EDITORIAL - Hold special parliamentary sessions on gangs

IF ANYONE ever doubted it, last week's uprising by Christopher Coke's militia in west Kingston not only underlined the dangers posed to communities by criminal gangs but the threat they represent to the Jamaican state.

In others words, violent criminal gangs of the type that sought to protect the reputed drug lord is a feature of not only Tivoli Gardens. They exist in many communities across Jamaica, particularly in decayed urban communities that, in the context of this country's dysfunctional political culture, are characterised as garrison.

Indeed, by the estimate of the national security ministry, there are perhaps 200 organised gangs in Jamaica with around 4,000 members. That, in a population of 2.8 million, is a small number of people who seriously disrupt social and economic life and hold the country to ransom.

Clearly, these gangs have to be broken and the culture of criminality they represent uprooted. This, despite the relatively small number of formal gang members, is a tough job that will require political will and sincere action across the political divide.

The fact is, many of Jamaica's leading politicians, in both parties, including several in the Cabinet, represent constituencies with gangs. Politicians may not condone these gangs - which is usually the claim - but often benefit politically from their actions. Gangs, historically, rustle votes for the party/candidate to which they are aligned and between elections keep 'order' so as to prevent 'defections'.

The degrading of Coke's command structure in Tivoli Gardens presents an opportunity for a retreat from this culture that so mars Jamaica's democracy. But for this to happen politicians and political leadership have to be honest about the environment within which they operate and be ready to break with the past.

We offer a suggestion for opening an honest dialogue to buttress other reform initiatives. Parliament, we feel, should set aside a special session, over several days, to allow MPs who operate in garrison communities and are buffeted by gangs to make statements about their problems and to outline solutions, including proposals for bringing these communities back under state control. Community members and other interested parties might even be allowed to make statements on the issue from the Bar of the House.

We would expect, based on the number of unofficially declared 'garrison' constituencies, at least 13 interventions by MPs to start this dialogue of reconciliation and national reclamation.

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