The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) is spearheading an islandwide lock-down of businesses next Wednesday to protest against the spiralling crime rate, which has left more than 600 people dead since the start of the year.

The PSOJ, whose membership includes the island’s top entrepreneurs, said yesterday that it will also be leading a protest rally at Emancipation Park in New Kingston, also on Wednesday, and asked Jamaicans to wear the national colours and drive with their headlights on to register what it said is a “desire for decisive action”.

The PSOJ said the lockdown and protest are among a number of activities planned over three days – May 25 to 27 – to show the concerns of the business sector over the deterioration of law and order in the country.

PSOJ president Beverly Lopez said yesterday that the other activities will include a gathering at Trafalgar Park in Kingston to pay respect to the more than 600 Jamaicans who have been murdered since January. Participants will lay flowers in remembrance of the dead.

The protestors, Lopez said, will also seek audience with representatives of the Government and Opposition on the last day of their protest to “insist that they do their duty to protect the nation”.

“The entire private sector finds this unacceptable,” Lopez said at a press conference at the PSOJ headquarters on Hope Road in Kingston.

“We can no longer pretend that these are ordinary times. There is a declared war between law-abiding Jamaicans and the gun-toting criminals among us. We must decide now whether we want to live in a civilised country or a nation filled with fear and uncertainty,” said the PSOJ boss.

She added: “We are simply pro-Jamaica. Having said that, there is no getting around the fact that the first duty of the state is the protection of its citizens.

“Let me re-emphasise,” she continued, “that this is our stand for Jamaica. This is about deep desire to see an end to the violation of our children and senior citizens and the wanton loss of life.”

Yesterday’s announcement came as business operators in May Pen staged a lockdown in protest against Saturday’s brutal slaying of one of their own, Maurice Azan – owner of Azan’s One Stop – and his stepson, Lloyd Phang, 50, who died in hospital Monday.

The business operators in the Clarendon capital pulled down their shutters from 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm yesterday.

Azan and Phang were shot Saturday by a group of heavily-armed men who entered Azan’s supermarket on Muir Park Avenue and opened fire on the two.

Yesterday’s call for a shutdown of businesses next Wednesday was supported by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) and the Jamaica Exporters’ Association, which are members of the PSOJ; the Jamaica Agricultural Society, and the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association.

Several local business stalwarts, among them hotel mogul Gordon “Butch” Stewart, Gassan Azan, Sameer Younis and Restaurants of Jamaica’s Mark Myers attended yesterday’ press conference of the PSOJ and gave their support for the organisation’s plans.

President of the JCC, Noel DaCosta, said the current murder rate is intolerable.

“We have gone beyond the limit that is tolerable,” he said. “Five murders per day is not something we can live with.”

Gassan Azan – a nephew of slain supermarket owner Maurice Azan – said the PSOJ was “doing the right thing”.

“It is reflective of the mood of the whole country,” he said. “The whole country should support the initiative. What we are doing is calling on all resources that are available to everybody to look at this thing in a very serious way.”

“We (family) feel the same way as the family of the four policemen who were slaughtered recently or the family of the child that was raped and killed. I did not expect that this could happen in Jamaica,” said Azan, as he reflected on the slaying of his uncle.

– martina@jamaicaobserver.com