MR Danville Walker, the commissioner of customs, has given us one of the brightest pieces of news we have had in a long time.

The customs boss is quoted in our Sunday edition as saying that his job of fighting corruption at the island’s major ports of entry is getting easier.

At the same time, and in the same edition, we are informed by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) that it has overshot its $60 billion revenue collection target, by roping in some of the many Jamaicans who have been dodging taxes.

The cynical reader might say we are too easily satisfied. However, to us there is great significance in those two bits of news, which are actually quite related.

For a very long time now, Jamaicans have placed corruption at or near the top of our list of problems holding back the progress and development of this country. Only crime-fighting seems to take precedence among the ills our citizens want the Government to tackle with the greatest urgency.

Mr Walker last month marked two years in the position of commissioner of the Jamaica Customs Department, which was previously dubbed a ‘hotbed of corruption’ by Finance Minister Audley Shaw.

“I have a lot less obstacles now than I had when I started,” Mr Walker told our reporter. We draw from that that once there is demonstration of courage and determination, many of the problems which seem intractable can be removed.

We are in Mr Walker’s debt for this singular achievement.

But we can also learn another lesson from the experience at the Customs Department. For Mr Walker, importantly, attributes his successes to the fact that a lot of people had bought into the vision that we can have a system that is free and fair for everybody.

“What you find happening now is that more people are now prepared to assist…Some people are prepared to talk up more and join customs in the fight against criminality,” he said.

The lesson is that the state agencies charged with cleaning up our system cannot do it alone. Jamaicans of honesty and patriotism have to be prepared to support them.

To the customs department, we can add the Jamaica Constabulary Force. The fight against crime will be won when all or most Jamaicans see it as our responsibility, and stop leaving it to the police alone.

We feel constrained as well to mention the Office of the Contractor General and its leader, Mr Greg Christie who is as much the terrier as Mr Walker. In time, this country will come to appreciate fully the contribution these two men are making to Jamaica’s well-being.

And while the subject of taxation is never a happy one, it is a positive development to see that the tax burden is about to get lighter on those who are honest enough to pay up.

The more tax dodgers are brought to book, the lesser the need for the Government to impose higher taxes on the citizenry.

Right now, the category of captive taxpayers called Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is under the gun, so to speak. We support the drive to widen the tax net. In fact if we had our way, we would see to it that the Government did not get one more cent of taxes, until it had sufficiently collected from the tax dodgers.

In that same breath, we are hopeful that as the Jamaica Public Service Company regularises those communities which steal electricity, the company wil be able to pass on the benefits of lower bills to its customers. For we all know that it is the honest ones who have to pay for the thieves.

Hope springs eternal.