Prime minister says ‘sophisticated nat’l security plan’ coming
Published:Tuesday | February 18, 2020 | 12:09 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the Government he leads is crafting a sophisticated, well-thought-out national security plan as part of the strategic national economic growth and development agenda for the island.
Holness was speaking last Thursday during the opening of the newly constructed $500-million Jamaica National Service Corps (JNSC) multipurpose building on the grounds of the Jamaica Defence Force’s (JDF) Up Park Camp.
Dubbed ‘Plan Secure Jamaica’, it is being shopped as the first part of a two-pronged support system for a peaceful Jamaica.
“When I say national security, people immediately limit that to crime and violence. [But] crime and violence is just one element of a national security plan.
“We have Plan Secure Jamaica. It is the partner to the economic programme of Jamaica because the message of the Government runs on two rails: the first being our economic prosperity, and the second rail is peace,” Holness said.
He said further that Plan Secure Jamaica is to make the country a peaceful place because there can be no peace without security.
Lieutenant General Rocky Meade, the chief of defence staff, said the completion of work on the building is part of efforts to transform the JDF into an organisation capable of changing the culture of violence in Jamaica.
He said the JDF has a responsibility to support nation building, not just from the perspective of defence but in a holistic way.
“We see ourselves as part of a short-, medium- and long-term plan to help change Jamaica.
“In the short run, we are assisting the Jamaica Constabulary Force to deal with the immediacy of violent crime that we have; in the medium term we seek to build the capacity of the JDF to better deal with the normalisation of the high levels of violence and, in the long run, we are seeking to change this culture of violence, and this JNSC programme is critical in that regard.
Since inception of the programme in 2017, a total 3,455 participants have enrolled and, of the graduates, the JDF has retained approximately 70 per cent of those who have completed the year in the regular force.
A significant number of those not retained have been placed for work in agencies across Government and are being made available to private enterprises.
The prime minister described the building as a physical manifestation of a dream he had for young people in Jamaica.
According to the JCF periodic serious crimes review, there have been 137 murders similar the start of the year, compared to the same period last year when there were 126 killings.
The Government’s approach in pulling youths towards the highly respected JNSC programme is a bridge along the path to cauterising criminality in the country.
Holness said the JDF is bringing into its fold young men and women from across Jamaica who otherwise may become recruits for gangs that have their own forms of discipline, their own culture and their own reward system.
“Now we are taking in almost 1,000 youngsters per year and they are being trained. That’s a thousand less potential for gangs,” he said.
The Holness administration and National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang have been criticised in the past, particularly by the Opposition, for not having a national security plan.
Fitz Jackson, the opposition spokesman on national security, who was also present at the opening, said he believed it was a tacit acknowledegment that the country is yet without a national crime-fighting plan, which the Government is now seeking to develop.
“Regrettably, this is four years in office that they are at this stage with so many persons murdered, shot and injured and robbed right across the country.
“Notwithstanding that, we welcome it, although it’s late to start that effort. The Opposition has been making this call along with other civic groups across the country. The prime minister seemingly has become awakened to the importance and urgency of such a plan, that can embrace all Jamaica, to deal with the problem of crime fighting,” Jackson said.