In his first speech as prime minister, Andrew Holness spoke of the need to abolish political garrisons. To stop the political garrisons four things have to be done. First is the removal of illegal guns. Second, the education system and the media should be utilised to change the mindset of dependency, which has its roots in slavery. Third, government contracts should be awarded to cooperatives and friendly societies. And fourth, there needs to be a system of proportional representation in Jamaica.

The dependency of slaves on their slave owners did not automatically stop after full emancipation in 1838, even with positive interventions such as the Baptist free villages, and the Agricultural Credit Banks. When universal adult suffrage and self-government came in 1944, the political parties capitalised on the dependency syndrome so that the voters would be dependent on their political representatives for government jobs.

The problem was compounded after the Second World War. Between 1948 and 1961, Jamaica's former colonial masters invited poor Jamaicans to migrate to England for employment. Thousands of Jamaicans took up the opportunity and left their children behind - often unattended.

I have always suspected that the vandals reported to have caused the Kendal train crash in 1957 were children of parents gone to England. These children-turned-young-adults provided the politicians with more people who became so dependent on MPs and caretakers that they would violently defend the MPs from political rivals.

While in the 1940s and 1950s violence was by means other than guns (stones and machetes) the illegal gun culture in Jamaica goes back to the days of the pirates in the late 17th century. Nine former Haitian presidents were exiled here after the Haitian revolution in 1804. During that revolution, many Haitian guerillas sought refuge along the east coast of Jamaica. I do not think that they came here without their guns.

On the day of the Morant Bay Rebellion, Paul Bogle and his followers surprised the guards and stole the guns at Church Corner, a mile to the west of the Morant Bay Courthouse, before heading to the courthouse. Were any of those guns ever recovered after Paul Bogle was hanged and more than 900 others killed by the British soldiers?

After the Second World War (1939-45), is it true that returning Jamaican soldiers sold army guns on the streets? As late as 1972, retired soldiers who went to war spoke about the soldiers who sold the army guns. But some politicians carried the gun culture to another level.

By 1966, barking guns caused the government to declare a state of emergency for West Kingston alone. There would be a state of emergency in 1976 and one as recently as last year. There was the Suppression of Crime Act. And curfews have been a regular occurrence for decades now.

In the Westminster model, the party that wins the most seats forms the government. So constituencies are packed with supporters of one or the other political party, usually by way of housing. To keep the support, government contracts are given out as a way of paying enforcers and keeping the voters contented.

Some beneficiaries of these contracts violently defend their MP by intimidating voters of other political parties (hence the use of enforcers with guns and the development of political garrisons), as they fear they would lose their jobs and face starvation. The mentality of dependency has to be addressed by education in schools and in the media.

The urgent need for jobs and the award of government contracts should be administered through cooperatives and friendly societies. It is important to involve youngsters who are on sports teams in the cooperatives and friendly societies, because it is the best way in Jamaica to teach cooperation.

But if the Westminster system is still in place, then some politicians will pack their constituencies with supporters and gunslinging enforcers again. So the only alternative is to introduce proportional representation where packing constituencies with voters do not win elections.

Of course, the proportional representation "medicine" will have its "side effects". There might be gridlock in Parliament quite often. Two parties might end up with the same percentage of votes, say, 49 per cent each, which will mean that Independents would have two per cent. The Independents will then be needed to give one or the other side a majority. But which is worse, that type of scenario or a continuation of political garrisons?

And we will still need to have area representation so the Senate should include representatives from each local government council. Does Andrew Holness have the will to do what it takes to end political garrisons? We will see. I pay tribute to the late John Maxwell who sometimes wrote that proportional representation is the best way to end political garrisons.