THE Mannatt/Dudus Enquiry unfolding at the Jamaica Conference Centre over the past few weeks has again focused attention on the pursuit of truth and the dispensing of justice.

However, not too long before, systemic corruption and the nexus between politics, politicians and crime in Jamaica, reignited calls for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to purge the nation’s conscience and heal what some feel is a broken society.

The Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC) and a university lecturer have been fanning the flames for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission similar to the grand confessional of South Africa between 1995 and 2002, which focused on crimes committed during the racist apartheid regime.

Calls for this conscience-cleansing exercise in Jamaica have ebbed and flowed for years and several sections of society have posited that there is need for an explanation of some aspects of Jamaica’s dark and deadly past.

Crucial to that explanation they argue, is an understanding of the connection between the country’s systemic corruption and political tribalism, which fuelled violence.

Jermaine McCalpin, PhD, lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies (UWI), who has studied truth commissions, says they are critical to the future of the country, and he is hopeful that the resultant social, economic and political justice will lead to healing a divided people.

“We, as a society, in a political sense and many other senses, are deprived of truth. We have a culture of secrecy in Jamaica in terms of how politics is conducted, and how many other things are conducted. A truth commission is an attempt to remove this veil of secrecy as a first step,” McCalpin told the Sunday Observer.

“A committee was constituted under the Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC) as a result of many concerns, not just of the clergy, but of people; stakeholders such as the Violence Prevention Alliance, Dispute Resolution Foundation and Peace Management Initiative. It wants to explore what can happen in Jamaica to take us away from this path of destruction and systemic violence,” he stated.

Hingeing his position on research done on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC), and research currently underway, he warned that truth commissions should not be confused with commissions of enquiry, although Grenada’s truth and reconciliation commission was formed out of its commission of enquiry legislation.

For McCalpin, there can be no truth without justice, and such commissions are not only cathartic, but provide opportunities to remove assumptions and doubts about atrocities which occurred. He says like Haiti, Jamaica could select chunks of the past and put it up for scrutiny.

McCalpin said Jamaicans have expressed the need for a truth commission, but have given little thought to the structures needed, the safeguards and legitimacy it would, and should have.

“What you often see is the argument for such a commission, to have our politicians admit or confess that they created conditions for certain things. But we do not need a truth commission to tell us that. We have enough historical records to document who were the architects of whatever kind of politics we are concerned with,” he said, pointing to the book Demeaned But Empowered by Professor Obika Grey as an example.

“It is no secret who these people are,” Dr McCalpin argued, adding that, “Business in Jamaica cannot be excluded from any truth commission, as they, along with the people, have been complicit with the kind of politics practiced since Independence.”

“A Jamaican truth commission cannot just be about a focus on politicians, it has to be wider than that, because we will get nowhere. Furthermore, there has to be an incentive for politicians to come forward. It will not be a grand confessional in Jamaica. What will make politicians come forward and say, ‘I issued guns’?” he stated.

McCalpin is supported by Jamaican church leaders who want the truth about politically-tainted extra-judicial killings by agents of the state, such as those in Green Bay, St Catherine in 1978; the role of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Jamaica and the political violence and destabilisation of the economy in the 1970’s. They add to the list more recent scandals which have catapulted the country into international notoriety, the Kraal police killings of May 2003, and the role of US law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips in the extradition of Christopher “Dudus” Coke.

Under the JCC umbrella, a working group was established in 2009 to explore many concerns regarding justice, reconciliation and healing in Jamaica.

JCC president Rev Dr Paul Gardener told Sunday Observer recently that active consideration is being given to such a commission and a proposal was made by the JCC.

“I think there is a proposal to one of the international agencies to fund a study to determine Jamaica’s readiness for a truth and reconciliation commission. We have been talking about it, and we have tested the waters, but the people who we would engage were not ready for it. But now there is a position that this should be tested in a scientific way,” the JCC president said.

The findings, he said, would become a basis for procedure by the entities on whose platform the commission would be established.

Models for such commissions have already been created, but could not be copied in Jamaica due to several factors, including Jamaica’s history and culture.

The main issue for the church, Gardener said, was an explanation of the link between crime and politics and how intimidation of voters is used to further political gains.

Gardener was confident healing will happen, but warned that the clock was ticking. He expressed hope that despite “Jamaican’s love for procrastination, the process is advanced so that players who must be engaged can say their piece before they pass on.”

People’s National Party (PNP) chairman Robert Pickersgill said his party had not discussed the matter officially.

“I suppose people would have to respond personally, although we have had the semblance of a truth commission in the past. I personally would tread cautiously on this stage, however,” Pickersgill said.

Pointing to the enquiry into the May riots in Kingston Western following the extradition request of Coke, and the deaths of more than 70 persons, he said that may well set the stage for such a commission.

However, he could not point out any aspect of the country’s life which would necessitate a truth commission.

“I am not sure if we have reached the stage for such a commission,” he said.

However, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) general secretary Senator Aundre Franklin said the truth was needed about every aspect of Jamaica life.

“But, who is going to lead this charge for truth. The church? I have yet to hear one church say to another, ‘different church, same God’. If they are to become the platform for such a commission, they have to first speak the truth amongst themselves,” he said.

Franklin said he was not afraid to go before such a commission, “if it will advance the needs of the county to a more harmonious existence for all citizens”.

He said the truth about Jamaica’s education system, social and political order must be put to scrutiny and no truth commission will be credible without an examination of the role of businesses in Jamaica.

Former JCC president Karl Johnson argues that Jamaicans would avoid problems if they practice speaking the truth.

“Truth-speaking is costly and calls for courage; for when we begin to speak truth, we open ourselves to become the targets of those who are unable to withstand the forces of truth. People will try to intimidate the truth-speaker and one’s own life could be at risk. But we have no choice. It is incumbent upon us as part of our prophetic tradition to give leadership in this regard and to call our nation to consider the value and virtue of truth-speaking,” he posits.

Johnson, a Baptist minister, is an outspoken proponent for truth. He admitted to not giving much thought to the kind of structures needed to facilitate a truth and reconciliation commission, but said there was a dire need to deal with the spectres of injustice which have dogged Jamaica every decade since its Independence.

“We have some raging demons, man. We need to exorcise them,” he stated.