Letter of the Day | Constitution more sacred than lives?
Published:Sunday | January 6, 2019 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Jamaica has been suffering from the scourge of crime, in particular murder, for some time. The 1980 election left many Jamaicans horrified that we could have more than 800 persons murdered in one year (42/100,000). The murder rate went down significantly after that election but surged past that figure by 1997 with the collapse of the economy.
Since then, we have not looked back. All efforts to return sanity to the country yielded little or no result at all.
We experienced a considerable dip in murders in 2010 following the Tivoli incursion and the subsequent state of emergency. More than 200 fewer persons were murdered that year over the previous year (2009). There seems to be hope. The police, at the time, requested an extension of the state of emergency to deal decisively with crime and to ensure a continuation of the downward trend being experienced. This was not passed by Parliament. Now we are back where we started.
I wonder what would have happened if we had kept up that momentum. A second attempt at dealing with the problem led to a state of emergency in various sections of the country in 2018. This time, more lives were spared, with about 300 fewer murders over 2017.
It seems pretty clear that what has worked so far, at least as an immediate fix, is the state of emergency. In both instances referenced earlier, murders declined significantly. Of course, if we are to have a meaningful fix, we must include a comprehensive social programme mixed with a far-reaching values and parenting campaign. Additionally, we need to provide our people with economic opportunities.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the state of emergency works, and it should not be abandoned. If there are abuses, address them, but keep the momentum going.
Some argue that a protracted state of emergency is unconstitutional, but the framers of our Constitution were not faced with the crisis we find ourselves.
Lawmakers typically draft laws to deal with the prevailing issues in their time. If those conditions change, I think the sensible thing to do is to amend the law. It cannot be that we want to preserve the Constitution over preserving lives. It is certainly not more sacred. Given our present reality, I believe we need a state of emergency for no less than five years, but it must not be used as a sole remedy to the problem.
JEAN-ANN BARTLEY