Jamaica is NOT Independent. Lessons to learn from our Massacres.
I usually only write about what matters to me. There are so many good and bad events in this world that no writing can cover everything. So I have always accepted the inevitable that you cannot change the world. You can however illuminate the dark side of humanity by just simply putting fingers to keyboard and then press send.
I recently found a new media to get another view of world events, Aljazeera, and this morning I watched a documentary called ‘Miners Shot Down”. It was the story of the 2012 massacre of about 28 miners, employed to the Lonkin Maracana Mines. The plot is simply this; Miners are unsatisfied with pay, employers do not hold miners grievances seriously, miners strike, employers call the police, police enforce their authority, miners were shot. The Aftermath: An enquiry was held and none of the police was found guilty of any wrong doing after it was stated by the police that their actions were in self defense as the mob had weapons. Two of the leaders of the group are serving sentences for crimes against the State.
I said to myself this could be Jamaica. In fact in many ways, circumstances and situations, this is just like Jamaica.
The Green Bay Massacre
The plot is simply this: 5 men were lured by the Jamaica Defense force in January 1978 on an apparent promise of a job waiting for them to fill. These men were from the opposing political party the JLP. The operation entailed the luring of the men into an ambush at the Green Bay Firing Range by members of the Military Intelligence Unit, a covert operational wing of the Jamaica Defense Force. The men were shot dead and an enquiry was held to investigate. The Aftermath:The official report released by the Military was that the men were shot dead after they were surprised by soldiers doing target practice on the JDF firing range.The PNP has always disavowed knowledge of the covert action that took the lives of the men and said it was purely a military operation that was later justified. No one was charged.
The Kingston Unrest ( Tivoli Gardens Incursion) 2010 dubbed locally as the Tivoli Incursion, was an armed conflict between the Shower Posse and the security forces in Kingston.The plot: The US government was adamant that Christopher “Dudus” Coke was to be taken into custody and sent to the US for trial. The people who favoured Dudus were not having it. The shoot out between the security forces and the people of Tivoli resulted in 73 dead and 35 others wounded. Four soldiers were also killed and over 500 persons arrested.
The Aftermath: A vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister was held and failed as politicians voted against partly lines. “Dudus” Coke was eventually extradited to the US. No one was accountable for the mismanagement of the situation. The ruling JLP lost the election that followed.
Bad Friday 1963 – Coral Gardens – The Rastafarian Massacre: On Holy Thursday 1963 six bearded men, without locks, burnt down a gas station in Coral Gardens. The act was to protest the unjust lock up of one bearded man after a land deal with a non-bearded man went sour. The men, assumed to be Rastafarians, were said to be armed with machetes and other weapons. Two police officers and six civilians, including three of the assailants died. The then Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante instructed the army and police to round up all Rastafarians from the parishes of St James, Hanover and Trelawny. The excess prisoners who could not fit in the prisons were to be ‘disposed’ of by killing and taking them to Bogue Hill, above a major cemetery in Montego Bay. This led to a collective crucifixion of many innocent followers of the Rastafarian faith and suppression of the movement island wide. The massacre is known as Bad Friday.
The Aftermath: Over 54 Rastafarians were killed and another 30 injured. No enquiry was held at the time in 1963 and no one was held accountable.
Do you see a pattern here? In every conflict the situation was grossly mismanaged both the resources and victims. Victims here being the people afflicted, as well as a total disregard for common sense and restraint, especially when in every scenario the people abused were the citizens of the country: not a foreigner, not a terrorist, but their own citizens.
Fundamental Rights and Freedom as stated in the Jamaican Constitution Order in Council 1962, Chapter 3 was completely thrown out the door.
“Whereas, every person in Jamaica is entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, that is to say, has the right wherever his race, place of origin, political opinion, color creed or sex. To each and all the following.
(a) Life, liberty, security of the person, the enjoyment of property and the protection of the law.
(b)Freedom of conscience, of expression and of peaceful assembly and association.
In none of the cases were these rights secured and established in all 4 theaters. No one was afforded the right to life, liberty and security and even if there were persons that were allegedly in conflict with the law, the person so alleged has the right to be granted due diligence and his time heard in court. Management was at best strong handed and at worst the symbol of human genocide.
A part of Management is doing things right and part of doing the right thing is to know the objective of the mission at hand. The objective in each case was to allow every orchestral part of the theatre to communicate and work together creating a symphony of measured justice, justice for the people they swore to protect and serve. Conducting the orchestra in temper and arrogance, especially during the rehearsals, is like driving a car without tyres. All you get is a haunting noise and a useless car.
” We want to end this illegal activity…’ South African Police Chief. “No angels died at Green Bay”. Dudley Thompson. Minister of National Security. ( Green Bay Massacre) “ I am taken aback by the violence” – Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Jamaica. (Tivoli Incursion) “Hunt dem down and who you cant find dig hole a Bogue”- Alexander Bustamante ( Prime Minister Jamaica 1963)
Those quotes from the stated actors bothered me. Conflicts are not unusual. It is part of the human DNA. There will always be conflicts. In this case miners sold their expertise to their employers and felt their labor was not adequately compensated: 5 men have different political views from the ruling PNP: the people of Tivoli held Dudus as their communal leader and the Rastafarians grew their hair unlike others in 1963. This is the human liberty the constitution talks about, the right to express yourself, lawfully and live freely within the law.
Management not recognizing these liberties forced the players to communicate the way they felt will get management’s attention. One theater stopped working, the other rioted, the other defended their declared leader and one paraded to defend their culture. What is illegal about expressing their rights peacefully? No angels died at Green Bay Mr Thompson but no justice was present at Green Bay either!
Disputes demand the greatest effort to listen and equally the greatest effort to compromise and if there is no desire on both sides to communicate then both parties have just struck the match. Management’s refusal to take the noise of the people seriously is suicidal. Eventually someone will pull the trigger. This is not illegal Madam Chief of Police, and yes no angels were present Mr Thompson but frankly the people were virtuous in the face of the oppression, they were innocent, they were just. Their actions were self defense.
“The Perfect Storm”
The art of modern management in this globalized world is constantly changing. The changing dynamics require management to be not only a leader but must also now be a muse, a muse of creativity. Management now has to be someone who has such an influence on their people that they become the inspiration for the creative work of the nation. The incidents leading to the days of the 5 massacres saw a continuing decline in respect for not the workers, but a declining respect for humanity.
It each case it was us and them, us the holders of power, them the people who are supposed to acquiesce to power : Us the rich, them the poor, us the educated, them the uneducated. Two opposing poles electrically charged creating the perfect storm. The ensuing struggle in the theater between the parties resulted in deaths with all parties justifying the results. It is always the best tool for management to protect and avoid the floating clouds of rain and lighting to avoid the onslaught of a downpour of anarchy. It is not good for business, it is not good for trust. Trust abandons faith.
” The police has nothing to apologize for..” Police Chief, Bustamante,
The odious statement made by these actors do not help management. It transforms them into the mummy they so vividly played in this horrific tragedy. The message communicated by all 5 leaders is “ the death of the people leave the police and management cold.” Given the social and economic circumstances of the world, management still do not get it. The lack of management’s’ capacity to feel what their people feel is graphically showing why the people have social protest with regards to the state of governance , levels of corruption and lack of service delivery.
There is a total disconnect. Wages are low, unemployment high, people live in almost abominable conditions, and the so called “servants of the people’ is only masquerading as bigots and literally raises the question is management, government or the police really concerned about the people they serve? Is management serially inept? There are only 2 types of music, good music and bad music. In life there is only one tragedy, a bad tragedy. In a country like ours when tragedy hits the rarified air, the stench pervades for miles. As the stench rises the people are the ones that are seen as the villain and management, leaders and government collectively hypnotize the gentiles that their actions are fair, just and for the good of all.
The Prime Minister Bustamante at the time declared: “Hunt dem down and who you cant find dig hole a Bogue..”
My one question to the Prime Minister would have been if those words are not threatening words of destruction of your own people, then what is? At the time in Jamaica where independence meant freedom from the colloquial lifestyle, freedom from the European definition of our blackness, if those words were not racist in thought and deed, then what is?
Although Jamaica was independent, management still held unto the ideals of the Europeans and on the other side of the stage, the Africans, by the way he looked and felt about himself, were still enslaved. The ensuing tension between the Rastafarians and the new established elites of Jamaica was like a volcanic mountain ready to explode. One party in the theater declaring he is independent but technically still colonized, the other declaring his life is black and he lives his reality, two polarizing views. The Rastafarians were experiencing their own reality, management were living someone else’s reality.
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last responsibility is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” Max De Pree
Management got it wrong. In this case it can be argued that Jamaica in 1962 was without moral and intellectual independence creating no anchor for national independence.
No country should kill its people like dogs at the wailing wall of suffering no matter how threatening the situation. Leaders cannot lose faith in their people’s humanity. Ghandi said if a bottle of dirty water gets dropped in the ocean it does not mean the ocean is dirty. Management must know their people, speak to them as people, do not miscalculate and treat them like the enemy.
In all the scenes played on this horrific stage the police fired on the people and the people acted in self defense. Intelligently they all fell to the ground with their hands in the air. Who amongst the players were the most intelligent? Who was it that raped them of justice?
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts”. Mahatma Ghandi
Written by Paul Tomlinson
Please check out Paul’s website HERE
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