Crime, symptoms, politicians

Political management, as practised here, continues to shoot itself in the foot by dealing with symptoms (signs of something deeper) rather than causes.

Firstly, there is a five-year term for government to get things quickly done to impress the raised expectations of voters. But by treating symptoms rather than causes, the substantive problems of crime and education, for example, will remain, only to arise again and be met with superficial, symptomatic treatments.

Secondly, the management and solutions to the “causes” of such complex problems require careful analysis, planning, sustainable long-term treatment with continued evaluation – a period of five-ten years at least. It requires, as economist Lloyd Best insisted, “hard wuk.” This may not obtain 100 per cent results but it will help put a manageable handle on the problem for continued, credible improvements.

Last week, Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland, with nothing much to solve the problem, begged Laventille youths to “put down their guns” – another “umpteenth-time” plea, assuming the gun-toting youths heard him in the first place.

At the same time, Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales, appearing somewhat prepared for the national security position, pleaded with youths to “stay away from crime.” You think they heard Gonzales?

Rather than seeking to tackle the problem at its roots by setting down a seven- or ten-year rolling plan, we hear well-meaning symptomatic declarations such as: National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds really tried “his best.”

Maybe, if not Gonzales, “action-man” Faris Al-Rawi could put up the fight.

Things are unfortunately moving from bad to worse. The population has never been so frightened about crime, even during the 1990 attempted coup.

Putting a policeman at schools is a symptomatic gesture which ignores the real problem. It is this school today, but it will be another and another. What about Hazel Manning’s school safety officers? How many police officers will eventually be used in this way, rather than chasing “home invasion” bandits and murderers?

Ok, so we understand the bullets flying over the Laventille school were about 200 feet away and hence the children were “not really in danger.” Is that so? Hiding under desks with a teacher’s consolation is commendable, but symptomatic of a bigger problem.

That is, who did the shooting, why, and how regular is it? And – equally difficult – will they be caught? That Morvant-Laventille challenge requires long-term criminological and socio-economic treatment. Hampers, questionable work contracts and celebrating exceptional success are merely symptomatic.

If and when a “five-year” government feels it cannot tackle the “causes” within five years, then it should responsibly lay out the groundwork and operational platform for a longer period whether it wins the next election or not. And the public will judge if a new government fails to continue the rolling plan or tries to reinvent the wheel – a well-known practice here.

The attempt here is to help explain why we remain so deeply stuck with the same problems government after government.

Over the years, it is quite obvious that our political management relies more on public-relations-driven quickie, overnight solutions so as to satisfy the expediencies of the next election, while the population finds the problem expensively appearing again and again.

Particular examples are found in crime and delinquency, education, poverty, policing, offender recidivism, community reconstruction, etc. Since such complex problems did not happen overnight, they cannot be cured overnight. So government should work towards setting incremental benchmarks towards continued improvements.

Losing the challenge of finding “causes,” politicians eventually appear well-intentioned but helpless and embarrassed. Their quickie solutions keep them spinning top in mud as they remain more absorbed with the next election than the next generation. Further, our crime, poverty, education and opportunity problems are psychologically and politically tied up with the low level of public morality.

One recurring symptom is the many government agencies causing severe public distress, forcing poor citizens to go to court for help. Such public lawlessness has helped reduce this society to a criminogenic state of anomie – a breakdown of rules and disrespect for the law. Mr Gonzales, Mr Scotland and Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly (Education Minister), how must youths feel when time and time again they see so many government agencies appearing with corrupt expenditures and long-outstanding unaudited reports before our joint select committees?

These too are symptoms of unattended causes. How many politicians have the moral authority to preach to our youths?