That seasoned FBI agent Wilfred Rattigan's application was turned down by the Police Service Commission (PSC) doesn't surprise me.

It emerged in the news this week that the man whose tumultuous rise up the ranks of the internal police force of the Government of the United States was rejected by the PSC after he tried to be interviewed for the post of the commissioner of police. The rejection has angered members of the Jamaican diaspora, who, generally speaking, believe that this country doesn't want anything much to do it with it except that they keep sending money home.

Remittances have over the past decade or so been among the largest sources of income for this pathetic economy - an estimated US$16 billion! Sure, send us your hard-earned money, but don't try to come here and help us in any other way. Help us feed our athletes, but don't tell us what to do.

poor relative

To me it's almost like a rich relative trying to save a poor relative who refuses to accept anything but money. It doesn't matter that the exposure and experience of that rich relative could contribute positively, the poor relative doesn't want any advice or any tangible help, except the money. "Show me the money," he says, "but nothing else."

That behaviour doesn't surprise me. It's safe to say that's the way a lot of Jamaicans here at home think. It's all about what you can do for me as in how much money you can give me, just don't give me any advice about how I can live my life better.

What does surprise me is a comment I read or heard somewhere that the minister of national security may have suggested that only under 'extraordinary' circumstances would Jamaica employ a commissioner of police from anywhere else but here in Jamaica.

I would certainly hope that that comment did not come from Minister Bunting, who is on record as saying that Jamaica is in need of divine intervention if it is to solve its crime problem. In other words, we need 'extraordinary' help to lick our crime problem.

so corrupt

Because if more than a thousand murders a year in a country of just under three million isn't extraordinary, I don't know what is. We are murdering each other faster than people were being killed in Iraq during the height of the war in Iraq. Many of our people are so corrupt, we even made Ripley's Believe It Or Not for having stolen an entire beach, a crime for which no one has yet been arrested. If that isn't extraordinary I don't know what is. I mean, where do you hide an entire beach so that no one can find it?

ridiculously low

And with our crime rate being as high as it is, the rate at which crimes are being solved, murders especially, is ridiculously low; maybe as low as five per cent. Now that is definitely extraordinary.

Look, Mr Rattigan may have had a colourful career in the FBI, but surely, his expertise could have been valuable to this country. We have tried what has become the conventional approach of fighting crime - that is, forming new police squads every other year - without any lasting success. Just maybe, Mr Rattigan would have brought a more aggressive, unconventional approach. But we will never know now, will we, since he never even got a chance to be interviewed.

daily basis

The fact is the PSC is well within its right to reject any candidate that it doesn't seem fit for what is a very important job. However, having said that, after 20,000 murders over the past decade and with police practices and standards being questioned on a daily basis and morale said to be low among the rank and file, maybe it was time for us to shake things up a bit. Maybe it's time for us to start thinking that if we are to get Jamaica to attract investment and to grow so as to cause our brightest minds to stay here instead of fleeing to other countries, we could step out of the box for a bit and see where that takes us.

Staying in the box has kept us trapped, and that is exactly where we don't want to be.

So, if it's not Mr Rattigan, then who? If we say we have the people here to do the job, certainly, over the past two decades we have not been selecting them to do that job. My question then is, why? Maybe the answer to that question would surprise me.

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levyl1@hotmail.com

PS: By the way, I already know who the next police commissioner will be and that doesn't surprise me.

Many of our people are so corrupt' we even made 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not' for having stolen an entire beach, a crime for which no one has yet been arrested.