THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) tells us that “all quantitative performance targets and indicative targets for end-September were met” by Jamaica under the Extended Fund Facility arrangement.

Clearly that’s good news, even if most people struggle to understand what it really means.

The IMF staff mission to Jamaica, led by Mr Jan Kees Martijn, then tells us something we all already know, even if for some people, the knowledge exists only at an unconscious level: That “looking ahead, the critical challenge will be to support economic growth, while continuing to undertake the necessary fiscal adjustment”.

In other words, Jamaica has to somehow boost economic activity, generating employment, profits, savings and tax revenues even while it adheres to the strict IMF conditions.

Finding a way to achieve growth even as it walks between the raindrops explains the Government’s commitment to foreign-financed mega projects such as the logistics hub.

Yet, as we have repeatedly said in this space, and as the UWI’s Professor Alvin Wint reminded us recently, for there to be sustained economic growth other elements must also fall into place, not least the attainment of social stability.

Put simply, rampant, vicious criminality is right up there with high energy costs, etc, as a demotivational factor for those with the potential to invest.

Crime is the main reason earnings from Jamaica’s physically alluring tourism product are so low relative to our Caribbean neighbours. It’s the reason companies are forced to spend such huge chunks on security and in some cases simply choose to pull stumps and set up shop elsewhere.

It’s the reason many Jamaicans have chosen to retire elsewhere with their pension funds in tow; and it is the reason many with a strong inclination and capacity to earn from farming choose otherwise.

The trouble is that not just the Government, but indeed the leadership of so-called civil society seem unable to accept that crime must be dealt with as our first priority if we are to move forward as a nation.

Jamaica’s murder rate of in excess of 40 per 100,000 people means crime is at a level which, in any serious country, would be attacked with might and main until it is brought under control. Sadly it seems, from leadership down, the society is inured to the daily atrocities and resigned to being a land of mayhem.

It is instructive that in the recent battle for leadership of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, crime and violence hardly got a mention; and if so, only in passing.

Much store is being set by the anti-gang legislation currently before Parliament. The hope is that passage of the Bill will strengthen the hand of law enforcement and the judiciary in the effort to bring criminals to heel.

Yet, after years of delay, dithering and a pandering to intellectualised foolishness continue unabated.

We are appalled, for example, that the suggestion that men armed with illegal guns, claiming to “defend” their communities, should be somehow treated more leniently than other violent criminals, wasn’t shouted down for the nonsense it is.

In any serious, responsible country it is the State, supported by law-abiding citizens, which defends communities, not lawless, unemployed enforcers. The fact that such lawlessness exists and has existed for years in some of our inner-city communities must not be used as any excuse for continued tolerance.

If Jamaicans and their leaders are serious about sustainable social and economic growth, and indeed the survival of the nation state, then law and order must come first.