Robert Buddan

"Perhaps more than any other time in Jamaica, there is a deep sense of crisis, that the society is in a state of anarchy, and that law-abiding citizens are being held hostage by murderous terrorists. The fear is being driven home by more than just statistics, as bad as those are - nearly 700 homicides so far this year". This was from the editorial in last week's Sunday Gleaner. Another editorial, this time in the same day's Sunday Observer, said that the commissioner of police, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, in office for six months, should go. It wanted the minister of national security, himself new, to advise the commissioner to step down for not having achieved anything and not giving the society any reason to expect any improvement in his first year.

It said that the commissioner did not have a plan for tough policing. That editorial was reinforced by the day's cartoon, which showed Reneto Adams apparently signalling to Bruce Golding that he was ready and willing to be brought back to active duty. The newspaper felt constrained to justify publishing five consecutive headlines about murders, saying it only reflected the crisis the society faced. That crisis caused one Gleaner headline to echo the national feeling, "It can't go on" and the Observer's headline of last Friday pleaded with the government to "Do Something".

Who governs?

Debris was used to block Prince of Wales Street at National Heroes Circle, where several residents were protesting recently, against alleged police brutality in their community. Residents in the area say they set up road blocks to prevent outsiders from entering the community, and also in protest against police action. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

Crises with characteristics of anarchy naturally lead a nation to ask: "Who governs?", and to wonder if the centre of government has lost control, worse, when Mr Golding responded that it was not the Government's responsibility to do anything. This confounds the very idea of government. The Jamaican society disagreed with him, too. The Observer labelled that position utterly ridiculous and reminded him "in case you forgot, Mr Golding, you were elected to lead". Don Robotham sees the problem as a paralysis of leadership arising from the unpreparedness of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) for government and a symptom that Mr Golding was out of touch with Jamaicans.

Private Sector concerned

Even the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, normally friendly to the Government, voiced concerns, having declared some time ago that the first duty of government was to protect its citizens. The People's National Party (PNP), as the alternative to the Government, has said Mr Golding's statement was careless and reckless. It reminded the JLP that it had criticised the former minister of security for failing to defeat crime, but now wanted to pass off blame and responsibility from itself to the commissioner of police even though the JLP had said it had a plan to reduce crime in the first six months of office. Now the commissioner, having been made the fall guy, as had the minister before him, resigned. Apparently embarrassed, the Government was moved to promise finances and legislation to support the commissioner after all, and he relented.

Denial of reality

Somewhere in all of this is the Government's denial of reality. Crime and violence have been our number one problem for some time. Its solution is beyond the capability of one party in government or even one country even if we have both parties cooperating. The World Bank's special report on crime in the Caribbean came to this conclusion in 2007. There is no quick fix and nothing had given us reason to believe that we could tame the problem in six months, just by having a new government in power. We all knew this. But, by some process of self-deception, the nine-month old government had failed to put a policy and vision in place to lead the country in the fight against crime. The JLP had either underestimated the crime problem or overestimated the ability of the police to deal with it. It might have done both in its enthusiasm for power, even though everything had shown that it should have done neither.

If the problem is leadership, we must first ask, who leads? Mr Golding is criticised for not providing leadership in the fight against crime. The Jamaica Observer might have great prescience or influence on the subject. It was able to declare that a change from one minister of national security to another was imminent, even before the Cabinet had announced it. Then, it called for the commissioner of police to resign, and right away, he did. It demanded tough policing and Bruce Golding has started using the same phrase. It has called upon Mr Golding to show leadership, take responsibility and deliver a crime plan. Suddenly an action plan appears.

Community policing

The indecisiveness of the Government seems to reflect different and competing interests and prescriptions in and around the administration among its factions and sponsors. For example, in the 2004 contest for party leadership between Golding and Pearnel Charles, the latter was strong on community policing as against the militaristic approach. Many interests ranging from USAID to human rights groups and social interventionists, who prefer to avoid confrontation between police and citizens and to build peaceful and cooperative relations that are sustainable, would favour community policing.

Other interests prefer the militaristic approach that counters force with force to solve the problem 'now', impatient for immediate results that would make society safe for business and family. The death penalty and special anti-crime paramilitary units, curfews, increasing police numbers, joint police and military patrols, and high-powered weapons like M16s are stressed in this approach. But, there are those who distrust police power because of corruption and police brutality or who object to the death penalty on grounds of human rights.

Mr Golding, however, as prime minister, needs to have a mind of his own, born after having listened to others and persuaded them on a course of action. That should have started before the election as part of the process of preparing for power.

The MacMillan report on crime was a start, but it was not followed through. The previous government had left a template and this administration did not have to reinvent the wheel. Furthermore, the Government had failed to follow through on the Vale Royal Summit in January.

Yet, national security was always one of the main reasons for starting this process some years ago.

Priority issues

The People's National Party was so interested in restarting these talks that it swallowed Mr Golding's insult about termites in their brain, attended the January talks in full, agreed to a set of priority issues, had called for a meeting after not seeing movement and has now suggested that a special Vale Royal meeting on crime be held.

Mr Golding should also have attended the proposed meeting with George Bush to remind himself of the way the country suffers from deportations, cocaine trafficking, and gun trafficking and should have raised the issue with Europe to seek budget assistance and other kinds of support for crime fighting efforts, a policy of the previous administration. Finally, it is unfortunate that it is only now that Mr Golding is saying that he will seek more money from the budget and prepare legislation as needed. These should have been priorities for the last legislative year and the Government's first budget just a few weeks ago. It is not too late, but we will see if the Government's efforts are still too little.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@ uwimona.edu.jm