Blood money run the nation – Proteje
There is a biting irony in Jamaica’s Minister of National Security and Peace (NSP), Dr Horace Chang, accusing human rights group Jamaicans for Justice of “living off of blood money”. This troubling accusation was made in the face of this civil society organization (CSO) and similar groups again raising concern about the increasing number of fatal police shootings and the need for accountability. Chang’s statement is but the latest in a trend of political leaders and bureaucrats attacking civil society groups that try to hold the government and their agents accountable for matters such as human rights abuses. As I discussed in last year’s article, the Police Commissioner also came out and attacked Jamaicans for Justice for demanding an explanation for the increase in police killings year-on-year since 2019. Jamaicans for Justice is again singled out in the Minister’s tirade.
Despite numerous calls from church, civil society, and political groups for a retraction of his statements made on several media platforms, the Minister has remained unrepentant. Jamaicans for Justice and other civil society groups have made it clear that they will not be intimidated by such statements, even as JFJ has opted to seek legal advice in the face of such defamatory claims.
This time around, it is even clearer that the attack on the CS watchdog has something to do with them receiving some funding from international partners–such as the European Union–to support their work. What is not said when these critiques are made is that these same international partners also provide support to the Jamaican Government for various projects, including the Citizen Security Plan (CSP), funded by the EU, to combat crime through a variety of socio-economic and institutional reform projects. In funding the government, international and local partners are also funding watchdog groups to hold the state accountable. (Paradoxically, among JFJ’s partners is the Social Development Commission, the nation’s primary community development agency, which suggests that the government does find partnership with this CSO worthwhile.) Such attacks threaten to undermine a significant partner, working for human rights and improved governance. Nonetheless, one wonders if there is implicit competition at play, with the government’s continued critique aimed at discrediting a rival for scarce funds? Or is there a larger issue that needs airing?
The Real Blood Money
About ten years ago, Jamaican Reggae revival artiste and songwriter Proteje (née Oje Ken Ollivierre) dropped a hard-hitting track called “Blood Money” on his Grammy-nominated Matter of Time album (2018). In that track, Proteje delivers a biting criticism of systemic and systematic corruption, political dishonesty, and social injustice in Jamaica. In 2024, Jamaica ranked 73 out of 180 on the Transparency International global rankings for corruption. This was a fall of four places, despite the score remaining the same at 44. This indicates, as Proteje charges in the chorus of “Blood Money”, that Jamaica has a serious corruption problem:
Police cancel [crime fighting] operation
‘Cause nuh real bad man nah go [police] station (Huh)
Now if you check the situation (Ay)
A blood money run the nation
Come take a look inna Jamaica
Injustice in the place now
If what you see no really faze you (Ay)
Then you a the problem that we face too (Proteje, Blood Money, 2018)
Proteje calls out the police and politicians for being involved in schemes of bribery and corruption, turning a blind eye to matters such as illegal drugs and killings. People of influence are enriched from their involvement in crime but will never be held accountable because of the “blood money” paid to political and security agents. More importantly, Proteje indicts the Jamaican system of inequality built on class, wealth, and status. Citizens are called upon to reject apathy in the face of such overwhelming injustice. Members of civil society and other human rights groups take up a role in the service of building a society that truly values and protects the rights of all citizens. This society cannot be built if political corruption is rife. Indeed, as Pope Francis described it, corruption is a form of blackmail:
Corruption is the worm, the gangrene of the people. For example, no politician can work and carry out a function, if they are being blackmailed by methods of corruption: “Give me this, give me this power, give it to me or else I will not do this and that for you”. This happens in all populations around the world, and if a society wishes to maintain its dignity, it must banish such blackmail.
Here, Pope Francis not only highlights the debilitating effect of corruption, but he also acknowledges its pervasiveness.
The Role of Civil Society Groups
The response of the NSP Minister, Police Commissioner, and others, while potentially serving to silence advocacy or suborning violence against advocates, indicates a fundamental lack of wisdom regarding civil society engagement. CSOs are an important and legitimate part of society, particularly those that function as human rights or public interest watchdogs. Harvard Law School has explicitly identified such watchdog groups as critical for monitoring the activities of government, industry, the courts and other organizations within society. They alert the public or take the lead in legal action when the activities of the organizations they monitor appear to be acting against the public interest.
The Catholic social teaching tradition, likewise, has recognized the legitimate work of civil society, mediating institutions or the third sector in democratic societies. Such mediating institutions have a role in protecting human dignity from state and market overreach. The Antilles Episcopal Conference continually lauds the work of civil society in the Caribbean region, especially in regard to the fight against crime and violence, and political and social instability. In particular, they recognize the value of a multi-sectoral response to crime that requires the involvement of all of civil society.
How can it not be against the public interest for the security forces to be killing increasing numbers of Jamaican citizens and claiming success in reducing murders generally? JFJ has long monitored police killings and provided legal services for hundreds of Jamaicans whose human rights are violated by agents of the state, among other services. Their work indicts those involved in earning “real blood money” and spilling the blood of Jamaican citizens without accountability.