Chambers of horror
published:
Sunday | July 6, 2008
Orville Taylor
It was one of the worst days in recent history as chairman of the beleaguered Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), Douglas 'Dougie' Chambers, was brutally slain by a hail of high-powered bullets.
Dougie, the younger brother of Freddie, whom I nicknamed 'Simian,' was in the middle of a meeting with the University and Allied Workers' Union (UAWU) two Fridays ago when he went for a cigarette break, outside of the protected complex of the Spanish Town depot. This fact had an awful impact on my afternoon because my last face-to-face recollection of him was being in the presence of a number of fellow St George's College alumni. In a fashion reminiscent of my days as their prefect, they were warned, "Smoking will kill you."
Yet, his murder had nothing to do with smoking or physical lifestyle, as interestingly and ironically, his colleague and counterpart chairman of Montego Bay Metro Ltd (MBM) was also shot several times while he was doing the healthy opposite - jogging. Thankfully, he survived.
No one, except those who wish to make Chambers a martyr or who have a stake in a particular version of the motive, 'knows' why he was murdered. It is not even sure whether it is an attack on the State. We don't know if the murder of a media personality last year was an attack on press freedom. The truth is that it was a dastardly and heinous crime, which, like all the others this year, must be investigated to the fullest by the police.
not an isolated incident
Chambers' murder is not an isolated incident and can be seen in a larger context. Many are drawing parallels with the late 1970s slaughter of permanent secretary in the Ministry of Works, Ted O'Gilvie. It was suggested that he had put his foot down on the bleeding of public funds on the McGregor Gully project, controlled by thugs affiliated to the People's National Party. However, lest ignorance be our guide, it must be known that the then Public Works Department (PWD) in the ministry, had a number of 'strange' projects, across political lines, including the Special Employment Programme and an ongoing Directorate of Electrical and Mechanical Services (DEMS) in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) stronghold of Tivoli Gardens.
DEMS, like the rest of the ministry, had its fair share of questions in the 1970s and 1980s. Regularly and often, the ministry's personnel division was confronted with long-serving employees, who had no employment record, despite having worked for more than a decade. Interestingly, Prime Minister Bruce 'Driver' Golding, took on the mantle of that ministry in 1980 and it is unknown if the pattern stopped at all. However, from that experience, he must be fully aware of the dynamics and ramifications of taming government entities that leak public revenue.
Nevertheless, it is disingenuous to isolate Chamber's murder and politicise it because it is expedient to some pundits. The public seems to have forgotten that Cable and Wireless Human Resources Vice-President Anthony Finnegan was killed in his front yard in the 1990s, by a gunman who casually finished the box of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) that Finnegan had been taking inside.
Speaking of KFC, there was also a late 1990s murder of an Asian expatriate called Ranil, an accountant like Chambers. He was allegedly cleaning up financial irregularities at KFC and was believed to have been ordered executed by persons likely to have been affected by his discoveries. By the way, it is doubted that the hit was contracted by workers at the lower levels, represented by an aggressive trade union.
Nonetheless, there are plausible arguments that Dougie was killed because he was stamping out corruption. Corruption and inefficiency are very closely related and often go hand in hand. As chairman, he was responsible for contracts for services and the purchasing of inputs necessary for the JUTC's operations. He even reportedly faced down JLP powerbrokers who wanted to dictate to him. Multimillions were going down the drain and the wage bill was only one part of it.
Unionised workers
Unionised workers are actually much easier to control because they generally take instructions from their leaders. No union leader in his right mind would find it in his interest to have any harm visited on any employer negotiator.
Indeed, during my 28 years of industrial relations experience in this violent country, union officers have constantly reiterated to workers that no harm should come to disrespectful and difficult employer representatives. Unionists such as legislators, Dwight Nelson, Ruddy Spencer, Pearnel Charles and Navel Clarke will attest to that.
However, it cannot be discounted that a few disgruntled persons, worker or otherwise, may be motivated to kill. Persons who act on behalf of employers are on the 'hate line'. They become the face to hate because the pursuit of profit always means acting against workers' interests. Skilful human resources practitioners learn to give bad medicine with sugar and therefore, workers are often fed the once-popular laxative Brooklax, disguised as chocolate bars.
Poor interpersonal skills can get one killed on the hate line and the reverse is true. Human resources officers have been assaulted, including one at the same PWD, by workers. On many occasions as an employee in its personnel division, it was my people skills that prevented my 120-pound frame from being beaten like West Indian cricketers.
Dougie meant well, but only hypocrites would say that he knew how to deal with people. As we speak, there are employers and their representatives who know that they constantly show workers infra-human treatment. Let's break the cycle.
My deepest sympathies to his family whose grief will continue long after the news is stale.
Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona. Feedback may be sent to orville.taylor@uwimon.edu.jm or columns@gleanerjm.com.
