Letter of the Day | Crime, corruption, mayhem and violence destroying this country

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Daily Gleaner’s edition, dated April 20, published the Letter of the Day, headlined ‘Break the cycle of mayhem and disorder’, written by Esther Tyson. Very instructively, the informed letter writer wrote, “Disorder, mayhem, violence, corruption, and falsehood reign in this nation. This is a culture created by greed and dishonesty governed from the top to the bottom in this nation.”

I distinctly remember the late and highly respected radio talk show host and journalist par excellence, Wilmot Perkins, regularly stating on his programme that Jamaica is inherently corrupt from bottom to top and top to the bottom, and he was so correct. However, even worse, scandalous and reprehensible is the fact that corruption is all-pervasive throughout this country, both within the public and private sectors and within the Church as well. Without a doubt, governmental corruption and immense waste of taxpayers’ monies has got worse in recent years, to the extent where, some years ago, it was publicly reported that approximately J$6 billion worth of oil could not be accounted for at the government-operated Petrojam. What has been the result of those investigations?

The current, serving Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration has to begin to take a firm, no-nonsense and serious action against all forms of corruption, misuse of taxpayers’ monies, and persons so criminally involved face the full force of the law. Some prominent political and public affairs commentators have referred to this JLP Government as the most corrupt one to have served Jamaica, and the Opposition Leader Mark Golding and Opposition Spokesman on National Security Peter Bunting has also stated this viewpoint. I am in total agreement with that opinion. Criminal cases which involve politicians and elected politicians should be adjudicated on in the courts on a fast-tracked basis. I distinctly remember, approximately two years ago, an investigation was carried out by two retired senior United States’ law enforcement officials into some Jamaican politicians, and it was discovered that there are politicians currently serving within the Jamaican political system who are allegedly involved in high-level organised crime, specifically illegal narcotics trafficking, and the information was provided to the Jamaican government, and there has not been one single word to date re: any local police or army investigations into those allegations and information.

For example, in the United States, which consistently, fearlessly and constantly subscribes to the rule of law, all citizens are equal before the law and therefore no elected politician is above the law. Jamaica should recognise the significant importance of applying the law evenly, fairly and impartially towards every Jamaican citizen. The rampant corruption within government and the political process must be cleaned up, for it is causing this country to lose over J$150 billion per annum. The crime problem is out of control, and I sincerely implore and urge my fellow Jamaicans to begin to vociferously, eloquently and fearlessly speak out against murder, gang crimes, narcotics trafficking, extortion, lottery scamming and cybercrimes, which are all engulfing this country. And I dare to state here that some of these crimes are not being reported to the media but are being surreptitiously hidden. Citizens must begin to inform and cooperate with the security forces, so that this country can see a 50 per cent reduction in major crimes over the next two years. Jamaica still has one of the highest murder rates within the world. The security forces require the total and comprehensive support of the Jamaican people in assisting them to positively address the country’s extremely high crime rate massively destroying this country. Citizens often vehemently and loquaciously blame the police for the high crime and murder rate but are hypocritically refusing to cooperate with the police and provide the information which they have on many of the crimes taking place in their communities.

The question must be asked, are the elected parliamentarians setting the proper, respectable, and appropriate example for the young people of this country? When Prime Minister Andrew Holness recklessly walked out of Parliament while the Opposition Leader Mark Golding was articulating his contribution to the Budget Debate, what type of example is Holness setting for the citizens of this country? Recently, a constituency candidate for the People’s National Party stated publicly his support for scamming, [so] what sort of example are our political leaders setting for the young citizens of this country? The Church leaders, who are supposed to be the moral compass for this nation, are sleeping and need to wake up and begin to speak out about the corruption, lawlessness, rampant indiscipline, laziness, disorder and out-of-control crime rate, and also enunciate some solutions to this myriad of problems damaging this country. Law, order, and discipline need to be restored to Jamaica, for things are, simply put, falling apart at a rapid rate.

Robert Dalley