Dear Editor,

The last month of 2019 brought amazing action that might be its dying wish for the new year, 2020, about to be born. It was the invasion by civil society of territory dominated by the Jamaica Labour Party and the People’s National Party – the cycle of violence. The parties have for 57 years failed to take decisive action to break the cycle. For the very first time, civil society did something toward that decisive action.

That something was a declaration that suppression alone was not enough to put a stop to the cycle. There had to be social intervention of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) type, its violence interruption in depressed communities, which are numerous. This plain declaration was prompted by Horace Chang’s loose talk about abandoning social intervention as worthless. Civil society was not buying it. And the unmistakeable pushback forced him to reach for reverse gear.

It is the societal action I am celebrating, not its effect on Chang. He has offered the PMI a $21-million carry-on till March 30, but this could easily be a tactic to quiet the brouhaha. He would then proceed as before. The public outcry is the more important matter. It came from many diverse sources. Researchers Dr Herbert Gayle and Dr Elizabeth Ward were categorical about the excellent work of the PMI’s intervention team. They have the data. Violence interrupters gave their testimony. People from the public and private sectors spoke up in defence of the PMI.

The history and workings of the cycle of violence in Jamaica make this civil society intervention quite momentous. The JLP and the PNP started the cycle in 1945, right after the peaceful election of December 1944. At that point it was over freely holding street meetings. They kept the cycle going in the:

* 1940s-50s by worker clashes to win their trade union support;

* 1960s-70s by community garrisons, guns, arson, and the 1980 war to control the country;

* 1990s-2010 by garrisons and continued violence to win elections; and

* the last decade by ignoring the harsh effects of the violence on communities.

The real heart of the cycle has been, throughout, the failure of decisive action to deal with its root. The reason for the failure is clear. The ones who could have dealt with it were themselves a major part of the problem. Today they may not be the main ones driving the violence but they don’t seem to mind it that much or they would be taking decisive action, which is not happening.

The decisive-action failure is the cycle’s pivotal element, because of its triple effect. One, it makes criminals bolder since they are not being caught. Middle-class neighbourhoods are being invaded now. And this is early days. Two, it creates fear and fear brings a demand for drastic action, even a military coup (as polls show). And three, over and over, for 50 years, boots on the ground have failed. They only bring us back to the starting point, violence, but now worse, and getting ‘worserer’.

But we are not helpless dolls caught in the cogs of a ruthless machine. In the last weeks of 2019 we joined the numbers and noise of the voices crying out, “Done the pure suppression. Put the alternative path to work, the combination of firm regular policing with PMI type social intervention. Move to it.”

This is only a first step but I celebrate it. It is the first time in our history that civil society has said no to the cycle of violence. I hope for more steps in this new year.

Horace Levy

Peace Management Initiative

halpeace.levy78@gmail.com.