Most interviews I do with the Jamaican press in relation to dons, gangs, garrisons and their impact always seem to come back to the question of political alignment to one of our two political parties.

I try and not be a condemning voice because I’m old enough to remember how it all began, and in many ways, I view the current flock of politicians to be victims of the ones we name buildings and highways after.

Just like the way Germany tends to avoid discussions about its role in virtually destroying the planet between 1939 and 1945, and the same way Japan avoids discussions on its behaviour in that era, is the same way that Jamaica avoids frank discussions on the 70s. This is unfair and somewhat disingenuous.

If I have any young readers who, for whatever reason did not know, let me inform you that your grandfather‘s generation armed criminals and thugs in an effort to fight a political war in our country. That laid the foundation for the garrisons that exist today, the don culture, the culture of violence and their participation in the electoral process.

So, for example, how can you blame the Member of Parliament for the political gangs in Central Kingston when that culture was introduced when he was in primary school?

What nobody wants to say is that non-involvement with dons in garrison communities is an acceptance that you will lose the election. People do not really have a democratic right in communities that are garrisons, so stop fooling yourself. The current representatives did not start this process, they inherited it from people who inherited it, that’s just the truth.

Now, what I will say is because of the press, politicians cannot openly embrace gang leaders as they previously could. That’s because the Jamaican press do not play around, they are looking for a reason to push a nail in your chest if you demonstrate that you are in any way in favour of gangs.

This culture of zero tolerance came about before my involvement as a writer, but encouraged me to become one. God bless Wilmot “Mutty” Perkins and many others.

That being said, it’s still very much a union, if not a marriage. I don’t think that the politicians are happy about it, and I am confident there isn’t one damn thing they can do about it. It’s wider than you may think.

We often talk about the obvious and historic garrisons such as Arnett Gardens, Tivoli Gardens, ‘Dunkirk’, and a few others that are famous, but garrison politics is misunderstood. Often garrisons are favourable to one political party, but the constituency is so large that the garrison cannot influence enough people in enough spaces to determine the seat. They can certainly influence the seat, but not determine it.

So within a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) constituency you may have People’s National Party (PNP) garrisons. Take, for example, the St Catherine East Central seat. It is one of those that the lines were redrawn in an effort to create a uneven number of seats to avoid a draw in a national election.

Within this seat there exists strong political clusters that also have active gang participation. The names of these communities would not be common to the average Jamaican. However, they have strong political loyalty to one of the two political parties, depending on where you walk in the constituency. There is also a fair number of residential communities.

The residential communities are not as populated as the garrisons because the garrisons are made up of informal settlers or working class poor. The vote per household is not comparable. Gregory Park has a few dons, some have a history of supporting the JLP and some the PNP.

Some of these dons don’t even live in Jamaica anymore, but are maniacal in their support of specific political parties. And trust me, they are real criminals. They can determine whether people will go out and vote or not. Although some people will defy them, most really can’t bother with the fight — it’s not an even playing field.

Now, you have a community like Lakes Pen that used to be the exclusive territory of the Klansman Gang. The demise of that gang has introduced other, more subtle criminals who, although are not as overt in their criminal overtures, are very much criminals who have the ability to determine the results of the election.

The don for that zone specialises in illegal sand mining, which many feel is a victimless crime. That is, until he decides to mine your river on your land whether you like it or not. When he uses that money to arm thugs the end result is the same as a don who deals in narcotics or extortion.

In garrison communities, if the don says nobody can vote, then nobody will. So, if law enforcement raids this man’s home because he is a criminal, the politician has to whistle the tune of this don and demonise the police or give up any possibility of becoming a representative in Parliament.

Democracy does exist in Jamaica. But it’s not everywhere. It’s real in most parishes though. So in a country that is swinging its political hammer in a particular direction that is common in landslide elections, the criminals can’t help the unpopular party to win.

This differs in a close election like what occurred in 2016 when the Lakes Pen voting block was barred from voting by the Klansman Gang, and the East Central seat was won by the JLP, and the sitting government lost the election by one seat.

Democracy will only be real when we no longer have criminal control in slums. We have a version of democracy that is much better than what we used to have, but it’s not truly real if some people can be deprived of it.

The late, former American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

This could not be more relevant to the topic that I am discussing. We accept criminals in far too many seats being able to impact the democracy of so many poor, because so many otherwise are “not” impacted by it. The politicians do not like it either, because they are usually good people who genuinely want to bring about a better Jamaica.

They, however, are willing to do what they have to do to win that seat, to get back that ministry position, to be important once again.

I am not sure I could do that. I would see my father frowning at me from the grave if I took advantage of the ability of a criminal, who has his boot firmly placed on the weak, to gain something that is material to me.

That is my value system, I don’t believe it is fair that I should impose my father’s values, or mine, on another. I believe in human rights, I believe in victim’s rights. I am not as enthusiastic as many of my critics of criminal rights, but I accept it is the law of the land and the law must be followed.

Will we one day have a society in which garrisons don’t exist? Maybe. But I doubt it will be in my lifetime.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com