Dear Editor,

How ironic it was to listen to Opposition spokesman on national security Peter Bunting recently slamming the Government over its handling of the crime portfolio.

This is the same Bunting who, when the People’s National Party (PNP) was last in power and he occupied the hot seat as minister of national security, clasped his hands and closed his eyes and called for “divine intervention” as part of the country’s crime-fighting strategy when stung by the heavy weight of daily reported cases of murders.

Bunting, in all fairness, at least I assume, is acutely aware of the intricacies and nuances at play as to why winning the war against crime and violence is presenting to be such a huge challenge.

It was a serious challenge when his party last occupied Jamaica House and it is the same now with the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in Government.

It is all good and proper for a politician to comment on issues of national importance, but scapegoating the other side cannot be prudent, especially when one side of the political divide also struggled mightily in the same portfolio.

Certainly a case can be made for divine intervention, we do so every time we sing the national anthem, but to then lambast the efforts of the Government for political expediency is foolhardy.

Crime in general and murder in particular affects all Jamaicans, PNP supporters and JLP supporters. We all suffer from a high murder rate and the economic fortunes being highlighted by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, while good, could have been much better if we had crime under control.

Bunting and the PNP must be careful about their strategy. Playing games with the electorate is no longer tolerated, as seen by the lack of political involvement at the polls for both parties.

I want to believe that Bunting is a Jamaica-first type of politician, as I do of Dr Horace Chang, whose leadership of the security ministry has seen wholesale improvements both at the investigatory and infrastructural levels.

To us Jamaicans, we hardly care who sits in the chair as long as they get the job done to make Jamaica a safer place to live and, as far as I see, while it’s not perfect, Dr Chang is getting the job done.

L W

lincolnwatts131@yahoo.com