In the six weeks or so since Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced his package of anti-crime measures, you might have believed that there was a significant retreat from the homicides that caused such agitation earlier on. People seemed to have stopped complaining.

The reason, however, is not that there has been any significant drop in the killings - certainly not to the level that in 'normal' societies would ease people's anxieties.

After all, the killings continue every day and Jamaica remains on course for a record year in homicides: over 1,600 and a murder rate of more than 60 per 100,000. Jamaica by those statistics remains close to the top of the ranking of countries with high levels of homicides.

What has happened in these past several weeks is what usually happens after every outcry against crime: we accommodate the latest situation. With each upward movement of the murder figures, our threshold for outrage becomes higher. So, people might be concerned about 1,600 murders in a year, but having internalised the numbers earlier on, it doesn't get us angry anymore. Well, it should!

And the government should help to stir this sense of outrage as part of an effort to build and maintain a strong and effective coalition against the merchants of mayhem. Unfortunately, the Government has been decidedly poor at this.

jamaica's biggest concern

Mr Golding, however, has an opportunity to revive those early outlines of a people's coalition that emerged over June and July, when crime was the biggest concern for Jamaicans.

The measures unveiled by the prime minister in July - to toughen sentences for firearm crimes, to make the bail procedure less of a revolving door for criminals and tighten the parole regime for murderers - are to be debated in Parliament next week.

This ought not to be a debate of sterile passivity, or an attempt to push through legislation quietly that would otherwise be contentious. The fact is that some of the bills are controversial and known to be so.

The Government must stand by them in the clear conviction that they are necessary in the face of a crisis that demands tough action and the people's support. This is no time for criminals, as Mr Golding so aptly reminded earlier, to be tickled with powder puffs.

Neither is it time for political leaders, no matter on what side of the legislature they sit, to engage in self-serving carping. We will be watching.

Having given the Government and law enforcement this new authority, our only demand is that it be exercised resolutely, but with fairness, transparency and accountability.