People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding yesterday suggested that a balanced approach involving the strengthening of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) islandwide could be used instead of states of emergency (SOEs) to eliminate violent crimes.

“We believe in a national programme to save at-risk youth from turning to badness and the gun. The education system has failed so many of our youths. This programme must be well-funded and include mentorship, remedial education, vocational skills training, life skills coaching, preparation for the world of work and job placements,” Golding said at press conference called by the Opposition party to address national issues.

Noting that the Government has effectively abandoned the use of the PMI, Golding said his party believes in the initiative, along with using community influencers as violence interrupters who are on the ground to intervene in conflicts and prevent a spiral of reprisal killings.

The Government declared seven SOEs on Sunday in response to brutal murders and other incidents of violent crimes across the island.

The affected areas are St James, Hanover, Westmoreland, and the Kingston Central, Kingston Eastern, St Andrew South, and Kingston Western police divisions in the Corporate Area.

Yesterday, reiterating his objection to the SOEs, Golding asked, “Why is the Government going backwards? Clearly, their tool box is empty. I must remind Jamaica that states of emergency were used for three years from 2017 to 2020 — they failed. Gangsters migrated to other areas of the country and murders continued…”

He also noted that the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) can support police on patrols and at checkpoints without an SOE.

“It is just a question of how you organise your security forces, which has been going on for years. We do not need states of emergency to have police and soldiers on the ground in our communities. There can be curfews, they can be called in on searches without a state of emergency. These tools exist under ordinary legislation and it is a dangerous falsehood, fake news spread by this Government to suggest that having security on the ground means you have to have states of emergency. Nutt’n nuh go so,” argued the opposition leader.

He received support from the party’s spokesman on national security Peter Bunting, who argued that the Government is perpetuating a “big lie” by using SOEs to allow the deployment of police and soldiers in adequate quantities in communities where there is a surge in murders.

“Because they need to maintain the big lie — the big lie they’ve been telling for the last four to five years — they came to Parliament with what was relatively a superficial amendment to the Emergency Powers Act to pretend that somehow they had addressed the fundamental concerns that were raised in the challenge of Everton Douglas, et al to their attention and to the state of emergency more generally,”argued Bunting.

His reference was to a Supreme Court ruling last year that the lengthy detention of five men — Everton Douglas, Nicholas Heat, Courtney Hall, Gavin Nobel, and Courtney Thompson — under the SOE was unconstitutional.

“The Government is so committed to the big lie that they have totally misallocated resources between the JDF and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). The JDF has seen 100 per cent increase in their recurrent budget in the last few years compared with only a 30 per cent increase of the JCF,” Bunting said, adding that there needs to be a state of emergency to address corruption, social conditions and social investments in communities.