POLITICS is essentially about power and the use of that power in various political systems to gain specific advantage at a point in time to suit the interests of the powerful.

This obtains across the globe, but in Jamaica it is even more pernicious than that, as the powerful have gone as far as building garrison constituencies to control voters, used guns to quell opponents, employed corruption to reward supporters and every known tactic, including the use of State agencies, to attack independent groups and individuals to achieve what they want.

So today, Jamaica has the unenviable reputation of being one of the most politically divided and dangerous societies, with one of the highest murder rates and other social ills, despite our great worldwide accomplishments.

After decades of this political practice and accompanying denials and delusions, it has now reached the point where there is a fierce battle here to prove that right is wrong and wrong is right as many have become disturbed by the increased exposure of history and the truth. This places an enormous burden on the maintenance of law and order in the society as criminal activities are glorified and law-abiding activity has become dated.

The recent “organised political power play” to discredit and remove former Puisne Judge Velma Hylton as a member of the Commission of Enquiry into the May 2010 operation of the security forces, as a result of a declared state of emergency to apprehend Christopher Coke, is the latest case in point. This led to the deaths of at least 76 persons, including a soldier, after two police officers were killed and two police stations burnt down earlier.

The MP for Western Kingston says “it is not a political issue and this matter should not be used as a political football”. It is to protect the human rights of the people of West Kingston, “and to ensure that the commission in no way is tainted in considering its outcome”.

However, the MP and other spokespersons for the Opposition had all earlier said that the enquiry would be “a waste of time”, “a waste of money”, “the people don’t want no enquiry, what they want is money in their hands” for the damage and “nothing is going to come out of it”.

In addition, the political power brokers of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) refused to co-operate in any known way in formulating the commission and even before that, advised the people of West Kingston to reject any assistance from civil society groups and an attorney who tried to assist them in their plight.

I had been invited by Lloyd D’Aguilar, along with other civil society leaders, to help, but soon after the people were told to rebuff any attempts from outsiders to assist them.

Justice Velma Hylton, QC is considered unfit to be a member of the commission because of a controversial statement she made and which has been examined, in summarising some of the events which were unearthed during a previous 2001 enquiry into a similar situation in West Kingston where citizens lost their lives. Some feel that Ms Hylton should recuse herself from the post and not leave it to the Government to remove her.

I believe that either of these options or recommendations miss the mark, would confirm the political power play victory, and have “a continuing contaminating effect on the impending enquiry” which, I think, is the real second objective. The first is not to have it at all.

What is of some concern is the silence of some of these voices when previous enquiries into incidents in West Kingston and Tivoli proved to have been nothing but organised fiascos.

Ironically, MP Desmond McKenzie has unwittingly provided the first solution that can be applied. By all means, have the courts in Jamaica determine, after hearing all the circumstances in the 2001 enquiry, whether Justice Velma Hylton should or should not sit on the commission. This would be the first chapter in a meaningful commission of enquiry into the history of events which took place in West Kingston and particularly Tivoli Gardens.

The second option is to have the people of Tivoli Gardens and West Kingston enact a lawsuit against the State for the loss of lives and damage suffered during the 2010 incursion.

The third option is to have the matter sent to the International Criminal Court of Justice, where it perhaps really belongs, as Lloyd D’Aguilar has always argued, because left to the Jamaican political elite it will likely be another inconclusive enquiry with no one person or persons, or agency or agencies, being held responsible for what really took place.

We have a history of garrison politics and political violence which has bedevilled Jamaica, and the people of West Kingston in particular, for too long now. The first four elections held after Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944 saw the JLP and the People’s National Party each winning two of these elections.

Then, after the first real organised, large-scale, armed, political wars and campaigns between the two parties, the JLP were victorious and have represented Western Kingston from 1962 until today, without interruption.

The police records at that time showed that guns, Molotov cocktails, dynamite and other weapons were found in both party offices when searched, “but no arrests were made”.

Over time, there have been four states of emergency declared in Jamaica — three because of garrison politics and political violence. The first was declared in 1966 by Minister Roy McNeil because of killings and unrest in West Kingston; the second in 1976 by Michael Manley in response to islandwide political violence; the third in 2007 by PM Portia Simpson Miller in response to hurricane damage; and the fourth by PM Bruce Golding in 2010 in West Kingston.

There have been numerous commissions of enquiry, from the Moyne Commission in 1938, the DaCosta Commission, through to the Maffesanti Commission and numerous others instigated by Michael Manley and PJ Patterson in the 1970 – 2000 period and we are, I believe, on the verge of a third enquiry into the affairs of West Kingston and Tivoli Gardens.

It is time to stop the delusion, playing party politics and staging commissions of enquiry which go nowhere. Instead we need to deal with the issues of crime, violence, and corruption which have blighted our chances of attaining real development.