PM/​Holness Slowly Grasping The Nexus Between Security And Prosperity

Over the last 30-years, in par­tic­u­lar, Jamaica has lost count­less amounts of mon­ey to cor­rupt offi­cials in both polit­i­cal par­ties.
The Peoples National Party (PNP) has been in pow­er for longer peri­ods at a time includ­ing a ¹⁴¹⁄₂ year unbro­ken tenure leav­ing the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) lit­er­al­ly in polit­i­cal obliv­ion.

(1) The fur­ni­ture scan­dal in December 1990.
(2) The light-bulb scan­dal in November 2008.
(3) The chan­de­liers scan­dal.
(4) Operation PRIDE scan­dal.
(5) Trafigura affair.
(6) The ‘Fat Cat’ scan­dal.
(7) Iran sug­ar deal.
(8)Outameni scan­dal.
(9) FINSAC
(10) JPS
(11) Sandals Whitehouse.
(12) Netserv.
(13) Zinc (1989)

The list of theft under this par­ty is by far too much to men­tion. This list only scratch­es the sur­face of the scan­dals in which the PNP has been involved cost­ing the poor Jamaican tax­pay­ers untold bil­lions if not tril­lions of dol­lars.
The list of scan­dals under the PNP in my esti­ma­tion ought to dis­qual­i­fy the par­ty from con­test­ing elec­tions, if not from a dis­so­lu­tion of the par­ty, then a total vot­er black­out.
Notwithstanding, we all know that unin­formed loy­al­ist vot­ers lit­er­al­ly makes that impossible.>The JLP for its part has cer­tain­ly had its own [sticky fin­gers] prob­lem.(1) The Coke extradition/​Manatt.
(2) The infa­mous Mabey and Johnson bridge-build­ing bribery case.
(3) In August 2009, 50-mil­lion spent to upgrade the min­is­ter of trans­port and works home.
(4) Ministry of Tourism spent $8.4 mil­lion to retro­fit the min­is­ter’s offices between May 2008.
(5)Petrojam.

The point of all this is to high­light the tremen­dous amounts of resources which has been pil­fered, squan­dered, and mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ed by the very peo­ple the Jamaican peo­ple entrust­ed to be stew­ards of those resources.
It is against that back­drop that I wish to speak briefly on news reports that Jamaica acquired a long-range sur­veil­lance air­craft, and two heli­copters to patrol the Islands ter­ri­to­r­i­al waters.
Prime Minister, Andrew Holness told a gath­er­ing of dig­ni­taries and offi­cials involved with the devel­op­ments that, “Jamaica has made an invest­ment in both secu­ri­ty and our econ­o­my. Greater secu­ri­ty means a stronger econ­o­my”, Holness said. Imagine if all of the pil­fered bil­lions were invest­ed in Education. Healthcare. Security. Infrastructure. Where would the Island be today in it’s slow plod to first world sta­tus?


The Prime Minister, how­ev­er, has final­ly had a come to Jesus moment when he argued: “Greater secu­ri­ty means a stronger econ­o­my”.
This writer has gone to great lengths to point out the fact that this Prime Minister seem­ing­ly has a par­tic­u­lar dis­dain for police offi­cers and a wider lack of under­stand­ing that the pros­per­i­ty he has been promis­ing the Jamaican peo­ple is a Unicorn, giv­en the coun­try’s unchecked law­less­ness. Most impor­tant­ly, how­ev­er, Holness went on to say quote; “The gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that crim­i­nals don’t take over Jamaica”.
My great Aunt always advised me to let peo­ple talk, soon enough she opined, they will reveal the truth about what’s going on in their heads. [tek time search yu wi find ants gut].
As a young inves­ti­ga­tor that con­cept served me well in my inter­ac­tions with both crim­i­nal defen­dants and wit­ness­es giv­ing affi­davits. I have con­sis­tent­ly warned of the impend­ing dan­ger

Jamaica faces from a bur­geon­ing con­flu­ences of mili­tia groups which are becom­ing more and more embold­ened because of Government’s inac­tion.
In the numer­ous arti­cles I have writ­ten, I have sought to lay out the immi­nent creep­ing dan­ger this inac­tion pos­es to the coun­try’s sol­ven­cy and secu­ri­ty.
The link pro­vid­ed above is the lat­est arti­cle I wrote on this immi­nent dan­ger.

[Warning/​address These Militias Now Or Face The Consequences Tomorrow].

The path to ensur­ing that crim­i­nals do not take over the coun­try requires much, much more than the pur­chase of an air­plane and a cou­ple of heli­copters. Nevertheless, it does go some dis­tance toward inter­dict­ing some of the ille­gal guns and ammu­ni­tion enter­ing the coun­try, if applied cor­rect­ly.
Unfortunately, despite the Prime Minister’s seem­ing new aware­ness, that crim­i­nals do have the intent if not the resources yet, to take over the coun­try, he still has­n’t ful­ly grasped the need for struc­tur­al changes to how our nation is policed.
Those changes will have to be leg­isla­tive. They must include a sea change in the way those in pow­er under­stand the impor­tance of the rule of law and how that under­stand­ing is com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the people.