A Kleptocracy Indeed

For some years now, some perceptive Jamaicans had been warning that Jamaica could one day become an official kleptocracy, which is defined as a country ruled by or for the benefit of thieves and because the politicians themselves have been so convincing over the years when speaking about the activities of their opponents, it has been accepted by some of us that this situation is already on top of us.

But have we really stopped to look at the serious implications that this perception (reality?) is causing and making any effort to really deal with it rather than just treating it as a joke and entertaining veranda chatter, for as we all know, when the top of the stream is dirty, the bottom will inevitably become an unadulterated muck.

Two things happened recently brought this point home most forcefully and made me wonder for the first time in my life, to whether there is any turning back for Jamaica.

First was the shock of going to a company to pick up a custom -built shirt and after having signed for it with one person, having another person look in the bag then the security repeating the process at the door......3 people, 1 shirt!

That reminded me immediately how much on our resources have to be spent on preventing pilfering by staff and accomplices, something that I understand which had contributed to the crippling of many of  our free-zone producers many decades ago, forcing some out of business altogether and others to move to other countries where security costs would not stymie their competitiveness.

The second thing was receiving a email (joke) picture of a toilet where the toilet paper was locked up in a steel grilled encasement!

Yes we hear nightly stories about praedial larceny and the devastating consequences on peasant  farmers etc,  but I really did not realize the serious rationale behind the epidemic of stealing until being in discussion with friends  when a young man who was close by and who works in an electrical hardware establishment, chirped in "Den if di politician dem  a tief everyting a di top wi a di bottom nuh must tek something fi wisself to."

That really stopped me in my tracks, for to him, he was taking his cue from "Leadership by example" so to him it was an automatic justification for theft at the workplace.

How widespread is this view among young people and employees in general? Do we really understand what is happening to our country? How are we going to reverse the trend of thievery being the hallmark of the Jamaican workplace including the political arena ?

The latest talk of the town is the construction of a home by a young politician who was never in a particularly high paying profession before he entered politics a few years ago, but who is reputed to be now building an ostentatious mansion costing somewhere in the $300 million range.

It is certainly raising eyebrows in just about every sector of the society with many asking which of the three anti-corruption agencies that taxpayers are funding, will get off their haunches to investigate a matter such as this?

For unless corruption at the top is quickly addressed, Jamaica will only continue sliding rapidly down the slippery slope where everyone who looks to the leaders to set the stage for what is right and acceptable, will just accept the status quo and join the fray "...to get their share" at the workplace, private farms and everywhere else, justifying it on the grounds that this is what the leadership is doing.

Can you see Jamaica ever truly becoming productive and being able to compete with other countries that do not have the type of security expenses that we do?

Could it be that because we are so high up on the murder scale that we have not become perturbed by the creeping acceptance of theft  because we see it as less threatening, thus failing to recognize how our ability to survive in the wider world is being destroyed by its pervasiveness?