There was no agreement over use of SOEs Bunting insists

Opposition spokesperson on National Security, Senator Peter Bunting, has taken issue with Prime Minister Andrew Holness over what Bunting has described as Holness' continued assertion about an agreement to support the imposition of States of Public Emergency (SOEs) under certain circumstances. 

Responding during this morning's press conference to The Gleaner's Janet Silvera about whether the government would seek to widen consultation to include other stakeholders before declaring a State of Public Emergency (SOE) to address crime,  Holness noted that there is an agreement in place with the opposition that an SOE would be considered reasonable and justifiable where the per capita murder rate is 32 per 100,000.

However, Bunting has said this is not true. 

"The government continues gaslighting the public on this issue even though the prime minister and his ministers (Chang and Samuda) know it to be false," he stated in a release to the press this afternoon. 

According to Bunting, the matter was recently raised and subsequently debunked in a series of emails between members of the Crime Monitoring and Oversight Committee (CMOC), where it appeared a statement in the Crime Consensus document was misunderstood. 

"...it was asserted that the following statement in the Crime Consensus document meant that the opposition agreed to the use of SOEs: 'We will support the use of the military, as permitted by law, in geographic areas where the homicide rate is above 32 per 100,000 (i.e. 2 times regional average),'" wrote Bunting.

He continued: "As a member of CMOC, and as opposition spokesman on national security, I responded: '...this statement conflates the 'use of the military' with the declaration of an SOE. This is a perpetuation of a falsehood, and the opposition wishes to distance itself from any such statement proposed to be made by the CMOC, and would ask that this position be made clear in the release [by CMOC].'"

He insisted that the opposition has repeatedly stated that it will not be supporting an unlawful declaration of an SOE, or the unlawful use of the military.  

Bunting said the chairman of CMOC, Lloyd Distant subsequently clarified the issue, pointing out that the words "use of the military" was deliberate as there was no agreement among the parties on the use of SOEs. Quoting Distant, Bunting said that the phrase “permitted by law” was used to indicate that it is the parliament's responsibility to determine what would be lawful and best in each instance. 

Bunting said the opposition is willing to cooperate with the government and provide recommendations to resolve the country's crime problem, taking credit for the government's implementation of the Central Kingston ZOSO, which he said the opposition recommended.

"However, it is difficult to effectively cooperate with an administration as insincere and fundamentally dishonest as this Holness led JLP administration is proving itself to be," Bunting concluded.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.