Nagra Plunkett, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Government's appointment of Colonel Trevor MacMillan as the country's national security minister has been met with mixed reactions from several stakeholders in western Jamaica.

"I think MacMillan was presumptuous in announcing his own appointment," commented O. Dave Allen, chairman of the Community Organisation for Sustainable Management (COMAND).

"I was hoping that young fresh minds, say (Dr Christopher) Tufton or (Robert) Montague, would have come to bear on this pressing issue of crime."

COMAND is an organisation that represents marginalised and inner-city communities in St James, Trelawny, Hanover and Westmoreland.

Requisite resources needed

But former government minister and political stalwart Francis Tulloch believes that Colonel MacMillan must get the requisite resources in order for him to efficiently tackle the worsening crime wave, which has seen more than 560 Jamaicans murdered since January.

"I see nothing wrong with the choice. Between himself and the police commissioner (Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin) they could be a good team. But if they don't get the means to carry out their jobs, they can't succeed," he told The Gleaner yesterday.

"It is not policing and national security that we have to think about. We have problems of social reconstruction, like the dismantling of small and big garrisons, economic problems, unemployment and lack of education."

27-year veteran

Col MacMillan served as head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force between 1993 and 1996, and is a 27-year veteran of the Jamaica Defence Force.

Businessman Mark Kerr-Jarrett, chairman of the St James Parish Development Committee, in welcoming the appointment, said Col MacMillan has a proven track record.

Reverend Glendon Powell, superintendent for the Cornwall Division of the Open Bible Churches, said that while he was confident in Col MacMillan's ability as a purposeful leader, he nonetheless believes that a spiritual solution is needed to Jamaica's crime problem.

"We must understand that the problem we are having in this country is a spiritual one," concluded Rev Powell, who pastors the Flankers Open Bible Church.

nagra.plunkett@gleanerjm.com