JDF working on setting up two new bases in Western Jamaica
THE Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) is in the process of establishing two new bases in Western Jamaica as a direct response to the crime situation that the island faces.
During a round—table interview with the Jamaica Observer on Thursday, Major Basil Jarrett, civil military cooperation officer for the JDF, said that the Force is disbursed across the island. He noted that in order to effectively combat criminal elements, instituting a camp there is the best option.
“At the end of the day, the main purpose of the JDF is to secure Jamaicans; that’s what we’re here for. We have a base close to Sangster International Airport and some lands close to that base we have acquired. There’s also a location in Westmoreland that we’re building for the Coast Guard ,” he said.
Jarrett added that this, alongside the National Service Enlistment (NSE) programme — an initiative of Prime Minister Andrew Holness, part of which will also be carried out by the JDF — is part of an increased mobilisation of the Force.
Last week, in a press release, Jarrett had announced that the NSE would serve as the only route to a career in the JDF and is a programme geared towards diversifying the scope of the JDF’s impact on the social and economic well-being of the nation, in keeping with Holness’s employment and engagement initiative, termed LEGS (Learning Earning Giving back and Saving).
He stated: “The NSE is a new category of military service which will see approximately 1,000 persons, aged 18-23, being enlisted in the JDF annually and trained over a one-year period in military, vocational and broader life skills. At the end of their NSE training period, the majority of the participants will be accepted to join the JDF as regular force soldiers, while others will be eligible candidates for employment in the private and public sectors.”
During the training period, which lasts 12 months, NSE recruits will undergo a modified version of the JDF’s traditional basic military training programme. They will also undergo on-the-job training in various aspects of the JDF’s operational units (Coast Guard, Air Wing, Engineering Unit, etc), as well as training in conflict resolution, communication, critical thinking and general life skills, among others. Upon completion of the programme, participants will then be given the opportunity to continue as soldiers in the JDF or join other government agencies such as the constabulary or correctional services.
But Jarrett said that for those who do not meet the standard of the JDF, which has not changed, the aim is to prevent them from being part of the crime problem.
“The devil finds work for idle hands. A lot of these young men sitting on the streets, sitting at home doing nothing, we need to have them in a protective environment so that they are free from the influence of negativity around them. Right now it’s very easy for a young man to look and see scamming as a lucrative career. You look around and see all the young people driving big Benz and BMWs and clearly showing off and we don’t want them to go that route because we know where it leads. We are the ones who have to confront them on the streets and if you look at what is happening now the average age of these gangsters, criminals and gunmen who are terrorising communities are late teens, early 20s.
“These guys never got here overnight, they left the system and by the system I mean some sort of formal institution where they are engaged productively. They left and negativity just scrapes them up, and believe me, we don’t take any joy in having to remove young people off the streets like that. We would rather save them and redirect them than have to confront them on a dark corner at night,” Jarrett said.
He further pointed out that the NSE is part of an overall plan to help secure Jamaica, reduce the murder rate, specifically those gang related.
“The domestic things are out of our scope, but for those persons involved in extortion, drugs, gun running and scamming, we need to protect Jamaica from them and part of that protection is to confront, meet and defeat the threat on the streets, but also to cut off the supply of recruits for those gangs, and we see the NSE as an important part of that. So those who don’t become career soldiers will have life skills that will help them to resist the lure that is out there,” Jarrett said.
The civil military cooperation officer maintained that as part of the LEGS initiative, he is confident that the NSE will work.
“What we are doing is one leg of a broader vision that other agencies are promoting. We have a system in place where we learnt a lot from the Citizens Security and Justice Programme where at risk youth from communities spend time with us and learn skills and some join. At the end of it their families report how different they are and how they’ve changed. From that we are confident the NSE, which is PM Holness’s initiative will work and yield good results. For years people have wanted to see young people exposed to a regimented life. It is not mandatory but it is a step in that direction. After that year their lives will change, you don’t spend a year in the JDF and your life doesn’t change. The life skills which will be imparted is what many of our young people are missing,” Jarrett said.
Read more on why the JDF maintains stringent requirements for recruits in Monday’s Observer.