Let's team up against crime

For the past two decades, Jamaica has suffered the indignity of being classified among countries described as murder capitals.

It is not a label we wear proudly, nor one we can easily explain, considering that we are much less susceptible to the racial, ethnic and religious conflicts plaguing other developing countries.

We have never been threatened by political revolution, race riots, religious rivalry or even secession, although, at some points, we administered territories like the Turks and Caicos and the Cayman Islands.

Even our dreaded political rivalry, and the tribalism it has bred, are not the sustainable force behind these two decades of extremely high murder rates.

I agree that drug traffickers, gun smugglers and other criminals have taken refuge in political garrisons. But their primary concern is the shielded environment which these communities and their vulnerable residents offer for their illegal activities.

The violence of May 2010, triggered by the Christopher Coke extradition issue, was the closest we ever came to the level of violence we dread. It created the climate for the most significant showdown between the security forces and criminal elements in our history.

The security forces succeeded, but not without the full support of the Government and law-abiding citizens. This is something we must understand: without the full backing and support of the Government and the will of the people for decisive action, they could not have succeeded.

I raise the point because there are people giving the impression that the security forces' successes happened despite the Government. Only a sycophant would want us to believe that they could have succeeded without the full support of the prime minister and his Cabinet.

The PM's hands-off attitude, the Government's provision of increased mobility, equipment and technology and the passage of the crime bills, are only some of the inputs.

But the fact is that since then we have experienced 700 fewer murders and some 50 per cent of the 57 targeted criminal gangs have been dismantled. This has sent an important message to these gangs that nothing is business as usual.

I fully agree with Police Commissioner Owen Ellington, however, that the hard-nosed police initiative started in May 2010 cannot be sustained without vast improvements in social intervention into the affected communities.

A number of initiatives

What concerns me is the level of expectancy of Government's social intervention input. We have had a number of social intervention initiatives, most financed and promoted by the Government, some supported by bilaterals and multilaterals, and some by non-governmental organisations.

The social-security arm of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security has a number of programmes, including PATH. The Ministry of National Security has some, including the Citizens Security and Justice Programme. The Office of the Prime Minister has several, including e-Learning Project, the Constituency Development Fund and the Community Renewal Programme.

But, we need much greater input from the business sector, NGOs, service clubs, uniformed groups, the Church and Jamaicans in the diaspora, not necessarily in terms of cash injections, but also in providing jobs, professional advice, support and training, education, skills training and sports development. And we need to synchronise these activities, to be sure of what is happening and, as the PM said recently, we need to collaborate rather than collide with each other over them.

Next year, we celebrate 50 years of Independence. This is a golden opportunity to make that greater effort to consolidate the gains since last year. We must create a forum that can consolidate our efforts to remove the economic stranglehold of criminals on our inner-city communities for us to succeed.

Derrick Smith is MP for North West St Andrew and former minister of national security. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.