Dear Editor,

Since the 1990s numerous task force and committees have been established by different administrations to conceptualise recommendations to control the delibitating scourge of crime. At times the Government procures additional weapons, protective gear, armoured vehicles, and most recently, deployed technology to go after hardened criminals and organised criminal networks or gangs that are wreaking havoc on the society.

Whether the recent tears by the prime minister was a performance, like Nero weeping over burning Rome, or genuine, the root of our problem to abate the scourge is the lack of political will.

Although the extant is not what it was before, there is still a link between crime and politics in Jamaica. Most crime hot spots are to be found in political garrisons that ought to be dismantled.

In an article entitled Let’s take back Jamaica I shared that “ RJR94 FM news reported on October 13, 2017 that Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said the Government has determined that it will be unable to respond to one of the 10 recommendations made by the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry — the dismantling of political garrisons.”

Chuck further suggested that the “Government was struggling to figure out how to go about tackling the garrison phenomenon, noting that it was agreed that this was a job for the country at large”. He also acknowledged that “garrisons belonging to both political parties have been allowed to become states within the State and used to promote the interests of politicians”.

The foundation power of the two major political parties are built on garrisons.

I was of the opinion that to dismatle our political garrisons would required court action against both major political parties, but having consulted the learned constitutional magnate Dr Lloyd Barnett, I was informed that the “matter can only be taken to court on the basis of a specific cause of action and the garrison phenomenon would not provide [me] with such a cause of action.

“A court can only grant remedies of a particular type against particular persons for specific defaults, and this would be difficult to establish”.

Therefore, I am recommending that, since the Jamaican Constitution does not recognise political parties in the Parliament, that the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition appoint two elected members from both sides of the House as joint ministers of national security, similar to when the nation had two ministers of finance (Audley Shaw and Don Wehby). This should make national security a non-partisan priority for the next two years, and should include a mandate to dismantle the garrisons.

Secondly, we need a Truth, Reconciliation, and Restorative Justice Commission to air past crimes and put an end to the ongoing hate, pain, and self-destruction to the nation due to political tribalism, cover-ups, and actions that not only rape our economy, but also encourage unbridle thirst for political power.

Finally, we ought to be intentional with enforcement of laws, especially in protecting our borders with drones and sniffer dogs to detect illegal guns and preventing them from entering the country.

No amount of tears or praying for divine intervention will solve our serious crime problem because we have no political will, and the Church has exchanged the spiritual gift of courage for speaking in tongues and worship for entertainment.

The focus should be on crime prevention and not response as successive administrations have been doing.

Let us, as a country, make it our job to write to our Members of Parliament to dismantle the garrison phenomena, a necessary life-saving surgery to save Jamaica, land we love.

Dudley C McLean II

Mandeville, Manchester

dm15094@gmail.com