BEFORE England came under sustained and intolerable attack from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) they didn’t have the Internment Act. It was introduced into the occupied territory of Northern Ireland that they chose to call their own. It was introduced in 1971 and allowed for indefinite detention, without charge, of anyone suspected of being a member of the IRA. England kept the Act until 1975 and detained more than 1,800 people.

Before terrorists began blowing up train stations in London, English police were rarely seen with guns. Since Muslim terrorists have begun targeting England, police officers with sub-machine guns are quite a common sight.

Before the 9/11 terrorist attack against the United States of America (USA), they didn’t have the Homeland Security Act. They didn’t need it. Once the holocaust that was 9/11 occurred on their soil they realised that they needed an Act that could technically deprive people of their constitutional rights. They enacted one because they felt it was necessary. I agreed and still agree with them.

When the need arose to deprive terrorists of rights they would be entitled to in the USA as prisoners, the Americans created the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. This allowed them to do many things that they couldn’t dream of doing in the USA or in a theatre of war under the rules defined by the Geneva Convention. I agreed with the detention, but not the enhanced interrogation techniques. I do, however, acknowledge that it likely saved many lives.

I also agree that the creation of the external detention centre was necessary. You see, a country must do what is necessary to protect itself and to protect the innocent people who live there. It’s their right, unless the people are poor!

El Salvador had a murder rate 100 times that of England so they created their own system of internment. They did it to protect citizens in their own country from criminals in their own country. The English created internment to protect their countrymen from criminals in a country they occupied. Yet, El Salvador is criticised by most large countries, to include countries where internment was introduced.

The United States interred American citizens of Japanese descent in World War II. They didn’t release some of them until months after the war ended. It’s OK that they did it to normal citizens, but El Salvador musn’t do it to gang members.

Jamaica in 1974 introduced the Suppression of Crime Act because of an environment in which murder had increased exponentially in two years. Jamaica was harshly criticised by the same countries who did the Japanese internment, the Irish internment, and the Guantanamo Bay incarceration.

There is no even keel in this world and, in particular, this region. Countries must do what is necessary to protect their innocent from harm. It’s that simple. We have the capability at this point to take drastic measures and save about 10,000 lives over 10 years. We, however, simply cannot do it. Why?

Well, it’s not because we have no history of standing up and doing what is necessary. In 1974 we established the Gun Court. This is an actual court where you can get life imprisonment without a jury of your peers. Did we do it because we were evil? No. We did it because it was necessary. Is it that the men who were in Government in the 1970s were harder and stronger than the men who are in Government now? No. I think that Horace Chang and Andrew Holness are strong men. Is it that it is not necessary now? No. It’s necessary if we want to save 10,000 lives over the next 10 years.

The difference is that we are so bruised and hurt by the memories and ghosts of the 1970s that no government will walk us down that path. In addition, we as a people are so punch drunk from our last experience with draconian laws that we don’t trust our Government, irrespective of party, to have that type of power. So, unlike England and the USA we won’t do what is necessary.

The international community also doesn’t trust us with that type of power. It’s not just Jamaica, but any small country. Why? Because they saw the garbage that we did before. ‘We’ include Nicaragua, El Salvador, Venezuela, and of course, Jamaica.

I get it. We all did garbage in the past — all four of us in this region and several others. But so did they! England and the USA have, in the last 70 years, done some terrible things I am sure they regret. I know the Americans regret the incarceration of the Japanese-Americans because they have actually paid damages for it. The British must regret internment because they have literally put freedom back in the hands of the people of Northern Ireland; they just don’t seem to really want it. Neither does Scotland, for that matter.

We also regret the communist experiment, arming our gangs to fight as militia in the 1970s and allowing foreign countries to haul and pull us. Despite our regrets of past mistakes, larger countries in the region will never trust us. The difference is that we lift our eyebrows when they do bad things but when the shoe is on the other foot they lift their pen — and it’s not to sign a cheque. It’s to cut aid and trade. This is why we will never truly do what is required — because we can’t. This is why they criticise us, while we are mute in our criticism of them.

The Government that decides human lives matter above all else and does what is required will be the Government that leads us into bankruptcy. None of us want that. None of us see it as necessary. That is, unless we live on Cherry Tree Lane.

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