LAST Sunday, a group of about 100 mostly young, professional Jamaican men and women assembled at the University of Technology to launch their Solution Action Forum dubbed “Take Back Jamaica”.

Their proposals, as reported by the media, drew a mix of comments, some of which — not unexpectedly — immediately dismissed the group as idealistic and naive.

We don’t share this view.

It is obviously early days yet to give any viable analysis of the group, and we will probably have to wait until it publishes its manifesto — promised for August 17, 2010, the anniversary of National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey — to get a better sense of what they are about. But we can comment on their intent.

First, we welcome the initiative as timely. The routing of criminals by the security forces brings the promise of a Jamaica in which violence and the rule of the thug will be brought to tolerable levels. Crime has robbed this country of too much of its potential to be a great little nation.

Extortion has forced many people out of business or kept many others from going into business, thus increasing unemployment and, irony of ironies, poverty. The constantly rising murder rate has badly tarnished the image of Jamaica, scaring off tourists and investors. Night life and the industry it spawns has dropped to but a shadow of its true potential.

Educated Jamaicans take every opportunity to flee from the coming gunman. Hospitals groan under the burden of treating violence victims. And the environment of fear spread across the land, has brought low our quality of living, as the population cower behind burglar bars, gated communities and expensive security devices.

We now have an opportunity to turn this around, and the ‘Take Back Jamaica’ group is willing to play its part in refashioning the new Jamaica.

Some of their initial ideas may well be unworkable. That’s not the point. Nobody has a monopoly on correct ideas. But with the correct objective, the ideas can be finetuned over time.

Second, we believe in the energy of youth. Nearly every major revolution on planet earth has depended on youth for its success. Change, it seems, is synonymous with youth. Too often habit or age or the fact that we are comfortable with the status quo, cause us to resist necessary change. Some people are just too cynical, others are natural born ‘againsters’.

It is clear to us that we cannot depend on our current leaders and thinkers alone to move us forward. With all due respect, it’s impossible not to notice that the two major political parties can never find common ground on anything for long, before resorting to their usual dog-fight. The debate on the current crime bills is only the latest example of this.

We do not for one second believe that Prime Minister Bruce Golding came to his senses over the Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke extradition all on his own. It was the pressure brought by the people of Jamaica that did it.

The people of Jamaica must keep up this pressure, until the changes are irrevocable. And it won’t happen by people sitting on a verandah and wishing for it to come.

It is the duty of all of us to ‘Take Back Jamaica’.