Air Jamaica chairman Gordon "Butch" Stewart addresses Rotarians at Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus Hotel yesterday. GORDON "BUTCH" Stewart, chairman of the Sandals Group, yesterday lambasted the government over its inability to fight crime and called on the P.J. Patterson's administration to either come to grips with the situation or "ship out".
"We have a disaster on our hands," Mr. Stewart told Rotarians yesterday at their weekly meeting at Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus Hotel as he pointed to the escalating crime wave which has claimed more than 570 lives since the start of the year.
He said National Security and Justice Minister K.D. Knight, whom he described as "a sweet talker", and Police Commiss-ioner Francis Forbes should be given a week to come up with a workable plan to fight crime or be replaced.
At the same time, the Air Jamaica chairman called on the government to "drop its pride" and request outside help, preferably from the United States. He asserted the US would be willing to assist as it was not in its interest "that we are developing a gun culture which is being exported in many ways into their country".
He said they would do "anything to circumvent that" and would readily offer manpower, equipment and modern technology.
Mr. Stewart charged that crime was the number one insecurity facing the country and as such was driving the productive sector to its knees. At the same time he said Jamaicans were rushing to migrate. He claimed his option to migrate remained open.
According to Mr. Stewart, it was time for Jamaicans to tell the government "we are going to take action to force you to do it (control crime) or force you to leave office".
The government, he said, should be made to realise if the heat in the kitchen was too hot, then it should make space for somebody else to take over the cooking - "and I think that's what we are down to now", he added. He stressed however his position was not political.
He also lamented the government's seeming lack of understanding of the level of crisis facing the country and charged there was no business in Jamaica that can survive the current crime wave. Mr. Stewart was also speaking against the background of the recent robbery of Air Jamaica's ticket office in Montego Bay.
In noting the country's future was tied up in business, Mr. Stewart said "we have already concluded, mostly that there is not so much future working in the civil service or the government so it has to be in the private sector".
But he warned the success being experienced in the tourism industry would not be sustained as "gun and crime and tourism mix together as well as oil and water".
"I think it's time we send a message to the people that we voted in, fix it or ship out".
