“To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). This Bible passage gives a list of things that there is a time to do and either a time not to do or to do the opposite, but the list is really endless. It should be borne in mind by the Jamaica Co-operative Credit Union League as they deliberate at their convention and annual general meeting in Montego Bay for the next two days. The proposed Bank of Jamaica regulations suggest that the time has come to demand our rights, not negotiate. This is not a time to be “preaching beatitudes”, as a former prime minister of Jamaica would have said.

Many democratic countries elect governments according to the issues of the day. Winston Churchill was Britain’s wartime prime minister but was voted out of office right after the war ended. Similarly, the credit union delegates should be seeking to elect to the Credit Union League Board those who have the guts to stand up to the authorities at the Bank of Jamaica and demand a halt to any plan to squeeze the credit unions to death. Credit union leaders in Jamaica are excellent negotiators and this is a very good skill that most Jamaicans have. We all know a refrigerator is an excellent place to chill or freeze foods. But the fridge cannot cook food, just as negotiation as a skill cannot be used when demanding one’s rights.

The fact that the Credit Union League has been in negotiations with the Bank of Jamaica for 11 years, and the BOJ is still sticking to their hard-line position, is a signal that it is time to change strategy. All credit union members should be outraged that technocrats who were not elected should wield so much power. It should be demonstrated in no uncertain terms that the credit unions in Jamaica wield a lot of influence since the credit unions in Jamaica are of almost as great a number as those on the national voters’ list. Are we going to allow our rights to be eroded after credit union pioneers in Jamaica (mainly from the Roman Catholic Church) fought long and hard battles for such rights to be made into law?

The 970,000 credit unionists should make their voices known. But that is one thing. Another is that the Credit Union League should carry the Bank of Jamaica authorities to court as a test case to see whether our constitutional right to freedom of assembly has been trampled on. For most of the nearly 23 years that I have been a columnist (13 years at the Jamaica Observer), I have advocated that co-operatives should be able to exist as long as there are Jamaicans willing to create or join them and that this should be enshrined in the constitution of Jamaica. In the year 2000, a resolution echoing similar sentiments was passed at the Credit Union League’s annual general meeting for the Board to take up the cause with the government.

But unfortunately, empowerment of the poor has always made some in Jamaica very nervous. The same class of people who resisted full emancipation in 1838, the universal right to vote in 1944, political independence in 1962 and liberation for the masses in the 1970s still believe that the poor should remain so. Is this why the credit unions are being pressured although they have survived when many banks have not? Has it anything to do with the reality of campaign funding? Is there a fear that if citizens join credit unions a source of election campaign funds will dissolve? The surplus (profit) of any credit union is distributed democratically at annual general meetings, so it would be difficult for politicians to seek campaign funds there because it would be put to the vote.

In 1941, blacks in Jamaica could not join banks, which is why credit unions came about in the first place. Poor people had to rely on loan sharks. At that time the well-to-do laughed and scoffed at the idea of the “poor people’s banks”, as they never thought that they would reach where they are today – where they offer real competition to the banks. Could this be one of the reasons why this hard line is being taken? When the credit unions started to get very popular they were not liked by the upper classes. But the struggle was on. And Norman Manley, who wanted a better deal for the small owners of the Jamaica Banana Producers Federation, was very much into having a law that covered all types of co-operatives, including credit unions.

There is a time for negotiations and a time to make demands. As I indicated in the opening paragraph, Ecclesiastes 3:1 is very instructive in this matter. Negotiation is something one does when one is making a request. But when it comes to protecting our rights and freedoms we should not be begging for anything. What we should be doing is demanding our rights. Now is the time for the nearly 1 million credit unionists in Jamaica to state our collective demand in no uncertain terms that the credit union squeeze be stopped immediately.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com