SOME of the island’s major business leaders have raised questions about the commitment of the Government and the Opposition to tackle the country’s main problem: Crime.

In a release on Friday, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) said the people on both sides of the political divide seem particularly split on the short-term strategies around the containment of crime.

“The PSOJ strongly recommends that the GoJ (Government of Jamaica) and the Opposition sit down quietly behind closed doors and hammer this out in the best interest of Jamaica,” said the release.

“Jamaica cannot continue to remain divided, therefore the PSOJ is urging our political directorate to begin the dialogue with a level of urgency as the Jamaican citizenry is looking on and hoping for a positive outcome,” added the PSOJ in its release.

The PSOJ pointed out that through its former president Howard Mitchell and other members, including the current chairman of the Crime Monitoring Oversight Committee (CMOC) Lloyd Distant Jnr, there has been painstaking effort of civil society to pull together a national consensus around deliverables from Jamaica’s Crime Strategy.

“This consensus was finalised, after tremendous advocacy in August 2020, which was one month before the general election in September. This agreement was signed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Opposition Leader, at the time, Dr Peter Phillips.

“Both the Government and Opposition showed commitment to the consensus, including Dr [Horace] Chang, minister of national security, who was very engaged and active with the deliberations of CMOC,” added the PSOJ.

According to the PSOJ, at the political level the trust has broken down between the Government and the Opposition and there have been mixed messages from both sides of the political fence with the minister of national security questioning the relevance of the CMOC.

“With the prime minister questioning whether there was genuine consensus, [and] the Opposition leader stating his willingness to work with the GoJ to reduce crime and the Opposition spokesperson calling for the GoJ and specifically the prime minister to apologise for statements made while the JLP was in Opposition,” noted the PSOJ.

“Civil society remains resolute that crime, notwithstanding that historical statements on either side of the fence have politicised the issue, should be taken out of the political arena and be the subject of a consensus across the political divide.

“With the support of civil society, this will go a long way in uniting all Jamaicans to fight the epidemic of crime which has caused mayhem and fear to the citizens of Jamaica and cost the Jamaican economy approximately five per cent of GDP on an annual basis,” said the PSOJ.