There is a view among some Jamaicans that the debacle in parliament, which ended the State of Emergency last week, was the result of clever politicking by the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

The view is that Prime Minister Bruce Golding outfoxed the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) through some master political manoeuvre, that trapped the PNP into seeming to be against the fight against crime.

Worse, some people appear to believe that the prime minister and the JLP were more interested in that political game than in achieving further gains in the fight against.

We will probably never be sure as to the veracity of these beliefs and we don’t expect any politician to own up to something that would be a most despicable thing.

In this space, we have taken a strong position in favour of the continued flushing out of criminals and the extension of the State of Emergency, because we believe that Jamaica deserves this unprecedented breathing space it has allowed us.

Since the May 23 imposition of the State of Emergency, the security forces can claim to have prevented the death of more than 50 Jamaicans, who would have been added to the crime statistics, given the rate of murders in Jamaica since the start of the year.

In this regard, were we to find out that the Government was only interested in political gamesmanship and was willing to trifle with the safety and security of this nation, our pens would drip nothing but blood against this administration. That is how serious we are about the fight against crime.

We are wont to believe the army and the police, as quoted elsewhere in this edition, that the State of Emergency was needed for a while more.

For many years we have tried all sorts of strategies, formed all sorts of special police squads, produced all sorts of community-policing projects and discussed and studied ad nauseum the various other solutions to crime. To no avail.

Instead, the murder count soared, with each year getting worse, until last year it reached an unbelievable 1,600 murders, and we gained dubious distinction of being one of the most murderous nations on planet earth.

We now have a chance to end this and start all over. This psychological breathing space is a gift that we might never again be fortunate to have in our grasp.

It is not too late for the Government to once again declare a State of Emergency and allow our security forces to consolidate the gains they have made on our behalf.