THE flare-up of political violence and the resuscitation of political hostilities have again reminded many of us just what is wrong with our political culture, and how culpable the two main political parties have been in our sordid political history.

Just when support was increasing for the PNP and the JLP and when the third parties, most painfully the NDM, have disappeared from the political radar, this ugly reality of political divisiveness and tribalism has been thrust in our face.

Bruce Golding has returned to one of the traditional tribes at an inopportune time, some might say, for "dutty politics" has certainly not been sanitised. The continued violence can only reduce the support potential voters might have given to his abandonment of the third party option and his return to the JLP.

And for the many people of goodwill whom the polls indicate will be throwing their support behind the PNP, the violence might lead them to ask whether they are not reluctant participants in a corrupt political system, electing people with blood on their hands.

The political violence, despite the previously expressed hope of this being "the most peaceful election ever", should jolt us to squarely face the reality of our rotten political system of victimisation and oppression, which desperately needs to change.

We cannot begin to deal with corruption and political violence in this country until we deal with victimisation and the fight for scarce benefits and spoils.

As long as we have a political culture in which one set of people - from various classes - will emerge victors and the other the vanquished with their prospects for a good life squashed after an election, we will have violence and corruption.

Corruption is much deeper than is commonly envisaged.

When an official of a statutory agency has to promote incompetent people over professionals because those persons have political connections, and the public official wants a renewal of her own contract, that is corruption.

When an official in the civil service has to leak confidential information to the Opposition party to curry favour because he suspects that party might form the next Government and he wants to keep his position, that is corruption.

When a journalist engages in self-censorship and writes contrary to his own conscience just to please a political party which might victimise him if he speaks his mind, that is corruption.

We frequently focus all our attention on the man in the inner city who uses his big gun and his donmanship to protect his turf. He kills opponents not because he is stupid, as some middle class people say frequently. It is not "madness" and "senselessness" which cause "black people fi kill off dem one another".

It is eminently sensible. They are not doing the killing out of any sense of party loyalty.

Middle-class people frequently utter the absolute nonsensical comment that these "poor black, ignorant people" are fighting against one another, while the PNP and JLP politicians are drinking liquor in the Parliamentary lounge and are visiting each other's homes and social functions.

These moneyed politicians from both sides can afford the luxury of civility and conviviality because their bread is buttered and whoever is out of power, they are not going to starve.

They might have less money and status. But they will not starve. The man in the ghetto knows - he is no fool - he knows that he could well starve and his mother and baby mothers might drop dead for want of medical care because if his party does not win he won't even have supper for dog to nyam.

The fellows who are firing guns for the politicians are not just doing it for the short- term contract. They are doing it in their own long-term self-interest. They are securing their future.

They have no education, class connections or social pedigree to help them to secure a future for themselves and their families - which are usually big. They have to fight fi defend dem food. It is our corrupt political system which forces this on them.

While I will not take away individual responsibility and hence culpability from them, I say that these fellows are largely victims of an unjust, oppressive political system which benefits the politicians and not the masses.

DEEPENING DEMOCRACY

Changing political parties without changing this system and culture is achieving absolutely nothing. Democracy is more than what we do for five seconds every five years. To deepen democracy we have to create a political climate and culture in which people are free from fear.

On Wednesday night there should be no great weeping and gnashing of teeth across Jamaica because one party has lost. Yes, there will be disappointment and some sadness that the party you genuinely believe would do the best job was not elected.

Yes, you will feel some anger that the party you don't want to be Government will be in power. But after the initial disappointment and some embarrassment to face friends, you should be able to go back to your normal life and activities for it should not affect anything.

This is not the reality in Jamaica today. Thousands of people know and take for granted that that if their party loses on Wednesday it will be five years of trial and tribulation.

Some will sit back and take it meekly. Others will fight for their survival. Uptown people need to understand these things. And some do, for there are professionals, business men and women and contractors whose livelihoods will be affected by what happens on Wednesday.

You cannot have a truly free society where this level of victimisation, fear and tribalism exist. Politics is too intrusive in Jamaica.

I, fortunately, have been privileged in that I have worked amicably with the two major political parties and enjoy the confidence of the two political leaders. None of them counts me as a supporter in the sense they would count others as supporters, and I would be offended if they did.

I am my own man and have my own philosophical principles. I converge with both of them at certain points, depending on where they stand in relation to my carefully constructed set of principles, worked out with intellectual rigour.

I am no prostitute. The fact that I have a contract with the Government does not give any politician the right to tell me what to write. If that is ever made a condition, then that's a contract not worth having.

If Edward Seaga's JLP becomes the Government after Wednesday and there is any hint that I will have to sell out my principles and ideological positions to earn any money from the Government, then the JLP Government can keep its contract. I am not for sale.

But, you see, I can afford to say this. I have an established career and don't have to depend on Government for anything. I have options in a media market expanded by the present PNP Government. That allows me to tell both the PNP and the JLP to go to hell.

PROFESSIONALISM

But understand this: It is my professional competence and skill which give me a security and which strengthens my freedom. This freedom that I exercise is not something in isolation. I must be honest.

Perhaps if I were a poor ghetto boy who grew up in one of the two parties' garrison constituencies, with eight children and eight baby mothers to support, I would not value freedom of expression and independence so highly.

What is the value of freedom, many would say, when you won't be around for long to enjoy it because you have starved to death?

We must all work for a political system and a political culture in which everyone can have the freedom and effrontery that I have vis-a-vis the PNP and the JLP.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that my professional interests would be protected whoever emerges the winner on Wednesday night. Our struggle should be to ensure that every Jamaican, irrespective of class or educational qualifications, should have the very same assurance.

Until we achieve that, our democracy is deformed and whoever emerges the winner on Wednesday night, Jamaican "democracy" and the Jamaican people will lose.

Yet, I believe that there is a genuine determination on the part of our political leaders to deal with the nastiness of our political culture. How strong is their determination and whether it ebbs and flows is another matter.

ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY

But I believe that civil society has pushed them far and that they are being carried, whether they want to or not, by a very strong current. We must keep up the pressure.

The role of civil society will be even more critical after Wednesday night. If the PNP wins, then the party will have to fight really hard to resist arrogance. If the JLP wins, we will have to restrain them from settling scores built up over the last 13 years. For the media and civil society, our campaign will not end this week. It will have to be intensified.

P.J. Patterson told supporters at a political rally in Maverly a few days ago that his major task after the election is to unify the country. Seaga has written most eloquently of that commitment in his manifesto.

It is a shame on all of us as a society and an indication of our sickening tribalism that, after 40 years of significant achievements and a demonstration of remarkable commitment to the Jamaican people, that Edward Seaga had to devote a whole speech last Sunday night to defend his Jamaicaness. It is an indictment on all of us, especially in the media.

For no politician has done more to promote Jamaican culture and the richness of the Jamaican historical heritage than Edward Seaga. Blackness is not just about pigmentation. Seaga and Michael Manley have betrayed their class and ethnic group to promote the Jamaican masses. There is a lot that Eddie Seaga needs to learn from P.J. Patterson and I rather suspect that after the elections - some time after - he might reflect on that.

But we have to mature to the point where we realise that we can genuinely and deeply disagree with someone without demonising him. No one needs to convince me that Eddie Seaga has done a lot to damage himself.

A PNP friend of mine put it well to me this week: "Seaga has made too many enemies."

He has major leadership weaknesses. But that is no excuse to paint him as a demon who means this country no good. Nor does it help the JLP to go to the gutter to raise the issue that Jamaicans are most visceral about - one's sexuality - to seek to gain political advantage over P.J. Patterson.

As a PNP friend of mine reminded me when I was complaining about the demonisation of Seaga, raising the issue of sexuality is the worst form of demonisation in Jamaica - more politically deadly than race.

We must move beyond that. In the last few days before the election, expect the nastier, uglier side of politics to become more prominent.

Let us of goodwill and reason use the season to recommit ourselves to fundamentally changing this political culture.