In the run-up to the 1980 General Election, my father — a crime fighter who served in various roles for over three decades — would make me (an adolescent at the time) sit on the floor of the car while he drove, to give me a chance of survival if the car got shot up.

In the run-up to the 2025 General Election, the term ‘political violence’ is as redundant as apartheid and Nazism. It’s just not something we do anymore. In fact, we haven’t really engaged in it for 45 years.

In the 90s, when I first worked at the Caymanas racetrack, I saw the Matthews Lane strongman “Zeeks”, and two carloads of men drive onto the property, grab a man, and threw him into a vehicle in full view of the public attending the event. They then attempted to drive out with him, when we — the security team — locked the gate, impeding them. I was not yet a police officer.

I pulled the man out of the vehicle and he said, “Bossie, let me go with them.” I told him they would kill him.

He replied: “If I don’t go with them they will kill my family.”

He left with them and I never saw him again.

Thirty years later the racetrack is a place where gangs dare not disrespect the rules. I would go further to say that there is no gang leader who would be so arrogant as to go to any sporting venue and abduct anyone with the public watching.

Why? Because the holy hell of the armed forces would descend on them before they reached their garrison. They cower in fear now. Being a famous gangster is the perfect formula for becoming a primary target of law enforcement and this will definitely end badly for them.

When I left school I had two choices. One was to become a HEART trainee and work for below minimum wage doing the same job that paid five times the offered wage. There were no jobs because the HEART programme took them all. Currently, there are far more jobs than applicants. This is nothing short of amazing.

The second choice was to go to the then College of Arts, Science, and Technology (CAST – now University of Technology, Jamaica), or The University of the West Indies (The UWI). These were the only two tertiary education institutions, other than teachers’ colleges and nursing schools.

The result of this duopoly was arrogance and intolerance by the noted institutions, particularly by their admissions staff. Now there are more than 10 possibilities available to you if you want a tertiary education, and those previously noted schools have to petition the public to apply.

When I was a teenager there were few corporate leaders who were black. Now there are few who are not.

At the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Russia, Jamaica won three bronze medals and we were happy. Now we are upset if we don’t win eight medals.

Back in the 90s, if you applied for a firearm there was not even a turnaround time. You would just never hear of it again. If God was on your side, you might have got to some form of finality over five years. Now, the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) completes the process and gives a decision within, on average, two years.

In my days at high school in the 80s, if you didn’t pass the secondary education level exam for a traditional high school, you were doomed to a life of physical labour because you weren’t even going to get to sit Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, let alone pass them. In this era I know people who attended non-traditional high schools who have eight CSEC passes and three passes in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE).

Back in the 80s, you hardly saw any women in top Government positions. Now, the Jamaica Defence Force is led by Chief of Defence Staff Vice Admiral Antonette Wemyss-Gorman, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is led by Paula Llewellyn, and the Ministry of Finance is led by Fayval Williams.

Buying a car in the 80s required a ‘link’ because of the restrictions on importing motor vehicles, and resulted in corruption and humiliation. Some motor vehicle dealers, who will remain unnamed, used to sell the cars to their own rental companies and then sell them back to the public at three times the cost. It was horrible.

I can recall having to write letters somewhat like essays justifying my reasons for needing to purchase a new car. Some replied to me, some did not. None agreed to sell me one.

Nowadays, cars are available for purchase like mangoes on a tree. They range from low-cost little things and the modern-day taxis like Toyota Probox and Nissan AD Wagon, to luxury units from China, Japan, and the United States. Can you imagine trying to sell a Lada vehicle in this market? Well, we used to dream of owning a Lada.

All of these improvements in our lives have come about not because of one Government, but rather because of several governments over the last 40 years. I could mention so much more: transportation in Kingston, transportation in St Catherine, housing. The list is endless.

Can you imagine how much more will be accomplished over the next 40 years? We are already seeing that crime can be fought and defeated, not in a distant future where cars fly like rat bats, but in our lifetime. Our future from this point begins with believing in our leaders, believing that they can realise the dreams they have for us. They can achieve this if we commit to working with them, even if we can’t understand their strategy. They can achieve this if we believe in the Jamaican people and the Jamaican story — one that is wrought with a history of overcoming unbelievable odds.

However, to believe we must reflect — as I have done — on how far we have come. Many among us cannot identify with the 80s because we weren’t yet born. So the belief is that we have never improved. This is wrong. It is criminal. As hard as life is in this country, it was far worse before. The things we take for granted, like the National Housing Trust and HEART/NSTA Trust, would not exist without Michael Manley or Edward Seaga.

Many more improvements that we’ve experienced more recently are products of the Government since the start of the millennium. These improvements, although significant, are simply a peek into what we could look like 40 years from now.

A time is coming when murder will be anti-cultural and a rare occurrence; when squatter settlements will be replaced by low-cost housing schemes; when adult illiteracy will be non-existent. We only need to realise that we all want the same thing, irrespective of the colour of the uniform that leads us.

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