From all appearances, outside of casting a vote in an election, the people of Jamaica have zero control over how they are governed or even how they choose to discipline their children in their own homes.
This is a country where the people’s will is held in abeyance, even in matters affecting them at the very basic levels, as decisions are made top-down by a government that is expressly arrogant, operating on the fringes of authoritarianism, and backed by a deeply corrupt system of policing.
Those in government, their families, their friends, and those who agree with their policies hold the handle of this country, while the masses hold the razor-sharp blade.
If it were not so, those who govern could not have awarded themselves the massive pay hike they recently did, while giving the teachers and others crumbs to add to their peanut-sized salaries.
If it were not so, someone would have had to account for the multi-billion-dollar overrun on too many government projects, including the refurbishment of the Cornwall Regional Hospital.
If it were not so, security agents of the state would be held accountable for the abuse and brutal killing of our people in the streets, especially our teenage boys, they claim to be gunmen.
Let us face the fact that we are living on the edge of a brutish authoritarian regime, posing as a democracy.
Authoritarianism involves the use of a strong, central power force, like a kingship, to preserve the political status quo. As we approach full-fledged authoritarian governance, there is a gradual reduction in the rule of law, blurring of the separation of powers, and eventually democratic voting is eliminated.
In societies that are supposed to be democratic, huge amounts of respect for human rights and the fundamental freedoms of every individual are encouraged and facilitated. In this type of society, the freely expressed will of the people is exercised, and they have a say in decisions while holding their leaders to account at every level.
In Jamaica, human rights, especially those of the poor and dispossessed, are frequently infringed, abridged, and abrogated, and decision-makers forcefully resist efforts by the people to hold them to any account.
While the structure of the Jamaican political landscape appears to be democratic, the nation has managed to elevate the political leaders to the position of undeclared monarchs, where the occupier of Jamaica House holds all power over the Cabinet, Parliament, police, and people.
With its authoritarian mindset, the government of Jamaica assumes full authority to arbitrarily enter into all sorts of international deals and schemes on behalf of the people, with only the chosen few having any intimate knowledge of the details of these arrangements.
It is one thing to sign away the rights of the people. It is a horse of a different colour to sign away the rights of the people without their knowledge or expressed will. But this is Jamaica; the people are too busy trying to pay their bills to pay any attention to their lives under government control.
Nerves were rattled and feathers ruffled last week when news emerged that Jamaica had made an international commitment to end all forms of corporal punishment. The commitment has been documented by End Corporal Punishment, a curious international initiative that tracks the global mandate to rid parents of their right to spank their own children in their homes as a disciplinary measure.
Understand this: the long-discredited World Health Organisation (WHO) and terribly misled UNICEF are part of the End Corporal Punishment advisory committee.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child defines corporal or physical punishment as any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. This mostly involves hitting children with the hand or with an implement.
So, from its longstanding committed relationship heading to marriage with global agencies, the Jamaican government now says it is going into a season of courtship with the Jamaican people. This is after a decade-long commitment to ban the disciplining of children in homes by spanking. This same government had been promoting this commitment on major political platforms, including Parliament, without explaining to the people that they were executing a stone-clad agreement.
It is no secret to any Jamaican living at home or abroad that our people would raise Cain over the exclusion of whooping from the list of disciplinary measures at home.
Since the Prime Minister and his wife were raised in Jamaica, they would have benefited from occasional spankings as children. As parents, they would know that whooping is an essential disciplinary measure and is neither corporal nor abusive punishment. So their early pronouncements about banning beatings did not mean much to the masses.
But, when Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, whose mouth seems to have a mind of its own, stated that his ministry was well-advanced in crafting laws to enforce a ban on beating, the people woke up and their ears popped open.
The breakthrough in communication between the government and the governed sent the population into such a rage that the minister of education, it would seem, bolted from Heroes Circle and hunkered down in the high seat at Jamaica House to address the uproar. A statement was quickly drafted and issued to the public by the education minister on an Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) letterhead.
The education minister, sanctioned by OPM, chucked the justice minister under the nearest bus and declared that no cabinet decision had been taken to stop parents from spanking their children, and consultations on the burning issue would immediately commence.
It is quite absurd that this government could back away from its conviction to ban beating, which it had been openly promoting for years, on account of a few hours of public pushback.
The people who, for the most part, have been tone-deaf to the government are now paying attention. The signal has been sent and received. It is time to speak up, even if it is for the right to whoop.
No rod must be spared; our children will not be spoiled and make their home in hell, as long as we can help it. The God-given right to lovingly apply the whip when necessary will not be infringed, abridged, or abrogated, regardless of what agreements and assurances the government might have given to its global partners.
The government needs to walk back every unholy agreement it has signed in secret. The nation was recently reminded by none other than the Energy and Information and Communications Technology Minister, Daryl Vaz, that nothing is secret in this country. What was signed and sealed in the dark must come to light. And if these deals go against God and His Righteousness, we will not abide by them.
