Letter of the Day | Independent brokers needed for crime talks

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I have learnt from the Jamaican news media that the Government and the Opposition are to resume the Vale Royal Talks and that tackling the country’s crime problem is high on the agenda.

The country’s two main political parties bear the lion’s share of the responsibility for setting in motion the country’s current crime problem. To put it mildly, both parties have had far more than a blushing acquaintance with gunmen.

It is pathetic that after 60 years of Independence, neither party has had the decency to apologise to the nation for its part in sowing the seeds of criminality that Jamaicans are today reaping. If both parties were to do that, such would go a far way to cleanse and heal the soul of the nation.

I respectfully submit that the people who sowed the seeds of Jamaica’s present level of criminality cannot be the people to take us out. To this day, there is still a prevailing view that both parties continue to arm their supporters with illegal guns – while hypocritically decrying the high murder rate in Jamaica.

Let the Vale Royal Talks begin, but there needs to be honest brokers in the room along with the representatives of the Government and Opposition. Perhaps a coalition of leaders in the private sector, the churches and civic groups should also be in the room.

I recall that some years ago, Professor Errol Miller, the then chairman of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, said the country could have made more far-reaching electoral reforms and done so expeditiously if that process had not been stymied by the political representatives on the Electoral Commission.

When it comes to dealing with Jamaica’s crime problem, the country cannot afford for politicians to stymie the process. The two political parties that got us into this mess cannot be trusted to get us out. There are persons aligned to both parties who have a vested interest in promoting crime. Let there be some independent brokers in the room to champion Jamaica’s best interest and thereby save the nation from decisions that are birthed out of partisan depravity.

MARK L. DAWES