Without strategic thinking and a concentrated effort to provide solutions, young Jamaicans will continue to “chop the line”, and many will be recruited to that lifestyle of dishonesty and fraudulence.

That is the view of Morin Seymour, former executive director of the Kingston Restoration Company (KRC) and chairman of the Board of Governors of Central Branch Primary School.

Seymour spoke to the Jamaica Observer on Thursday, following the contribution by National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang’s to the Sectoral Debate in Gordon House on Wednesday, where he underscored an annual inflow of US$1 billion in Jamaica through lottery scamming and warned that the repercussions could severely hamper the country.

“I don’t see it worsening if those of us who are leaders in the society recognise the nature of the problem. The Church, the State and the private sector are going to have to work very critically to deal with it. It has implications for national development and growth in the future,” Seymour told the Sunday Observer.

“If you lose your children, you are losing the future. So, I am not prepared to support anything that will cause us to lose our children. I am chairman of a school board and I have 600 students under my care. Neither the parents nor the school can control those children once they go through the school gate. So, we have to continue as leaders to devise new ways of keeping our children in touch with good leaders, leaders that provide refreshment, and to lead them away from anything that would attract them,” Seymour went on.

In April, Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison told the Jamaica Observer that her office was concerned over reports of increased involvement of students, particularly in schools across western Jamaica, in lotto scamming.

Gordon Harrison noted that deans of discipline were complaining that the illicit activity, which is rampant in many communities, were spilling over into schools.

Further, in 2019, senior policeman Fitz Bailey, who at the time was acting deputy commissioner, said he didn’t see how social intervention among children could get Jamaica out of scamming problem.

Bailey said the focus should be on the younger generation and on the school system, to make children responsible, and not just focus on literacy and numeracy.

What has happened in the last five years, Seymour added, is that the mode of communication has changed, so that connectivity between people from all parts of the world became easier.

“I am from the hills of St Andrew, and I had people working for me where I was born in Mount James. I used to have to go and rent radio to be able to speak to the people who were working for me at my home while I am at Kingston Restoration,” he said.

“Today, each of those persons has two cellphones and are fully connected. The same is true with the children. So, now, how do we manage our children in a situation where the communication is wide open, easy access, and when sometimes, the persons who are trying to reach them are not of good will?”

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck spoke during the Child Abuse Guidelines Training seminar for members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and justices of the peace, which was organised and facilitated by the Office of the Children’s Advocate in April.

Chuck said that scamming is becoming so deep-rooted that students in some western Jamaica schools have expressed their ambition to become scammers freely.

Seymour pointed to the fact that some youngsters no longer had an interest in regular nine-to-five jobs.

“We’re in a changed time and we have to use changed strategies to deal with the problems before us. It is not simple. But we can’t give in, and we can’t allow it to overtake us. The way the minister put it yesterday (Wednesday), he was really sounding an alarm, but he didn’t offer any solution. I would have thought that in his position, he would have come to the nation and say what he found over whatever time period, the likely implications if we don’t do anything, and the three or four ways to tackle the problem,” he said.

Dr Chang said illicit money that enters the country is used to buy guns that kill people, and it undermines and corrupts institutions and has a negative impact on the economy.

The minister stated further that “a man who is scamming US$100,000 per month and hiring gunmen,” cannot be engaged with counselling. He said “strong policing” is needed.

Seymour added: “If we relook our schools and how they are managed, look how our companies are managed, and look at how our churches are managed; if you look at all these institutions and re-imagine them, we’ll make it. But it’s going to take work and it’s going to take hard thinking. It’s not a Jamaica problem; it is a worldwide problem.”

Seymour stressed that the leadership in churches, schools, and companies has to change.

“The Internet has come into play, and the e-mail, WhatsApp, and the TikTok and the rest of it. So, we are up against it. We have to upgrade the leadership. Otherwise, the society will break down at its feet — and we can’t afford that.”