Dear Editor,

The greatest ill of the Jamaican society is political expedience influenced by the social class factor. Daily, the nation indulges in faking despair over what it perceives to be greater ills like youth indiscipline, tax evasion and juror shortage.

The prescription of a compulsory military service draft, for the workforce or college-bound secondary school leavers, has repeatedly been stoutly rejected by national leaders. The singular reason for this is the belief that youth indiscipline is regarded as being a lower class, inner-city issue. Therefore, the upper classes view with consternation any national policy of a mandatory military draft, even into Jamaica’s battle-rusty army, to fix it, that would extend to scions of the gentry.

Even the fact that this is the norm in developed countries whose armies are active on numerous global battle fronts, is no persuasion. The General Consumption Tax which has the greatest capacity to make taxation equitable, using the right technology to enforce timely and full compliance, is administered, instead, as a handicap tax. Big businesses, which are registered to collect the tax, take the opportunity afforded them by their cosy relationship with the government to convert the tax into their working capital, remitting payments at their convenience. So there is this third dimension to business financing not taught in school — tax conversion (investment equity and loans being others). While also practising routine tax avoidance (imagine even current government ministers setting up offshore financial houses to cut local tax liabilities), these big businesses, euphemistically esteemed as “pillars of economic development”, demand other tax waivers.

They advance the quid pro quo of job creation and security which is patent extortion. The national voters’ list, with its sundry flaws, is relied on for Supreme Court jury duty rosters. Possibly half of the Jamaican nationals eligible for enumeration avoid the process of being added to the voters list. It is not mandatory, and avoidance is used to register their rejection of the tribal politics which has diminished the substance of national independence and sovereignty. However, there are, obviously, other more reliable sources of jurors, including the registers of tertiary institutions, the civil service establishment and even the statutory tax roll. In light of the foregoing, is there really any basis for faking despair as a country? It must be possible for the media to find other more newsworthy matters in national life to focus attention on without compromising viability.

Randy Torres

rantores@yahoo.com