One doesn’t have to look very far these days to see clear evidence of the extent of social decay that has been ongoing across the country for so long. Dating back close to our pre-Independence history across numerous political administrations in a country with a legacy of slavery and a penchant for some level of disregard for the welfare of the masses, the scenario has gradually reached crisis proportions. But amazingly, after being so long in the making, with clear pointers to the present predicament as an almost certain consequence, there is still not even a semblance of any broad, structured plan to gradually recover from what has become a chronic national problem.

From public health care facilities and services to even basic public infrastructure, public cleansing issues, public recreational spaces, public sanitary conveniences, just to name a few examples of the types of ‘ailments’ besetting our public social arrangements, it’s all the same generally — a rather crude existence for the most part.

Think of the typical public hospital, health centre or other medical facility, and the story will be pretty much the same. There are always serious service limitations of one kind or another, whether with bed capacity, pharmaceutical shortages, equipment failures, shortages of basic supplies.

As a critical example, in the case of May Pen, which I represent in Parliament, inadequate bed capacity has been having a numbing effect on many people with chronic ailments like diabetes, and needing specialised surgical care at the local hospital. They have simply been unable to access the necessary services because routine emergencies almost always dictate who occupies the very limited bed space at the hospital. No doubt, the same is true of most other rural towns. So with that general picture, how can we be speaking proudly of our public health care?

Shifting gear somewhat, take some very basic public infrastructure, like drain and manhole covers, into mind, and a little trip across almost any rural town will leave you wondering how the blind now get safely from one place to another within such population centres. Perhaps most glaring has been the extent of decay in this regard in sections of downtown Kingston, a major metropolitan area, especially in lower Central Kingston, where entire roadways have been cut off from vehicular traffic, with seeming impunity to the need for the facilities. In that locale especially, it seems that large pockets of people have simply given up on recovering the dignity of living on a street that can be comfortably traversed by both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

But that is not surprising when the society has been allowed to evolve into one in which so many Jamaicans are known by only an alias. So many of our streets and lanes have no official names, and our homes have no numbers, resulting in a lack of pride in personal identity, societal inclusion and, critically, landownership.

In respect of public cleansing services, as another example, it is noticeable that the once familiar garbage skips are now virtually non-existent outside of managed private sector arrangements. Yes, they tended to be abused and overused, and did get burnt far too often from fires lit within the skips. But such persistent problems were meant to be solved, not simply abandoned to the detriment of whole communities in terms of their health and dignity.

Public sanitary conveniences are another very sore point islandwide. With monetary charges, though very minimal, being applied for the use of such facilities, many people, perhaps because of the challenging economic environment, simply resort to urinating at any corner around, even next to the public ‘conveniences’. The situation puts pressure on private fast food operations around population centres, where patrons are now being asked to furnish current receipts for food purchases before being allowed to use the establishments’ bathroom facilities.

And we seriously say we are aspiring for First-World status? When and how under the present public arrangements? No time soon, I can say without an ounce of doubt, considering that the compass guiding much of our public social arrangements has long been pointed south when we really need to be going north.

Now, while one can understand the focus on recouping some of the costs associated with operating public sanitary conveniences, the question of the best interests of the overall communities is, in my view, a more relevant and pertinent consideration. In essence, which is better? To have really untidy public surroundings that a parish council, for example, has to consistently pay significant amounts to clean up; or to have more manageable surroundings that require much less clean-up, and reflect far more positively on the standing and dignity of the respective communities?

The answer is obvious, at least to my kind of thinking, which is extremely averse to the persistent formula of governing in decline that has become a feature of politics in Jamaica, especially now under what is at times regarded as a socialist Administration. Indeed, one wonders how the Administration will try to sugar-coat its now pronounced legacy of almost no growth in the economy.

The Jamaican people and, by extension, our communities, need hope and pride — read civic pride and dignity — to spur them on to meaningful contributions to the process of national development. They need serious motivation and emotional incentives to repair and rebuild at the ground level, so that people will generally do the right thing, even when they are not being policed in any way.

Indignity breeds contempt for systems, order and due process, which is what we are witnessing so wantonly across almost the entire country. This is a clear and present demonstration that it is not a problem here and there, but a most undesirable phenomenon across the nation.

Need I mention public spaces like the parks in most villages, towns and cities across the country? Note the extreme difference between the well-kept Emancipation Park in New Kingston, where standards obviously matter, and are strictly and guardedly enforced, and other facilities like St William Grant Park in downtown Kingston, or Nelson Mandela Park in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew. There is such a feeling of belonging at Emancipation Park, while Nelson Mandela would be peeved about the unkempt state of the facility named in his honour, and ‘poor, old’ St William Grant has not been allowed to rest in peace as a result of the disgust at all the urine that is ‘Paraded’ daily as a way of life outside the park in his ‘honour’ in the heart of downtown Kingston, the nation’s capital and commercial centre.

My fight herein is for the country to recognise that this humongous social decay nation-wide runs parallel to the lost of public dignity as a people, leaving many of us to only regain that dignity when we visit the ‘fewer and fewer’ really pristine communities across the country today. My fight for decades has been for administrations — including those I have served in — to recognise that our official population demographics are awfully wrong, with far more of us around than any census has ever recorded in our history. Until we begin to get realistic about the facts, not the fiction, relating to our data, we will always be planning for far less than who really exist, and there goes the social setting due to really serious compromise in the form of gross inadequacies in the planning process and structure generally.

Of course, the question of the national resource base is indeed relevant to the extent any government can arrest aspects of the social decay that abounds. Funding is a very essential tool towards any form of national development or, in this case, re-development. Restoring the social order, over time, will take really big bucks over quite some time, and that fact needs to be faced head on. Far too much sweeping under the carpet has been done by successive administrations, resulting in the population becoming generally more uncouth, due to loss of dignity and the attendant negative impact on the moral fibre of the society.

But where resources are desired, they can usually be found. The most logical goal should be through significant growth in the national economy, which, unfortunately, is as elusive as the winning lotto numbers these days. Yes, the Government is looking really good in the company of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), especially these days, but with our social apparatus crumbling daily and robbing our people of their dignity, only some serious growth in the national economy seems likely to bring any form of turnaround. But amidst it all, the Government seems to be bent on only one goal, that of pleasing the IMF.

While the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party has promised growth, which it has delivered each time it has been at the wicket, the present People’s National Party (PNP) Administration has been looking as dismal in that area. It is, therefore, not difficult to let the public judge which of the two parties is likely to produce significant growth in the economy.

Of course, the drive for reparation from European governments is also a serious option to help fund the rebuilding of our social systems and infrastructure. Some years ago, when Libya pulled in compensation from Italy, it was obviously a serious matter, as it should be for all Jamaicans, and likewise natives of other Caribbean countries today. This prospective fruit should not be just left hanging to ripen, become over ripe, fall and decay like our social setting. In fact, with real vision and purposeful pursuit, reparation could be more than our saving grace as a nation. It could mean the difference between dignity and indignity in respect of our existence for a very long time.

The critical thing now is for the right level of focus to be directed to the issues of broad social decay, sharply diminishing public dignity and morals, and public order challenges. The country and people deserve a serious focus on rebuilding the social fibre of the society. They deserve better, and in time will either get it through the will of government or the will of the people themselves. Remember who said this!

Mike Henry, CD, is the member of Parliament for Clarendon Central and Opposition Spokesman on Transport and Works.