“Persons employed in financial institutions who are convicted for ‘finger smith’ activities — ‘tiefing’ account holders’ money — should get long minimum mandatory sentences similar to the 45 years imprisonment being proposed for non-capital murders.” This was my tweet when allegations of fraud at Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) broke two and half weeks ago.

I stand by it.

Thousands of Jamaicans make great sacrifices to save and invest. The majority of us were not born with the proverbial gold spoon “inna wi mouth” (privilege/inherited wealth). As a consequence, many of us diligently “ban’ wi belly” and “cut wi yeye pass” many consumer items which advertisers repeatedly tell us have our names written on them. Thousands of us adopt principles of delayed gratification daily so that if “worse come to worse” we do not have to walk and beg.

Saving, especially for a rainy day, is an exercise which requires blood, sweat and tears for the majority of Jamaicans.

As I see it, there can be no justification for tiefing people’s savings. Those who are convicted of this fowl deed must be spurned, scorned, and banished.

At the bridge

I believe the Andrew Holness-led Administration is doing a very good job at cauterising the bleeding from this big SSL wound. While some among us are rejoicing at the sight of the laceration for reasons that are obvious to anyone with a modicum of sense, Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke quickly jumped into action and has thus far done a very praiseworthy job of slowing the bleeding. It will be a while yet before the wound caused by this SSL gash is healed.

Dr Clarke is the right man on the bridge at the right time. He is locally, regionally and internationally respected. Clarke, while speaking at a press conference last Monday, noted that “[T]he multi-billion-dollar fraud scandal at Stocks and Securities Limited does not pose a systemic risk to the financial system.” (Jamaica Observer, Monday, January 23, 2023)

If the SSL disorder had happened in another political dispensation, and the minister of finance made similar pronouncements, I would have grabbed for a pound of salt. I think those who were quietly, and not so quietly, hoping that the SSL fallout would have been the political stone that damaged Clarke’s credibility as the chief manager of our national purse had better find another bad lamp to rub.

I believe those who were wishing and hoping that the SSL gash would have caused the Holness Administration to require a political blood transfusion are by now checking their own platelets.

I was glad to see this headline: ‘Stiffer penalties coming for breaches of financial laws’ in The Gleaner of last Tuesday. The news item said, among other things: “The Government is moving to review several pieces of financial sector legislation to apply more stringent penalties for breaches.

“Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke made the disclosure during a policy address on the financial sector today at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in downtown Kingston.

“Dr Clarke said the review is necessary to strengthen the country’s ability to identify, investigate and prosecute financial crimes in the banking, securities, insurance, and pensions sectors.

“Legislation to be amended include the Securities Act, Banking Act, Insurance Act, and the Pensions Act.

” ‘We will stiffen the penalties for white-collar crime in the financial sector. The discrepancy between the sanctions for white collar crime and other forms of crime must be erased,’ Dr Clarke said.”

This bold headline, ‘FBI called in — Gov’t solicits foreign law enforcement agencies, including forensic auditors, for SSL probe’, in this newspaper last Tuesday, for me, was a strong signal that Clarke — the man on the bridge has his hands firmly on the pillars which supported its superstructure.

The story delivered these and other details: “Jamaica’s law enforcement agencies probing the multi-billion-dollar fraud at securities dealers Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) have asked the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for assistance, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke told the country on Monday.”

Be ye careful

Truth is, Jamaica has been badly hurt by this SSL mess. A ‘re-foundationing’, to coin a word, of our entire financial eco-system cannot come too soon. Out of this bad situation much good will come, I believe.

For reasons which are obvious even to the slightly discerning, some people on social media have assumed the roles of judge, juror, and executioner in this SSL matter. ‘Xperts’ on social media who have been handing down judgements and apportioning sentences on all sorts of matters need to carefully assess their actions. They would do well to acquaint themselves with especially section 9 of the Cybercrimes Act (2015).

Those of us who grew up in the rural parts of this country have more than likely heard these words quite often: “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” The people on social media who take it upon themselves to post material which injure, maim, and destroy the reputations of innocent individuals would do well to heed this warning from rustic folks. Those who spew slander from burner accounts and believe they cannot be found, should think again; you can. It is not difficult either.

Those on social media who boast that they have but “two rubbed-out bed slippers”, so it is futile to sue them, would do well to think about the idiocy of their actions before they advance their supposed penniless state as an escape route for their reckless actions.

And, those whose defence is, “Cho, is just a likkle joke mi a mek, man,” must remember the local saying: “What is joke to you is death to me.”

People have a right to their good name. A person’s good reputation is a most precious commodity.

William Shakespeare in Othello noted, among other things, on the preciousness and pricelessness of one’s good name.

“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls.

Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;

‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him,

And makes me poor indeed.”

— Othello, Act 3, Scene 3

I am all for free speech. Of course, we cannot forget that with every freedom comes great responsibility.

All for a forward

Some years ago I wrote, among other things: “The rot of unenlightened self-interest is a threat to Jamaica’s prosperity. There are those who laugh vociferously when an old lady slips on a ripe banana peel and seriously injures herself. There are those who use their smartphones to capture the lowest points of human misfortune with a single perverse objective: ‘I must post it in on social media first.’ (Jamaica Observer, September 10, 2017)

I think this malady explains in large part the motivations of several who malign people on social media. But there is also a set of shadowy operators — who hide in cyberspace — in what some call troll farms. Their sole objective is the spread of lies in order to achieve political forward/traction.

Many of these vicious and depraved types operate from what they figure are the secure bunker of numerous burner accounts. Gladly, technology has made it possible to smoke them out of their dark crevices and expose them to the sanitising heat of taking personal responsibility. Sadly, by the time they are exposed much reputational damage is often done.

Those who fund, direct, and manage troll farms and derivatives must be made to pay for their actions. Bad actors who damage the country’s and people’s good name by retailing and wholesaling innuendos and lies must not be allowed to operate with impunity. Let them pay, and pay dearly, I say. Be warned, those who think that falsehoods and propaganda are best responded to with plutonium-grade falsehoods and propaganda are wrong.

I believe prompt doses of the truth are the best antidote to the sordid fixations of those who trade is falsehoods. I believe, too, that malignant liars and their sponsors should be made to pay in the court. Let them feel the full impact of their lying ways in the pocket. In the days preceding the writing of the article I saw some people tendering apologies for misleading, malicious, and false posts in relation to this SSL mess. I believe the individuals who have been wronged should not stop there. The injured party should sue these miscreants. If an apology is the only consequence villains suffer for defaming people then much more dreadful times are ahead.

I have never transacted any business with SSL and have no account there. I neither know nor have any personal and/or social contact with any of the principals of that entity and/or any of the individuals who have fraud allegations hanging over their heads. I make this declaration since I know there are some who parted company with mathematics in school long before they even got to addition. For these geniuses the sum of 2+2 equals 22.

I am inveighing against the malicious maligning of people. Weaponised lying is now amplified via the conduit of the Internet. It is a clear and present danger which sadly continues to gain strength in our society. It is the poor and uneducated who are usually the pawns of lies. Incapacity and/or a dwarfed ability to reason critically are extremely toxic mixes.

Michael G Smith, in his research, posits that as our “magico-religious political culture” makes us susceptible to superstition and lies. Smith was an eminent Jamaican historian, social anthropologist, and poet. We need to embrace reason and science, not superstition. Science is the oxygen of growth and development today.

Golding’s dare

Bring on the local government election! These and related sentiments were expressed by Mark Golding, Opposition leader and President of the People’s National Party’s (PNP), at a recent meeting of its National Executive Committee.

For a man who was making a political dare he sounded quite indecisive or “fenkae fenkae”, as we say in local parlance. Golding, doubtless, has good reasons. The findings of recent scientific polls have been bleak regarding his favourability and that of the party he leads.

Golding has to win a consequential election to preserve his political beacon, and in so doing rid himself of his very tremulous control of Norman Manley’s party. If Golding loses or fails to secure what can be credibly categorised as a decent draw in the next local government election I believe political war will follow, and his leadership will be challenged. Or, worse, a sort of palace coup might be staged by the remnants of the OnePNP faction who, sources say, are still licking their wounds and waiting by the river to see the bodies of their enemies float by.

Murders down

This welcomed bit of news, “47 per cent reduction in murders; 61 homicides since start of the year”, in last Monday’s Gleaner has evidently escaped the notice of most media houses. Were the reverse the case I am sure it would have made headlines.

Some who are vehemently against the use of states of public emergencies (SOEs) to save lives, albeit that verifiable data show that they are on a frolic of folly, continue to vociferously argue, for example, that murders declined during the last two most recent SOEs because of the staging of the FIFA World Cup Football held last November.

What are their reasoned explanations for this 47 per cent decline? I shall be happy to hear.

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist and a senior advisor to the minister of education & youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.