The deep longing that many in the country harbour, to see the monster of crime tamed, was given somewhat dramatic effect on Thursday during the ceremonial opening of Parliament.
Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke, and the nation, heard some muffled applause from the Gordon House benches when he declared that there would be no surrender to the criminal elements; and he went on to cite stiffer penalties against gun smuggling, along with enhancement of port security.
The Throne Speech which marks the formal start of a new
parliamentary year is by tradition crafted by the government
administration and delivered by the Governor-General. The
formality of the ceremonial opening is usually graced by the upbeat tone of what the Government projects as new policy to build on
positive achievement; but to be credible the negatives have to be acknowledged as well.
Thus, Sir Howard Cooke followed his script on the nuts and bolts of economic and social programmes. Then he paused, and in sombre tones conceded that while the initial results of the war on crime were "very encouraging in some respects, sadly the murder rate is rising..."
Indeed it is. Police statistics show that at the end of March, the toll stood at 411 in the first three months of the year, against a background of more than 1,400 last year. Some observers compare Jamaica's killing fields to the daily carnage in Iraq. As one letter writer to the Editor last week cited statistics from Colombia and South Africa to make the claim that, pro rata, Jamaica leads the world in this respect. Herein lies our dilemma. We are doing
infinitely worse than countries which have either open or underground guerrilla warfare.
In the speech, Sir Howard referred to another of the worrying aspects of fighting crime in Jamaica the behaviour of the police themselves. A projected National Independent Investigation Authority is slated to be the answer to the persistent contention that the police can't really investigate the rogues among them who shame their uniforms in ways that corrupt crime-fighting. The Government should move swiftly to get this one up and running.
We note that there was no clear statement in the Throne Speech of the moral intangibles that the Church has been asked to inject into the war against crime. It may well be that the emphases on early education at home and in school should be understood in that light; alongside the social outreaches to repair the ramshackle of the inner cities which have spawned a lost generation of young criminals.
The spectre of 'murder most foul' has never before given pause to the formal recital of a government's programme for a new fiscal year. That grim shadow must be eradicated or all the other grand plans will fail.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
