Real leaders lead

The passage of the much-heralded anti-gang legislation reminded me how few real leaders we have in Jamaica and how our feeble efforts at governance are doomed to futility.

Once again, we're deliberately attacking the problem from the wrong end for no other reason than to pass the buck, shift the blame, conduct business as usual. Every intelligent Jamaican, and that's almost everyone found outside of Gordon House, knows that legislation is useless as a crime-fighting tool unless it can be enforced. So, all the talking heads, the do-gooders, members of the non-existent Peace Management Initiative (what a lot of oxymoronic gobbledygook that name includes), Jamaicans for Justice for Some; and let's never forget the Christian Lawyers' Fellowship can relax. Nothing has changed.

Another piece of paper has found its way into and out of Gordon House. Not one police station has been computerised; not one surveillance camera installed, no policeman or woman has been trained in modern technology or crime-fighting techniques. Soon, the headlines will be full of gun-slinging heroics from ACID, OCID, MOCA, POCA and SOCA. Meanwhile, our criminal hydra will continue to grow and prosper until it paralyses the entire society.

Remember the hue and cry surrounding the passing of the anti-litter law? The Gun Court Act? The Suppression of Crime Act? Amendning the Public Health Act (anti-smoking law)? Good God, we can't even force people clearly caught speeding to pay a simple traffic ticket. Nor do we have the administrative ability to record whether or not it has been paid.

Listen carefully to this hypothetical conversation between a traffic cop and a chap hurrying to place a bet on the first race.

"Good day, sir. Do you know why you've been stopped?" the policeman begins politely.

"No."

"We clocked you at 120 kilometres per hour in a 50-kilometre-per-hour zone."

"What? I don't believe it. My speedometer said 50km/hr."

"Would you like to see the reading on my radar gun, sir?"

"No. I don't doubt it says what you say it says. It's wrong."

"Well, sir, you leave me with no option but to write you a ticket."

"Officer, I'm not an idiot. Are you saying that you wouldn't have written a ticket if I'd agreed with you?"

"That's not what I'm saying, sir."

"Well, go ahead and write your ticket. You and my lawyer will be in court for the next couple of years arguing over this."

A sudden change comes over the policeman's visage as he calculates his loss of additional income from the number of days he'll likely suffer the double whammy of being in court rather than on the road.

"May I see your papers, sir?"

"Certainly," says the offending driver, handing over the car documents and his driver's licence. The policeman steps away and pretends to review the papers (which include a clearly expired fitness certificate). "Sir, it looks like your papers are in order and I don't see any previous offence endorsed on your licence (of course not; the system is so broken that nothing is ever endorsed on anybody's licence) so I'm letting you off with a warning. Please drive more carefully in future."

irrational laws

Almost before the policeman's final words are out of his mouth, our daring driver has taken off with a squeal of tyres and is at 90km/hr in 60 seconds.

So, what do we learn about knee-jerk, unjust laws like 50km/hr speed limits? Politicians pass irrational but tough-on-crime-sounding laws to earn bragging rights and secure votes. Policemen can't enforce these laws, so many don't even try in a vague hope of benefit in return. Courts can't even organise expeditious trials of those charged under these laws. Witnesses lose heart and disappear. In response, politicians pass more laws, usually more irrational than the first set. Round and round the mulberry bush ... .

Leaders don't kowtow to popular opinion. Leaders don't avoid uncomfortable decisions. Real Jamaican leaders would find the funds to properly equip and train the police force BEFORE passing useless anti-gang legislation under which I predict as close to zero successful prosecutions as makes no difference.

Here's an example of how leaders lead. Vladimir Putin addressed The State Duma (Russia's parliamentary Lower House) on February 4, 2013:

"In Russia, live like Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Shari'a law, and live the life of Muslims, then we advise them to go to those places where that's the state law.

"Russia does not need Muslim minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we'll not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell 'discrimination'. We won't tolerate disrespect of our Russian culture. We had better learn from the suicides of America, England, Holland and France, if we're to survive as a nation.

"The Muslims are taking over those countries and they will not take over Russia. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of Shari'a law and Muslims. When this honourable legislative body thinks of creating new laws, it should have in mind the Russian national interest first, observing that the Muslim minorities are not Russians."

The State Duma, for which Putin's United Russia Party won 49 per cent of the popular vote and 238 of the 450 seats (52 per cent) in the 2011 elections (down from 315 in 2007), gave President Putin a five-minute standing ovation, which is like the entire United States House of Representatives doing the same for President Obama.

Why can't we get this sort of leadership in Jamaica? I'll tell you why. Russia can behave in this way because it has a secular system of governance. In Jamaica, we operate a Christian theocracy. So, we'll strangle ourselves financially under the International Monetary Fund's dictatorship rather than tax the Church. We'll continue to criminalise person's intrinsic 'being' as homosexuals because the Church says we must. Don't tell me Russia also has anti-homosexual laws. That's because of Russian culture, not instructions from the Old Testament.

Apparently, Russia's big problem is with Muslims. Jamaica's is with crime. When we get leaders like Putin, prepared to do what's in Jamaica's national interest first, that's when funds will be committed from wherever necessary to properly equip and train a modern police force.

Let me be clear. Real leaders will ensure that police training includes how to deal with all situations without the first resort being to violence. I'll personally undertake to be course director of the how-to-avoid-violence part of that training. My first lesson will involve ensuring that thirsty mosquitoes are strategically placed on each trainee's testicles.

Real leaders will insist on prioritising the fundamental necessity of increased national security, regardless of who must go sit in the back bench, how many public 'servants' must be retrenched, or which pastor must pay taxes out of his church's tithes as a consequence. Those leaders won't insult the nation with proposed solutions on paper in Parliament (by whatever name) to be kept in a book on a shelf somewhere and never properly enforced.

Peace and love.

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