Colonel Trevor MacMillan, minister of national security, has said he is unclear whether the National Transformation Programme (NTP) will complement government policy.

"I can't comment on that because I don't know sufficiently enough about it," MacMillan told The Gleaner Monday.

The NTP is the driver of a proposed 'Fresh Start' initiative to be led by the Reverend Al Miller. Its aim is to generate peace by promoting a culture of forgiveness in violence-plagued communities.

Miller visited a number of inner-city communities across Kingston last weekend, securing verbal commitments from community leaders that they would maintain the peace.

Yesterday, the national security minister said he welcomed "anything that we can do legitimately to reduce the murders".

"At the end of the day, what we need is peace," MacMillan added.

The Gleaner understands that the NTP will be a government-funded initiative which will coordinate existing social-intervention initiatives.

A perusal of the estimates of expenditure for the 2008/2009 fiscal year does not reveal any line allocation for the programme, which its director, Miller, said would be launched in March.

Anti-crime plan

MacMillan, while in Oppo-sition, authored an anti-crime plan devised under the aegis of the Jamaica Labour Party.

Included on MacMillan's list is dismantling garrisons communities, stripping criminal dons of the informal power and authority they wield.

MacMillan said that a reduction in the number of murders was going to be the main imperative in building a safer Jamaica. With one day left in the year, Jamaica has recorded roughly 1,600 homicides.

"The fact is that the first thing we have to do is to stop the killing, then we can deal with a number of things after that. If the killing goes down tomorrow morning dramatically, then everything changes," MacMillan said.