Politicians and history accuracy

Dear editor,

I have heard presentations recently by two of our politicians which gave me reason to question.

The first was from remarks by the president of the Senate, Tom Tavares-finson, at the Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs’ consultations with church leaders on constitutional reform.

Senator Tavares-finson told the gathering that consultations could not be held with Jamaicans in 1962 because 70 per cent of the population, then 1.7 million, were illiterate. That meant that only 30 per cent of the population were literate. Education reform was implemented in Jamaica and other parts of the British West Indies in 1871. Then only 16 per cent of the Jamaican population could read and write. By 1892, elementary (primary) education for those 6-14 years old was free and available to all. Owen Jefferson in his 1972 book Post-war Economic Development of Jamaica states that the census of 1960 indicated that 84 per cent of the population age 10 and up could read and write. Even if this figure was inaccurate, given inadequacies in the education system, other sources show about 60 per cent of the population then being literate. A figure of 70 per cent illiterate would be extraordinarily high.

Senator Tarvares-finson also said that church leaders were primarily English people. Well, the records show that the Anglican Bishop of Jamaica in 1962 was the Right Rev Dr Percival William Gibson, a Jamaican. Bishop Selwin Uriah Hastings was then the Jamaican-born bishop of the Moravian Church. The leader of the Baptist Union was Jamaican, Rev Dr Joslyn A Leo-rhynie. In the Catholic Church, there were Jamaica leaders such as Father Samuel Carter, who would be ordained a bishop in 1966. Churches had Jamaican clergy, religious, and lay leaders.

The second was a Whatsapp video sent to me which shows the recording of Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna. She gives the impression that ordinary Jamaicans could not own homes until the establishment of the National Housing Trust in 1976. Well, ordinary working-class Jamaicans, including my grandfather and father, did own homes before 1976. There were building societies, friendly societies, credit unions, and housing companies, among others, which facilitated homeownership. Building societies and credit unions are over 100 years old. Mona Heights, Maverley and other housing schemes were built and sold before 1976. The NHT was intended to expand access to homeownership.

Hanna also gives her viewers the impression that Michael Manley introduced the Common Entrance Examinations. These were introduced in 1957 under the Administration led by Norman Manley.

In my view, it would have been most unusual for the postage stamp and flag of a British colony not to bear the Union Jack and the image of the monarch. I also do not agree that Jamaicans, pre-independence, were without dignity, pride and self-respect because they lived under a colonial regime.

Before issuing a video or making statements, a little fact-checking should be done.