The People’s National Party’s (PNP) attempt yesterday to kill off the State of Emergency — by not supporting its extension — is a cynical political ploy that exposes the true nature of the Opposition.

We have no doubt, after this, that the Opposition has absolutely no interest in the country winning the war against crime.

It’s the good old time politics that makes a mockery of the PNP election campaign slogan “We put people first”.

The utter ugliness of the debacle in Parliament should be seen for what it is: pure unadulterated political expedience.

Clearly, the PNP has chosen — not unlike Prime Minister Bruce Golding in the extradition matter — to put party over country.

For the first time in decades, the security forces have the criminals on the run. Our citizenry had started to feel an easing of the tension which largely kept a good number of investors and tourists away, almost crippled night life, forced our nationals overseas to fear coming home even for a visit, pushed up the cost of operating businesses by adding massively to the security bill and provisions for extortionists and we could go on.

No sane Jamaican would expect that a State of Public Emergency could be the permanent answer to fighting crime. But the country needed this narrow window to put the criminals to flight. We needed this breathing space to force down the murder rate. We needed this psychological space in which to construct the crime-fighting strategies and social interventions that we all desire.

We had wanted to believe that this was the desire of the PNP, too, until yesterday. We gave the party’s spokesman on national security, Mr Peter Bunting, the benefit of the doubt when he first said he had supported the State of Emergency. And we had drawn hope from MP Sharon Hay-Webster when she called for its extension to St Catherine.

Now, the Opposition can change its mind. However, when we are dealing with a matter as serious as the safety and security of this country — which is largely what political parties are elected to do in government — we certainly expect to hear compelling reasons for that change of mind.

Instead we heard in Parliament a series of wishy-washy excuses about intangible fears that Jamaicans and the security forces may come to believe that a State of Emergency was the way to fight crime.

Not to mention Mr Bunting’s pettifogging claim that the Opposition was not told before 1:30 pm yesterday that an extension would be sought. SO? What is that compared with ending the killing of 1,600 Jamaicans a year?

The PNP is deathly afraid that if Mr Golding wins the war on crime it can kiss its chances of gong back to Government in 2012 goodbye.

But we must ask is our country’s peace of mind not worth more than a political party’s craving to regain the halls of Jamaica House? When did the party which claimed to have been the authors and architects of Jamaican nationalism become so cold?

The PNP’s entrails are showing. And it’s not a pretty sight.