical difference.

This is what Jamaica needs now, not additional political parties with eyes on immediate representation in Parliament. Let us wheel and come again, for even transformative political parties need this groundwork if they are to succeed in building a nation of proud, prosperous people.

H Dale Anderson

hdaleanderson@hotmail.com