Sunday 9 October 2022

Land Capturing Cannot be a Part of a Modern Society!


PM Andrew Holness

I have been critical of the Prime Minister in the past but this time the action of his government in dealing with the illegal buildings in St. Catherine  is dead on when it comes to the action taken in demolishing the houses built. I must commend the role played by MP Fitz Jackson. His role it seems to me was to see if there was any injustice and not just to
MP Fitz Jackson

object for objection sake to increase his political stocks. I noticed a level improved maturity when both he and the Prime Minister was on hand to address the situation.

Lawlessness is not a PNP nor a JLP thing, but a problem for us all as a developing nation. There are some very dumb persons who have been putting up posts on social media just to get likes and who seem to be supporting the capturing of lands. Some went on to say that the Prime Minister talked about criminals selling land and there were no criminals involved. Well anyone who sell lands that they are unauthorized to sell is a criminal.

I have spent many years on radio encouraging person not to capture lands and explaining the dangers of doing so. We need to know if those who were bawling how they lost money, had they submitted building plans to the parish council? Did the parish council approve these plans? Many persons on social media love to use the sympathy argument to stir up discontent in the country. One cannot do something which is illegal and claim that it is because they are poor that's why they did it. I am glad that Mr. Fitz Jackson did not follow another politician who seems to love to blow hot air from the wrong place.

Government has to come up with a plan to facilitate the legal ownership of land and houses. The NHT should look at the possibility of renting homes to persons also. We cannot solve the housing problem by engaging in lawless practices. We have places like Russia, Wareika Hills, Mona Commons, Flanker as examples of unplanned settlements. There are certain social challenges which follow when you have unplanned settlements. 

Mr. Prime Minister you need to continue to be firm with indiscipline and lawlessness in the country. Those who are creating the impression that the PM back peddled by meeting with the people are being ridiculous and are not familiar with smart politics. The government did something which upset members of the community. Nothing is wrong with the PM meeting the people and explaining to them why action was taken. It was great for Mr. Jackson to have gone there also because Mr. Jackson's party could form the next government and be shackled with the same problem. 

The law encourages the capturing of lands by allowing adverse position if one capture's a citizens land and lives on it for twelve years but yet for government or crown lands it is sixty years before they can apply to the courts for adverse possession. Morale seems to be it's fine to capture a citizens land but do not capture crown lands.

WHAT A TING!

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Indeed this is the true Laws of the Land. The public need to be aware

Anonymous said...

You are correct Vernon but the PM is a hypocrite on the topic of squatting. When Karl Sakura interfered with a legal eviction operation of squatters on a gentleman's property on Red Hills Rd near Red Hills Blvd.about 3yrs ago Andrew Holness said nothing. So this man is prevented from developing his own property because Sakura thinks it more important to secure votes.

Anonymous said...

squatting must end now..its 2022

Anonymous said...

That is a positive first move by the PM. Next, he needs to porve that this wasn't done under the influence of a special interest and undertake similar exercises in all parishes / towns and on all sidewalks in Jamaica

Anonymous said...

If the PM is a hypocrite what do you say about the rest of us who sit and say nothing.

Anonymous said...

I am not going to condone squatting but since the government allow the people to occupy the land for such a long time and they were able to invest so much money towards building their houses instead of bulldozing the houses why not give them an opportunity to pay for the land with a penalty attached what was done was unconscionable what think this government or any future government be JLP or PNP should do moving on is as soon as it sees any sign of squatting on any land put a stop to it immediately don't wait until it mushroom out of control and then you resort to demolition this method will only leads to hatred crime and violence and on a final note the PM should have started the demolition on the side that is considered to be jlp supporters before or the same time with this side which identified themselves as pnp supporters .Flash back 1983 then Minister Bruce Golden ordered and destroyed acres of developed pumpkins planted by now Minister Warmington and I think that some of the unaccepted attitude displayed by Mr Warmington stems from that unacceptable action carried out then by Mr Golden

Micspen said...

"Squatting cannot be a part of modern Day Jamaica"

The statement by the Prime Minister statement would have been more appropriately worded that way.
The reason being is that this phenomena really took root after the 1838 "emancipation" period when all/most slaves ended up squatting. Today our own PIOJ notes that one third of Jamaica's population,appr 1,000,000 is squatting, these are mostly black people accounting for no more than 5% of the Jamaican economy.Their ancestral roots can be traced to those slaves forced into squatting,an injustice perpetuated to this day by so called Independent Jamaica and their political leaders that now wants republican status to cement the perpetuation of this soon to be 200 year old injustice symbolized by the socioeconomic marginalization,
brutalization,broken families, illiteracy,criminality,
prison etc.
Stuck in my memory is an utterance by ex Commissioner Hardley Lewin "Squatter Communities are like Factories for Criminals".A modern uncivilized Jamaica cannot cannot dream to be a civilized country with squatting as a major feature breeding discontent.
Let us embrace the United Nations Charter which states "every human being has a right to a liveable Space".
Argument begins.

Anonymous said...

Why was not an undercover operation set up to find and bring to book this man/men who have been selling lands they do not own, issuing receipts and purporting to be representing SCJ? Strange that everyone seems to know that criminals have been sharing up and selling off lands but no effort made to lock that criminal away - leaving him to do the same or worst elsewhere. How will we eradicate crime when we only issue band aids?

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