Gordon Robinson | Jamaica needs to invent a new wheel

As Marc Antony did for Caesar, we must come to bury Jamaica’s English Constitution and, with it, 500 years of mental slavery NOT to praise either.

The current Constitutional Reform process is a watershed moment in Jamaica’s history. We the People MUST divorce tribalism; resist attempts to ram any scheme to protect the status quo down our throats as “consensus” (among whom?); and reject any same difference Constitution. We mustn’t repeat the mistake of 1962 when colonial conditioning imposed this English Constitution on Jamaica.

After 60 years of economic stagnation and social decay, we the people aren’t interested in cosmetics. We the People recognise the need for radical systemic change and demand nothing less. Removing King Charles as Head of State and replacing him with an unelected, ceremonial governor general clone to take instructions from a Prime Minister also not directly elected by We the People is NOT change.

We the People will NOT buy any brand from that line of political skin care products. We the People will NOT accept the argument that incremental change is all we can accomplish. This nonsensical retention of political parties’ power to whimsically select national leaders for us isn’t even “incremental change”. Fundamental change doesn’t suit Jamaica’s political leaders who enjoy wielding absolute power like any Monarch. So they’ll vigorously oppose any movement away from that comfort zone.

Only We the People can compel that movement.

So we are told to take our time with fundamental change but to rush a “Phase One” Bill to Parliament in two months. It’s IMPOSSIBLE for that Bill to be influenced by We the People.

So we are told there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The work has been done. Let’s get on with selecting a Head of State who isn’t a “contentious pick”.

Patronising drivel!

First, only Monarchs are non-contentious Heads of State. The REAL question is who should judge the contest for Head of State? PNP? JLP? Both? Or We the People?

For 60 years the joint political strategy has been to exclude we the people from EVERY decision affecting us. After we vote for MP they’ve no further use for us. Every decision maker (including Cabinet; Senators; Government Boards) is appointed for us in secret.

For how much longer will we allow them to treat us like slaves?

Now they want to exclude We the People from electing Jamaica’s President; deciding the President’s role; or how a real Republic ensures Government accountability. This is so they can continue to lead us by our noses and reward whoever they choose with a title. The premeditated plan is for a President to be appointed by PM after “consultation” (which, in law, means “no consultation”) with Opposition Leader then confirmed by parliamentarians including unelected Senators. Then the President takes orders from Party-in-Power [as King’s representative (GG) now does] to make vital appointments to separate branches of Government including Judiciary.

SOMEBODY must be high!

Second, we need to invent a new wheel. This wheel has been spinning in sand for 60 years while passengers arrive nowhere. Jamaica needs a new wheel; new chassis; new engine and, most importantly, new manufacturing philosophy and structure capable of building vehicles suitable for TODAY’s purpose. Do we want 60 more years of a defective vehicle driving us to distraction, destruction and death just because Government is in a rush to put lipstick on Jamaica’s governance pig in time to boast during a campaign?

But, third, the most crucial reality is that, since the 1990s Constitutional Reform Committee’s report has been gathering dust, at least one generation has grown to adulthood uneducated in and uncaring about a governance system that has utterly failed it.

Everybody knows I’m a “die-hearted” cynic. I believe nothing in this world is as it appears so identify most human behaviour as illusion. But even my cynicism hardened heart broke upon reading a letter to the editor in Wednesday’s Gleaner written by “Disheartened Jamaican Youth” (DJY).

This is must read material. DJY wrote:

“I’ve ten CSEC and four CAPE subjects, and followed the mantra that a good education will never decay. But I found that statement to be largely a lie in this country, as links and connections determine your lot.”

This truth is simply a by-product of our governance system that’s built on corruption. So, Jamaica’s youth learn by bitter experience that, if you know someone “important” who wants to help you, all will be well. Otherwise thou shalt suck salt through a wooden spoon.

DJY also wrote:

“For tertiary students, they have to take on jobs in call centres and not in the respective fields for which they studied, which they paid for in scholarships and student loans…..

And even if some get a job in an industry that may or may not be taken over by AI, comparing the cost of living for a reasonable lifestyle that isn’t lavish but at least dignified versus their pay cheque is usually a joke… The average rent in Kingston, where a disproportionate amount of jobs and development are focused, is…around 50-75 per cent and sometimes more than the starting salary and usually have multiple people chasing limited stock.”

DJY I feel your pain. Skullhead III (a.k.a. SkullDougery) returned home from Ithaca College, New York, with a degree in how-to-bankrupt-your-parents. He also could find no job for a long time. So, he entered UWI’s MSc programme (needed “work experience” to try for MBA). Almost simultaneously, thanks to “links” with a family friend, he obtained an entry level job at a boutique financial services company and a teaching job at the private “extra lessons” school he once attended. He obtained his Masters with flying colours while working those jobs. Afterwards, “links” he made at his first job got him in the door at a larger organization and he has progressed over time to his current position as a respected investment banker.

But he lived at home for many years and drove a “patty pan” while his peers profiled. His parents have no “links” beyond family friends (the empirical meaning); no membership in lodge or past students’ association; no cliques. Our sons were trained at home to use education and effort to succeed and that their work should speak for itself. In Jamaica, that’s a distinct disadvantage the overcoming of which leads to real career satisfaction.

The Ampersand spent time towards a similar degree at Lawrence University (Wisconsin) before completing at UWI. He’s a brilliant Computer Coder but struggled to find work ending up at Digicel as an answering machine fielding trouble-shooting calls. Fed up and frustrated he found his way to Canada; did a one year course at Sheridan College; got an excellent job earning more than his father ever did; married a Grenadian Canadian and together they succeeded where the two other wastrels haven’t (based on available evidence) by presenting the Old Ball and Chain with her first grandchild now aged two going on killing-his-Grandmother-with-cuteness.

SputNick’s story includes another expensive educational journey followed by navigation of Jamaica’s unwelcoming post-grad market. But he too has excelled in his chosen field.

So, I say to Disheartened Jamaican Youth: Do. Not. Give. Up!

No matter how despicably systemic corruption treats you, your dreams will eventually come true so long as you persist despite distressing experiences of entitled, connected, inept peers benefiting from boosts denied to you.

To Disheartened Jamaican Youth: You. Shall. Overcome!

Youth must watch and see scammers and gangsters living high off ill gotten gains with the help of “links” in authority. DJY is but one of teeming thousands of today’s youth. THEY are Jamaica’s present and future. THEY must be educated; their views heard and implemented. WE must change for THEM. THEY don’t need to hop aboard Jamaica’s feudal democracy train.

So, DJY and the rest of Generation Z, I call upon YOU to ensure those steeped in British tradition don’t control this restructuring process. If you don’t wake up and smell Jamaica burning; if you allow this to become a PNP vs JLP issue; if you surrender your minds like sheep to political tribalism; YOU will be to blame for the next 60 years of stagnation. Your children and grandchildren will neither forgive nor forget.

Act NOW or regret later. Make Jamaica YOUR nation.

Don’t let anybody tell you the constitutional reform work is “too technical” for you. That’s contemptuous rubbish! A long time ago, a chappie named Albert Einstein failed high school mathematics but became a brilliant scientist. He condensed natural energy laws into a seminal equation E = MC2.

I’ve a constitutional equation for you. British Constitution – King + ceremonial president = NO CHANGE.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com