The Editor, Sir:

Crime and violence has been a major problem for the Jamaican society for a very long time. The advent of the garrison communities has compounded the problem and it is time to once and for all completely dismantle these communities.

A common feature of these garrisons is that they are locked away behind some old broken-down fences, or some high walls. The criminal elements within have ample time to plan and execute all kinds of crime both within and outside their areas. The unfortunate thing is that the majority of people who live there are law-abiding, except for their complicity in knowing about the plans, the crimes and the criminals and have chosen to do nothing about them.

The garrisons, by and large, occupy prime real estate in Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Catherine and Montego Bay. They are primarily the political enclaves of powerful parliamentarians and therein lies our problem of dismantling these albatrosses around our necks.

A solution has to be found to deal with this monster and I am, therefore, proposing that we immediately, and as a beginning, set about to remove and separate the people from the western belt of the city and scatter them across the length and breadth of Jamaica, provide jobs and housing for them and, by all means necessary, prevent them from forming themselves into any group or realigning with their former neighbours. The houses and most other structures should then be blown up and we can then open up the areas and build huge shopping malls and other high-income-generating complexes.

This sounds like a complex solution and the question would be asked about the legal, social and political framework in which this task would be accomplished. The fact of the matter is that these garrisons account for 67 per cent of the crime in the country and the drain on our resources. And the terrible image for the country demands that the major players come together and form a sociopolitical pact and deal with this problem with the urgency with which it deserves. It will cost us a lot of money, but in the long term, we will benefit immensely from the investment.

These people were somewhere else before they assembled in these enclaves and as a start, they should consider going back to those areas, especially those from the rural parts of the country. This will have to be a multipronged approach bringing together all agencies of government, so that the dislocation and possible bitterness would be as minimal as possible.

The people have signalled in the last election that they want the political directorate to work closely together and, thus, the political capital exists to accomplish this mission. What we need is the political will. Bruce Golding and Portia Simpson Miller could indelibly cement their place in Jamaican history by working together to bring about this necessary change. It is up to us in civil society to put the pressure on and don't let up.

I am, etc.,

SHAWN JOHNSON

jamaicanshawn@yahoo.com

Rosedale Drive, Mandeville