FORCES ON THE GROUND FAVOURABLE FOR CHANGE - LEADING ACADEMICS
Leading academic in the field of government, Dr Brian Meeks, says that the forces on the ground for change in Jamaica are positive. He was giving his views at the inaugural Kingston 360 lecture in Kingston on August 20. The lectures are sponsored by the Mona School of Business and the Spanish Court Hotel.
Dr Meeks, who is the Professor of Social and Political Change at the University of the West Indies (UWI) said, “I think that there are real social forces on the ground favourable for a renewal of Jamaica’s civil society, the State and the birth of moral culture.”
The professor went on to say that he and fellow political scientists have the duty to “identify who and where they are and to assist the process of giving them voice in the cacophony of despair, extremism and nihilism that characterises the present moment.”
Professor Meeks’ views come three days after his colleague, Professor of Government and Politics, Trevor Munroe, told the Public Relations Society of Jamaica that there was tangible progress being made in the fight against corruption. Both Professors are associated with the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies.
Guest Speaker at the 360 Lecture, Professor of Political Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Dr Obika Gray, added that the country was ready to shake off spontaneous order which occurs naturally in Caribbean societies. He described this as a form of co-operation where people organise themselves on the basis of shared interests and common understanding without formal hierarchy or leadership.
Professor Gray said, “What we are doing today is to try to put back in place those formal rules, those regulations those codes of conduct so that the modern bureaucratic and rational State be respected and not give way to the rituals and values of spontaneous order.”
He went on to prescribe short and long term objectives towards building a society that respected modern bureaucratic rules.
“What we need is a double move; we have to help police catch the criminals, and we have to stabilize the political system and work with the Parliamentarians and the people that we have. But the other part of that double move is that …we have to not fix power, we need to dismantle it; that is the long run project,” Professor Gray said.
The Kingston360 lecture series will be held quarterly and feature topical issues.
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