Let there be no doubt or equivocation about our position. This State of Public Emergency declared Sunday night cannot and must not stand.

We believe that there is absolutely no justification for it and, if it were meant to help, then it has had the very opposite effect, by creating a perception in the outside world, and among tourists, in particular, that Jamaica is not open for business.

A State of Public Emergency is an extreme action to be taken only after the most careful evaluation of a potential crisis facing the country. Conceivably, the prime minister might have thought, amidst the howling winds of Hurricane Dean, that it was necessary to take such strong action to provide the security forces with extraordinary powers to deal with any widescale looting and disorder during and after the storm.

We note that under former Prime Minister P J Patterson one was declared at the time of Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

But there is a big difference between the declaration in 2004 and Sunday night’s declaration. In the case of the former, the State of Public Emergency was called before the arrival of the hurricane, a proactive move that benefited from the lessons of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 when there was massive looting.

In this latter case, the declaration came after hurricane conditions had begun to affect Jamaica, and might have been, at best, an after-thought which itself would be no consolation to anyone.

But even had it been an after-thought, immediately after the passage of Hurricane Dean Sunday night, there were indications – and by morning it had become abundantly clear – that the prerequisite conditions for a State of Public Emergency were non-existent and there was no need for it. We, therefore, were expecting that the first order of business yesterday morning would have been to rescind the declaration.

If the Government feels it needs to take strong measures in the current situation, it should be sufficient to utilise the curfews that were imposed prior to the arrival of the hurricane.

While it remains in force, the State of Public Emergency threatens the Jamaican economy with potential loss of earnings which we can scarcely afford, particularly from the vital tourist industry which, ironically, reports minimal damage. Tourists have a penchant, and who could blame them, for cancelling plans to visit countries where they are unlikely to have a pleasant vacation.

With the intense interest in Jamaica by the international media covering the storm, the message would have been sent rapidly around the world that Jamaica is not a place to vacation at this time.

We get the feeling that little thought was put into the matter of declaring a State of Public Emergency. Notice that a matter as important as this was left to a government functionary to read to the Jamaican public on a radio station.

Moreover, the nation’s experience with a State of Emergency gone awry is an unhappy one and does not inspire confidence in governance. We hope that this dictum will not be used as an excuse for postponing the general elections indefinitely, thereby prolonging the election campaign which has been getting increasingly violent.

The country wants to be over and done with it, in order to get back to normal.