TWO REFERENCES in yesterday's edition to the persistent dilemma of maintaining peace in the inner-city communities of Kingston and elsewhere throw some light on the root of the problem and suggest some pointers to the way forward.Former Member of Parliament Heather Robinson in her column on the Editorial Page described the challenge of constituency cliques attempting to usurp political power, in effect becoming de facto MPs. Less charitable labels would describe them as dons or area leaders operating fiefdoms or garrisons of dubious legality. Splitting up contract work or drug turf in this context may be the raw material for conflict such as erupted most recently in South St. Andrew.
Ms. Robinson urges drawing the line against all those who would follow the path of death and bloodshed. It is a line, she says, MP Omar Davies had drawn in South St. Andrew, citing educational programmes that are being pursued.
A similar line in a wider context was described in yesterday's edition in the story about the end of the first phase of special mediation training and graduation of 28 young men and women from troubled communities across the Corporate Area.
A project of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) the CHASE Fund and the Dispute Resolution Foundation, it is designed to send those trained youth back into their communities, equipped to deal with disputes that will arise.
Like PALS before it, such programmes need time to take effect; for in essence they seek to fill the void left by dysfunctional family structures neglecting to instil basic values at the earliest stages of child-rearing.
Tackling the problem at even more advanced levels is described in today's Letter of the Day on the page opposite. The letter makes claims for the effectiveness of the August Town Sports and Community Development Foundation formed by a group of citizens in 1996.
Using sports and various community competitions and with the collaboration of the August Town Police Station, a Foundation spokesman says they have reduced crime and murders in the community; and that what they have achieved could well be copied for other problem communities.
The police have conceded that they need public support, particularly in the detective work that is part of police function. The other approaches we have cited suggest that the problem has to be tackled on a broad front of education and social interaction - framing a coalition of community peace at all levels.
