STAKEHOLDERS on Monday agreed to a new national consensus on crime which is expected to be presented to the political directorate to be signed off shortly.

However, members of the Crime Consensus Monitoring and Oversight Committee (CMOC), who signed the updated consensus during a Consensus Stakeholders Summit at Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St Andrew, expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of agreement and the absence of Government and Opposition representatives at the signing.

Among them was social policy researcher and Citizens’ Rights to the City representative Carol Narcisse, who called on the private sector to shut down funding to the two major political parties until they have a serious consensus on crime.

“We’re a few months out of a general election, let’s say 12, maybe a little bit more. The two parties are vying for convincing us that they are best capable and that they have the greatest level of public interest at heart. I think we have an opportunity in this moment to be insistent that there be a joint signing of the two,” she said.

“Consider the symbolism of that, consider the message to the nation that is in that. I don’t think that at this stage we should take an approach that allows the ‘whenever they feel like to sign’.

“The private sector is going to be called upon to finance their respective campaigns and so I think that there is a leverage that we have at this point to say that, absolutely, ahead of our support going into the election that: ‘We really are requiring that you both show up and that you jointly indicate to the nation that, at least on these issues, you are in agreement and that we’re not going to be quarrelling over an approach going forward.’ I think if we lose this opportunity we will be talking to ourselves ad infinitum,” Narcisse said.

Professor Trevor Monroe, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) nominee to the committee, said while he supports Narcisse’s suggestion, the private sector would need to be invited to indicate the likelihood of them using that leverage in relation to campaign financing, political party support with respect to influencing the parties’ political directorate to sign on to what citizens require, and what CMOC is proposing.

“It would be good to hear, preliminarily at least whether this is feasible. Is this a pipe dream? Is this unlikely to occur in relation to the private sector?” he asked.

But CMOC Chairman Lloyd Distant told the members that the Government and Opposition “had no great objections to anything in the document”, based on the discourse that took place with them last week.

“We recognise that the internal political discourse needs to take place; there probably are more conversations that need to continue in each instance. I think the Opposition, I would say, is just about ready to sign; I think the Government may be a couple steps away,” he said.

Distant said the idea is that the committee would first “get this synchronisation of ourselves together out of the way” then place the signed document before the Government and the Opposition to give them something to sign on to, or to ask for changes.

“So the process right now is: We complete our signing. A formal letter goes to the Government and goes to the Opposition, inviting them to sign or to make comments related to it. And once that date is identified — it could be two weeks, could be a month from now — then we get to signing,” he said.

He noted, however, that in the meeting with CMOC stakeholders two weeks ago there were similar comments “that the time is ripe” and there is a unique opportunity to ensure the political directorate sign on.

“It’s going to be difficult for the Government and Opposition to explain to Jamaica why they’re not signing unto this, because there’s nothing there within the body of this document that either the Government or the Opposition have not been advocating for,” he said.

“We have the churches here represented by the group of churches and the council of churches, we have the private sector, we have general civil society here. I believe the political directorate would be hard-pressed not to respond to a call from the stakeholders to sign at their behest. But we believe that this is an important first step, for that letter to go [out to them],” he said.

In the meantime, Distant pointed out that the driver for this new consensus is a recognition that the original consensus mainly focused on medium- to long-term initiatives for delivering a sustainable reduction in crime, violence and corruption, which may have been too ambitious and with several deadlines missed. He said more emphasis would now be placed on short-term measures.

“We see it in the media everyday. We’re bombarded with issues of crime and violence, and the view therefore [which] stakeholders have raised in the CMOC meetings [is]: Are there things that we can come together and agree [on] that will assist in getting to a more rapid reduction of violence crime? Are there short-term initiatives that we can agree ought to be implemented? Getting beyond that, there is a recognition of several things … [that] need to be carried over because they have not yet been implemented,” he said.

In August 2020 the Government, Opposition, civil society, and the private sector industry associations signed a national consensus on crime to transform Jamaica into a safe, secure, and investment-friendly society.

On completion of the first three years of the consensus, private sector and civil society stakeholders met in September 2013 to evaluate the progress of Consensus 2020, assess opportunities, review challenges that arose post-initial signing, renew their commitment to the process, and agree on a path forward.

Monday’s signing saw the original stakeholder partners, along with new partners, affirm their commitment to the updated consensus.