Gareth Manning and Rasbert Turner, Sunday Gleaner Reporters

THE PARLIAMENTARY Opposition, human-rights lobbyists and political commentators are thrashing Prime Minister Bruce Golding for his failure to act on promises to transform political garrisons, which are criminal hotbeds. In recent weeks, the murder rate in Jamaica has soared, prompting calls for urgent action by the Government.

In the wake of biting criticisms, the prime minister, while addressing members of the Victoria Cross on Friday at the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) headquarters, Up Park Camp, said that a new crime strategy would be put into action in a few days to deal with the upsurge of criminal activities.

depending on loyalty

He told the army veterans that he had instructed the JDF's chief of staff and the commissioner of police, to effect certain changes, and that he would be depending on their "great record of loyalty to the nation to help in the fight against crime".

Police data show that three quarters of the murders committed in the Corporate Area since the start of the year took place in political garrisons. Such enclaves in Kingston and St Andrew record 202 of the 564 murders between January 1 and May 11.

Political garrisons are characterised by dominant electoral support for a political party, often ensured by force.

no attempt at debate

Leading up to the 2007 general election, Golding, then Leader of the Opposition, pledged that if his party were elected to govern the country, he would enact into law the relevant sections of the Political Code of Conduct, as well as amend Section 40 (2) (g) of the Jamaica Constitution to include a provision that allowed any person convicted under the enactment to be automatically disqualified for a period, determined by the court, from contesting any election or holding any elected office. The proposal was also included in the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) manifesto.

But close to nine months into office, the Golding administration has said very little about the issue of dismantling garrisons and so far, no attempt has been made to raise the issue for debate in Gordon House.

failed promises

Chairman of the parliamentary Opposition, People's National Party (PNP) Robert Pickersgill, says Golding's failure to discuss the issue is, at best, another example of the promises he has failed to keep so far.

"They said crime would be their top priority and things should be hunky-dory for them now that the person who wrote the crime plan, (Trevor MacMillan, who led the 2006 Road Map to a Safe and Secure Jamaica report, is the minister of national security. So I really don't know," Pickersgill tells The Sunday Gleaner.

"Anything that they come up with that is really credible and is workable, we will certainly [consider]," Pickersgill says.

Police officers and onlookers work the murder scene where two policemen were killed in Trench Town on Friday, May 23. Trench Town is one of the many inner-city garrisons where violence flares from time to time. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer