PATRON-CLIENT RELATIONS ABOUND
I remember a friend describing in horror the moment when she discovered that almost all the secretarial and clerical staff at her office came from the same church and even the same neighbourhood, because the administrative officer simply instructed her church sistren and brethren, often neighbours, to apply for the relevant posts as soon as they opened up.
That explained why the officer in question often had the mien and bearing of an influence-broker or ‘community leader’. She was!
Patron-client relations and clientelism abound in Jamaica. Oh, there are summer jobs in the department? Let’s fill them with the sons and daughters of department employees. This attitude of casual nepotism is so widespread that I’m sure it’s not viewed as being remotely corrupt. This probably explains why as soon as a person gains political office, they start awarding contracts to friends and relatives. A nuh nuttn!
Overweening loyalty to one’s nearest and dearest underlies the predisposition to corrupt attitudes.
One of the most pernicious is the idea that because you personally know someone they could never be guilty of what they’re accused of, even when the evidence is overwhelming.
This leads to the continued victimisation of victims as seen in the case of Rupert Clarke, the Moravian minister charged with having sex with a minor. Irate church members were so abusive to the mother of his alleged victim that she was forced to consider relocating her family. In their minds, it was the mother who had committed a crime by daring to prosecute the ‘poor, innocent pastor’!
When attitudes such as this persist, how can we tackle corruption, grand, retail or otherwise?