Calling the business of public order the greatest threat to growth and stability, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett says urgent action is needed to address what is “now a clear and present danger.”

Addressing stakeholders at a recent meeting in Negril, Bartlett said that not only does it poses an existential threat to both tourism and the wider community but also to “how we go about our daily lives”.

“It concerns us to the point where we have established the destination assurance policy strategy. We are trying to build with you [the resort towns] the destination management so that we can bring all the partners together…the municipalities…the police…public health…fire…the churches…community leaders and all the key players who are involved in enabling the development of an orderly arrangement of our community,” Bartlett pointed out.

“And then there is also the business of compliance with rules and regulations. We cannot grow and develop if we continue to flout all the orders and flaunt negative and antisocial behaviour the way we have been doing. The murder business must stop. The disruptive behaviour in the communities…the disorderliness where persons want to peddle their wares anywhere. It must stop.”

The minister said that in regular consultation with Prime Minister Andrew Holness, the consensus is that investments (direct local and foreign) will have to coincide with the prioritisation of public order, noting that anything else would be counterproductive and self-defeating.

“We cannot manage the beaches because it’s overrun by unruly elements…it has to stop,” Bartlett said, adding that “we are not going to be known as a society that is unable to manage public order and as we are already seeing in Montego Bay…the work has started to deal with this problem once and for all.”

Bartlett, in pointing to an operation in St James, dubbed ‘Restoring Paradise’, said tourism entities and other stakeholders have already started working with the security forces to drive “this process of changing the public order.”

He said the Government will continue to invest in upgrading the physical infrastructure in townships to enable the facilitation of merchandising, and marketing of “your wares”.

The minister added that there will also be investments in training and “building your capacity” to think and to listen and to transform the knowledge and information that you have into material goods that have a value and a price.

“We’re going to invest in social development, so we change the way you think and behave and act. But at the same time, we will do this in law and order and with the mechanics that are necessary to preserve that law and so the growth that we are talking about…the future development that we are going to and will be achieved in a space of public order,” Bartlett added.

“We are not in the business of celebrating poverty and causing you to remain poor. That’s not my business. My business is to transform you from poverty into prosperity. And it means changing your behaviour pattern. Poor people can become wealthy people if they do the proper things.”

Bartlett said he is confident that there will be a national buy-in to the business of public order, noting that “the success that we are seeing in Montego Bay where residents, business interests and other stakeholders have joined in unison with the security forces to tackle illegal activities on the streets can be used as a template right across the island.