Senator Peter Bunting, the opposition spokesperson on national security,  is accusing the Government of incompetence for the significant delay in tabling the Enhanced Security Measures Act, aimed at addressing the country's serious crime issues. The legislation, promised in 2019, remains untabled in Parliament three years later. The Opposition Leader, Mark Golding, also stresses crime as the nation's primary concern in his Independence message. The Enhanced Security Measures Act received bipartisan support during National Consensus on Crime talks, but there is no update from the Government on its progress.

Bunting accuses Gov’t of incompetence on crime

7 Aug 2023

SENATOR PETER Bunting, Opposition spokesman on national security, is arguing that the prolonged delay by the Government in tabling a critical piece of legislation in Parliament to tackle the country’s serious crime problem was indicative of an administration that was displaying “heights of incompetence”.

Governor General Sir Patrick Allen, in his 2019 Throne Speech detailing the plans and programmes of the Government for the then 20192020 financial year, stated that the Enhanced Security Measures Act would be developed and tabled during that parliamentary year.

Three legislative years later, the Enhanced Security Measures Act has not been tabled in Parliament.

In April 2022, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that the Enhanced Security Measures Act would be tabled in Parliament “shortly”.

“It’s either the heights of incompetence, or the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration has invested so much PR (public relations) behind SOEs (states of emergency) that they no longer care about the Enhanced Security Measures Bill,” Bunting said in a recent Gleaner interview.

JA’S #1 PROBLEM

At the same time, Opposition Leader Mark Golding, in his Independence message, highlighted concerns about crime as it remains the country’s number-one problem.

“Violent crime continues to plague our communities, causing pain and suffering to many Jamaicans. We lose valuable human resources every day that lives are taken by violence,” he said in his message to the country.

The Enhanced Security legislation is said to have received bipartisan support coming out of the National Consensus on Crime talks which involve several stakeholders including church, business, union and civil society.

When the National Security Council, which is chaired by the prime minister, considered the Enhanced Security Measures legislation in 2019, it was reported that the proposed statute will include, among other things, a provision that will allow law enforcement to carry out searches and detentions and identify people designated with responsibility for use of such powers.

Attempts to reach Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang for an update on the proposed Enhanced Security Measures law were unsuccessful as his phone rang without an answer.

The latest crime statistics, released by the police in late July, revealed that, for the period January 1 to July 29, 2023, the country recorded 786 murders, an 11.8 per cent reduction when compared with the similar period for 2022.

However, for the first quarter of the year, the reduction in murders was 17 per cent when compared with the similar period in 2022.

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