We in this space are trying to parse, with utmost difficulty, the outburst by Mr Peter Bunting, the Opposition spokesman on national security, that an apology is needed from the Government before any political consensus on crime.

It is obvious that Mr Bunting, a former People’s National Party (PNP) minister of national security, is still bristling about the, admittedly foolish, dismantling of his Unite for Change crime programme by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government in 2016.

But the political parties have been, like little children, dispensing with programmes started by their predecessor governments ever since they have been taking turns at running the country going back to Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944.

Before Mr Bunting’s speech there seemed to have been general agreement that, after 60 years of Independence, everyone had concluded that crime and violence is out of control and a solution had defied every Administration.

Indeed, Mr Golding, taking up where his predecessor PNP Comrade Leader Dr Peter Phillips had left off, has been consistently touting political consensus on crime; his latest utterance coming as he looked Mr Holness in the eye and pledged:

“Prime Minister, you have my support on all measures to turn this country around to a better place. Unity is strength,” as they both mourned the killing of a Clarendon mother and her four children.

Mr Holness went further by putting his pledge in writing: “Let us create a space where the treatment of violence is not contested politically, and we share in the victory of overcoming violence,” he said as he addressed the first public presentation of the National Commission on Violence Prevention.

“If we don’t have political consensus it could be very easily used for political advantage. The use of violence is so deep-seated in our culture that it has to take this kind of consensus to really make the change,” said the prime minister.

The clear suggestion was that the two leaders were inching their way to agreement on taking crime-fighting out of the politically partisan arena and to unite the country as every sensible Jamaican has been calling for ad nauseam.

So, it came as a shocker when the PNP spokesman departed from his leader and said: “The PNP is a party that will always do anything that will positively impact on the safety and security of Jamaicans, so we are not going to say no, but before reconciliation and before forgiveness must come repentance. Come to the country and apologise… then we can talk about finding consensus and moving forward.”

We are long past the stage to be setting pre-conditions for bringing the entire country together to fight crime. Nothing can be achieved now by finger-pointing and apportioning blame about who failed. Mr Bunting’s ego cannot be put above the precious lives of Jamaicans.

At the very least, Mr Golding must tell the country if Mr Bunting is speaking for the party, otherwise he is going to fall right back into the narrative of his early leadership that he was just a figurehead while the real power was being exercised by Mr Bunting.

Perhaps, as a country, we are lucky that Mr Bunting did not become PNP president if this is the kind of puerile and bankrupt leadership he has to offer.