Keith Duncan, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), says that “Jamaica has no more time for political one-upmanship”, adding that for too long, successive governments have been far too busy at each other’s throats over the handling of crime when the nation deserves all hands on deck to tackle the murder rate.

Duncan, speaking at a virtual press briefing on the PSOJ’s strategic direction for 2021-22 on Wednesday (February 3), argued that for the crime-fighting effort to truly see any lasting results, both the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and opposition People’s National Party (PNP) have to stand in solidarity behind the security forces.

“It is important to be united as a country in facing, now, this crime epidemic. Jamaica has been at crisis levels with murders over 1,000 per year for the last two decades. Both political parties have been in power for an equal time over this period. Both have made well-intentioned efforts and both have unrelentingly critiqued each other in the public domain while murders continue unabated, [and] our security forces battle with inadequate tools to effectively contain this epidemic,” he began.

Duncan further noted that contrastingly, several social intervention initiatives have failed to deliver on the desired results in disenfranchised communities and as successive administrations repeatedly neglect these communities, the gangs step in to claim the youth.

“Jamaica’s social intervention efforts, over the same period, under both administrations have not delivered the results as they have been disjointed, not targeted and not monitored and evaluated for effectiveness. In the meantime, gang culture has been entrenched in marginalised, depressed communities where the education system and social intervention efforts have not delivered and the youth became easy prey for gangs due to their hopelessness and not seeing a way out for themselves,” Duncan continued.

In his presentation, the PSOJ president stressed that without a united front against an intelligent and evolving criminal underground, “We are creating our own demise”.

“I am sure that we all have a desire to sleep with our windows open and in the case of the violence-prone communities, on our beds and not under [them], while gangs trade [bullets]. I am sure Jamaica would like to unite for change, to implement sustainable crime-reduction and crime-prevention solutions to effectively dismantle these gangs as they spiral out of control and take innocent lives. I am quite sure that we all want to live good in Jamaica, however, this epidemic of crime will require an ‘all-Jamaica approach’, a bipartisan effort,”

Duncan alluded to the 2020 National Consensus on Crime, which was signed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, then-Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips and several private-sector interests. The August 2020 memorandum of understanding (MOU) was launched to instil trust in Jamaica’s crime-fighting strategy, with focus on crime prevention and reduction through investments in the modernisation of the national security apparatus as well as long-overdue reforms of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the domestic justice system.

Duncan noted that as a stakeholder in the National Crime Consensus, the PSOJ has accepted that targeted social intervention programmes need to be implemented, coordinated and monitored. Additionally, the PSOJ president agreed that enhanced security measures, that have been on the table since March 2019, are required to respond to the upsurge in criminal activity.

In the meantime, Duncan contended that more support is needed for the JCF and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), who are on the frontlines of the crime-fighting effort.

“We have to get behind our security forces, the JDF and the JCF, and give these institutions the support that is required to fight and win this battle against the gangs, which account for 80 per cent of Jamaica’s murderers,” the PSOJ boss asserted.

“Jamaica and Jamaicans have no more time or patience for the politicising of crime, as we seek to contain this disease. This deep-rooted crime epidemic requires, as the consensus agreement says, a bipartisan, all of government, national approach,” he said.

“As leaders, we must demonstrate commitment and sticktoitiveness to build [the] confidence of our people so that they can come on board, feel comfortable and share information on gangs so that once and for all, [we] deal with this crime monster, which exists in our communities,” Duncan added.