The Federation of the West Indies of 1958 as conceptualised by Norman Manley was a great idea. It could have been what Caricom should have become.

I believe it is the model that Europeans eventually copied to bring about the greatest of all political collaborations — the European Union.

It never came to anything because it was opposed by the Opposition in Jamaica, that led to a referendum that was lost.

This soon was followed by a general election that was forced by the Opposition, and then lost by the sitting Government.

This ended any hope of a British West Indian Federation.

The question I often wonder about is; did this occur because the Sir Alexander Bustamante-led Jamaica Labour Party thought it was not a good idea, or is it because they saw an opportunity to remove the Government by dividing the country?

It’s hard to say and we will never know. I do know that it could have changed the course of the region’s story as a world influencer.

Division is what we do well in Jamaica. Oppositions oppose and they do so because they believe that’s their job. I don’t agree it is, but I understand the strategy.

The reality is that this spirit of division is the essential and recurring ingredient of our failure to defeat our enemies at various levels.

The Paul Bogle-led Morant Bay Rebellion was lost because of the intervention of the Maroons. We couldn’t even unite against our historical enemy, the British. Just 31 years after Emancipation we managed to find a reason to fight each other instead of them.

This is a trend even in post Independence Jamaica where our enemies are home grown, externally funded killers.

We used to be unable to unite against them when they had political use to our political parties. Now that popular politics isn’t a good fit for criminal association, it is human rights activists that stack up against law enforcement personnel.

What makes post Independent Jamaica unique is that the divided parties that oppose and support the gangs are usually good people. Not the gangs! They are mongrels, but the support system has traditionally been good people.

Sounds odd? Let me explain. Michael Manley was a great man with a great deal of compassion for Jamaica’s poor. However, his support for gangsters like “Feather Mop” and “Tony Welsh” was despicable.

Edward Seaga as a leader had a connection, understanding and compassion for Jamaica’s working class and impoverished that no other leader can match. His conversion of that dump downtown to Tivoli Gardens is a testament to how the emancipation process should have been executed.

His support of the gangs of Tivoli Gardens though was a disgrace and he made it near impossible for law enforcement to suppress them.

Despite the above, both of these men were selfless champions of Jamaica’s poor and should be called good men.

Since 1993 new divisions were created in this country. Colonel Trevor McMillan, another good man, took steps against the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) frontline officers that virtually served as steroid injection for the gangs.

We have never truly recovered from the attack against the JCF led by him.

That being said, he was a brave, patriotic and strong personality that had our interest at heart. He was just mistaken in his opinion of our police force and their culture.

The local human rights organisations’ attack against Jamaica’s frontline police officers has been possibly the most damning of all.

It is odd, but a reality that the attack that was most brutal came from the best intended.

I believe that they genuinely believed that police officers who heroically were fighting for us in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s were the villains, and the “Natty Morgans” of that era the victims.

It might sound ridiculous, but living in a self-imposed cage sort of makes you simple minded.

That being said, I know many. They are good people, not wise, exposed, or fair, but good nevertheless.

Their leadership, walking with their briefcases with their one-sided, skewed presentations to the world community has done more to restrict successive Governments from implementing life-saving strategies, than all of the aforementioned participants in our destruction.

So in 2022 we are again divided in our fight against the gangs and our fight to save lives. This between Indecom and the island’s armed forces.

Again, they’re only good men involved here. No child molesters, no killers, no extortionists. Just administrators who stand against the men and women who fight to save your lives.

Why? Well mostly because of a badly-constructed Indecom Act that expects that impartial investigators must function as crusaders.

There is also the element of foreign funding and the expectation that said funding requires specific results and a fair share of propaganda.

This is more in keeping with activism, rather than investigation.

That’s not to say they are not good people, they are just doing bad things.

This recent attack on the JCF’s frontline officers, if it was not as well handled as it has been by the responsible persons who lead, could have resulted in a repeat of the early years of Indecom when police avoided combat and Jamaica’s poor paid the price, as the homicide rate climbed like Nepalese.

These divisions among the “good” have been happening too long with far too many consequences to too many poor. It is time for this to end.

The gangs are the bad among us. The very waste of our nation. We have to find a way for the good guys to stop helping them, irrespective of the identity or nationality of the good guy.

So the steps to end the discourse:

Firstly, fix the Indecom Act. It is breaching most forms of natural justice and all forms of commonsense for the activist to be the investigator. Find the role they prefer and give them that singular role. They do both well, propaganda and investigation, but they can’t do both at the same time. Pick one for them.

Two: Stop allowing them to receive funding from overseas interests. The person who pays the piper picks the tune.

Ask for their assistance in our homicide investigations when required. They are really good and could contribute positively to end the misery to which the gangs have sentenced our poor.

The propaganda division of that organisation is belittling the accomplishments of the investigative arm.

So our post Emancipation history involves evil being assisted by politicians, improperly motivated administrators, human rights activists and now arms of our Parliament.

This is only fixable because of the absence of criminals in the decision-making process of our country. Let us not take that for granted.

If we don’t fix the conflicts between the good men who now exist, we may one day see a day where thugs become our rulers.

It wasn’t far off in 1980, 1989, and 2010. We just missed a total takeover by criminals.

Take my word, we can return there easily, very easily.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com