Dear Editor,
The recent comments by Minister Chuck regarding the impending banning of corporal punishment in homes have caused much uproar, and rightly so. Telling parents how to discipline their children, beyond outlawing child abuse, is the definition of government overreach.
Some look to state governments to tell them who they are, where they should go and even how they should think. Governments themselves certainly prefer mindless drones who agree with every policy or decree; but in Jamaica, we still live in a democracy. A state ruled through the will of the people and by the people through elected representatives; where the government should listen to the people. It’s something important to remember, in a world where politicians live like kings, seemingly restrained only by their own desires. The reality is that governments have limits. As stated aptly by the Association of Christian Communicators and Media (ACCM), it is the family, not the government that is the fundamental unit of socialisation and disciplinary action.
History is important
It is foolish to believe that Jamaicans would lay back and receive a government decree, which would criminalise a vast number of parents who struggle to discipline their children in a global climate of disrespect, when children are more globally connected and potentially more intelligent and therefore diversified in their disobedience than ever before. We are not some caucasian nation, unfamiliar with resistance and fighting for our families. Our history of enslavement reminds us that systems of control often seek to break up families, undermine fathers and remove children.
An accidental spill?
There are lines the government must learn not to cross. The government has no right to tell you how to raise your children. Their role in this instant is to prevent abuse, which is a different, though connected matter. The Office of the Prime Minister seemed to respect the limits of good governance in calling for collaboration and consultation informed by the National Commission on Violence Prevention, but on January 15 this year, the Gleaner ran a story titled “Violence Prevention Commission recommends total ban on corporal punishment”. Is the government “waiting” on a report they have already received? Is there a covert attempt to ban corporal punishment which has been accidentally blurted out by the Minister of Justice? Such a ban may play well for international funders but not for the people who put the government in power; the people disciplining their children daily.
May the government task itself with helping Jamaicans to know the differences between abuse and discipline and invest in empowering parents to diversify their disciplinary techniques, rather than criminalizing parents for practicing age-old and appropriate disciplinary techniques. And may the government of Jamaica, while executing its role, understand and respect, even revere the role of family.
I am,
Dr. Daniel Thomas
President
Love March Movement