Dear Editor,

The recent press release by Opposition spokesman on national security Peter Bunting, in which he accuses almost everyone and every institution in the private and public sector, except of course the PNP, of conspiring with confessed gangster Christopher Coke, would be laughable in another context based on the sheer naivety and hypocrisy that informs such a mindset.

In dealing with such a serious and sensitive issue, Mr Bunting’s selective interpretation of history must never be allowed to pass without correction, lest he be further deluded into greater political amnesia. For while we applaud the PNP’s Saul-like transformation, they should not be allowed to assume the role of Pontius Pilate, washing their hands of the matter.

Let me remind Mr. Bunting that in 1994, former MP for Western Kingston, Edward Seaga, publicly provided to the security forces and the then minister of national security a list of 13 names of people residing in his constituency who he thought were threats to the peace and security of the community.

Christopher Coke’s name appeared on that list. In the intervening 14 years, under three successive PNP administrations, Coke was transformed from “Dudus” into “President”, benefiting from public largesse, with government contracts ranging into the tens of millions. Therefore, if there are indeed co-conspirators, some must reside in your party, brother Bunting. Furthermore, to attempt to vindicate the PNP from its role in the formation of political garrisons and having links with the criminal underworld requires a great degree of ignorance or a serious lack of a conscience.

In a historical context, the PNP has been the dominant political force during the greatest period of descent of our politics into the quagmire that it is today, having been in office for 26 of the 39 years between 1972 and 2011; this represents the era of dons, the introduction of the gun culture and the use of violence as a political tool, the creation of exclusive zones of political support – garrisons – and a spiralling crime rate with all their negative impact on our nation’s political system.

So let’s raise the debate above partisan politics, Mr Bunting; if you truly mean Jamaica well, you will. We all have been weighed and found wanting; it is therefore time for consensus building around the core issues facing the Jamaican state at 50 years, some of which must be the issues of crime, garrisons and the need to initiate a new political culture. Only then can we begin to take Jamaica back. Let’s tell the children the truth, Mr Bunting – that’s the least we can do.

Albert Alvaranga

albertalvaranga@yahoo.com