Let us be clear, in an equitable society, if the economy does well, and safety and security are realised, everyone benefits. And it is the primary duty of Government to create the conditions for economic well-being and security. But, as the evidence continues to show, these outcomes cannot be realised by the Government alone. There must be bipartisan and broad stakeholder collaboration. This is a lesson that I think Jamaica must learn fast. We are all in this thing together.

I continue to be appalled by the recklessness and lack of accountability that attend public leadership and how we make the same mistakes time after time. The most current and painful public bungling is the management of crime. There are so many dimensions to this issue, and some I addressed on Sunday January 21, in a piece entitled ‘We do not need a crime plan’. But there is a deeper element that requires attention.

What did ZOSO do?

So the Government finally declared a state of emergency (SOE) in St James, effectively eclipsing the zone of special operations (ZOSO) that had been declared for a single community in the parish — Mt Salem. Some critical questions immediately arise, some of which others have asked:

(1) How much money has been spent on the Mt Salem ZOSO?

(2) What are the measureable outcomes and evidence of value for money?

(3) How different had the conditions been in St James from the time the ZOSO was declared for Mt Salem compared to what they were when the SOE was declared for the entire parish?

(4) Is it not the case that the community of Salt Spring, in north-western St James, has been the location with the most murders in the parish and has the largest number of suspected violence producers? And, if so, why was the ZOSO not extended to that community?

Whatever the answers to these questions, I think it is fair to conclude that poor decision-making and political calculation have seriously affected the management of crime. The country must be told the facts. We need to know about the millions spent on the Mt Salem ZOSO with little or nothing to show. We cannot continue to operate like this. The prime minister also needs to tell the country and the mothers of Salt Spring, especially those whose sons were murdered since August 2017, why he refused to extend the ZOSO to that community, despite their pleas. The question that looms large is: Whose interests do our leaders seek to protect?

Learning from 2010 SOE

There is much that can be remembered about the 2010 SOE in Tivoli. What stands out for me is the manner in which the then prime minister, Bruce Golding, dithered on taking strong action from back in 2009 and, in fact, had cuddled drug kingpin and international racketeer Christopher “Dudus” Coke. Golding had placed the interest of Coke above Jamaica’s, having mobilised the resources of the State to defend Coke.

The facts suggest that a SOE — as one of many elements of an overall response to crime — was called for from July 2016, as George Davis reminds us in his Gleaner column of January 23, 2018. The call was made by Jamaica Labour Party Councillor Charles Sinclair. But the Government did not merely dither, it dismissed the suggestion entirely.

A year later, in August 2017, when the Government had the opportunity to partly make things right, rather than calling a SOE for St. James, or the murderous Salt Spring, it imposed a ZOSO in Mt Salem. Whose interest was the Government protecting when it dithered on dealing with Salt Spring?

But I submit that a large part of the Government’s problem is that of taking bad advice. I have proffered guidance in this space that some journalists — who for whatever reason are choir members for the Government, — are doing themselves and the country a great disservice. One such journalist is my friend, the proverb-loving Garfield Higgins who, in a June 2017 article, asserted that in his trek around the country he found no evidence that people were living in morbid fear of crime. He ‘conceded’ that crime was of some concern, but not a major concern. I wonder if Higgins was speaking in parables or using proverbs, for no one living in Jamaica at the time, or following what was happening — and is in their right mind — could make such insensible claims. The context was one in which the number of murders for 2016 was well above 2015, and 2017 was outpacing 2016 by 25 per cent, and some places like the parish of Hanover was, at one time, 100 per cent above 2016.

But, while Higgins is entitled to his opinions, however jaundiced and distant from reality, the Government must be held accountable for the advice it takes. I would urge the Government to guard against repeating the errors in the management of crime as in the Golding era. Jamaica paid a heavy price. The current international fear of Jamaica — read the travel advisories — is, to some degree, analogous to the international scorn that was heaped on Jamaica back in 2009, and which contributed to our being unable to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement. Jamaica had become a pariah state, according to the head of the IMF, and the multilaterals had all but abandoned Jamaica.

The handling of crime by the Government could expose us to untold negative consequences. I urge the Government to restrain itself from inhabiting the echo chamber from which comes only its own voices and views. I urge the Government to come into the public square and take account of views that are different from those of its devotees — some of whom are not really concerned about country, but about furthering themselves. I also urge Prime Minister Andrew Holness to include in his executive and his Government people who are not afraid to question him and challenge the reasoning of policy positions advanced. A leader is better off with people who ask “why?” than with those who, when told to jump, only ask “how high?”

The turn is in effect

There are emerging signs that the economy, despite some setbacks in the last two quarters, is strengthening, and the Government is to be credited for sticking with the economic programme which has got us here. But there is a subtle danger that lurks in the shadows, or may even have come out of the shadows, which is born of a blind partisanship that is not dissimilar to the blind partisanship that has infected the management of crime.

The prime minister’s now infamous claim that only he and his party have the answer to crime will remain his biggest gaffe. A similar mindset is evident in the arguments of some Government spokespeople which suggest that the emerging signs of a stronger economy are attributable to actions taken since February 25, 2016. I submit that such suggestions reflect not only rank partisanship, but self-destructive intellectual dishonesty.

I wish to highlight a few instances of this kind of misrepresentation of the facts (for a final time) as a means of calling attention not only to the need for the kind of narrative that demonstrates a recognition for the fact that we all have a role to play in making Jamaica better, but also to point to the importance of factual accuracy and truth-telling in leadership.

(i) My good friend, Garfield Higgins, claims that the current Administration created 3,000 new jobs for the police. This is simply not true. When I challenged Higgins’ assertion, and showed that the claim was false, he suggested that that was ‘light ammunition’. That is like saying, “Yes, I told a lie, but it was not a big lie.” One of the things a real leader knows is that truth matters. Leaders who play fast and loose with the truth sacrifice their credibility — eventually.

(ii) The reopening of Alpart began in 2015, not 2016, as some claim. A September 9, 2015 story carried in the Jamaica Observer reported that 35,000 tonnes of bauxite were to be shipped the following week as part of the long journey to full resumption, which was projected for December 2016. The reopening is indeed good for Jamaica, but it is an inaccurate rendition of history to claim that all the work began in February 2016.

(iii) The tourism sector has been doing well, and one hopes that, notwithstanding the fallout from the poor handling of crime in St James, the industry will continue to flourish. Credit for the growth in the industry must go to both the People’s National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party, but the narrow-minded and naïve suggestions that the recent growth is to be located in 2016 do not take into account the critical component of the infrastructure that is needed to support growth.

Let us look at the data: Between 1995 and 2016 there were three periods during which the country experienced significant, as against marginal, increases in the stock of hotel rooms. The most significant increase was between 2015 and 2016 when there was an increase of seven per cent, with the stock moving from 28,408 to 30,402. The two other periods were between 2007 and 2008, when there was a growth to 27,443 in 2008 up from 25,814 in 2007 — an increase of 1,629 or 6.3 per cent. Between 2004 and 2005 there was a net increase of about 1,149 rooms moving from 24,890 to 26,039 — an increase of 4.6 per cent.

It must be borne in mind that investment decisions by large companies, such as building hotels, take 18 to 24 months to materialise, thus room expansion that occurred in 2017 could have had their genesis from as far back as 2015.

Commendations to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and his team for the work being done to increase arrivals, and the plans to reach five million arrivals in short order. The picture on arrivals in the period 2011 – 2015 shows that, in 2011, total arrivals (cruise ship and stopovers) was 3,077,233. In 2015, the number was 3,619,744 — an increase of 17 per cent. The estimated 4.3 million arrivals for 2017, which represents a 21 per cent increase over 2016, is commendable.

Dr Canute Thompson is head of the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning, lecturer in the School of Education, and co-founder and chief consultant for the Caribbean Leadership Re-Imagination Initiative, at The University of the West Indies, Mona. He is also author of three books and several articles on leadership. Send comments to the Observer or canutethompson1@gmail.com.