JLP’S Commitment to the Fight against Crime without Question – Samuda

Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Karl Samuda has said that the Jamaica Labour Party’s commitment to support efforts to reduce crime and violence was without question.
Mr. Samuda was speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (June 8), where he sought to clarify the Opposition’s position on meeting the stipulations of the Private Sector Organisation’s Emancipation Declaration of May 25.
The declaration, among other things, calls on politicians to sign a code of conduct signaling their pledge to disassociate themselves from any connections with criminal elements, as part of the efforts to restore law and order to bring a halt to the country’s spiraling crime rate.
Mr. Samuda said while the Opposition was in support of all bodies within the country, that shared a determination to fight crime, any such declaration by parliamentarians must be made in a manner that kept and retained the dignity of this House and its members.
Furthermore, he noted, such a commitment should be given to the Jamaican populace at large and not an organization and it was the Political Ombudsman that should design the structure around which such a level of commitment should be made.
“That is the proper forum in which the whole issue of crime and violence as it relates to our commitment… should be framed. no individual, no grouping outside has the right to speak about forcing the lawmakers of the country to say they are not involved in illegal activity. It is to be framed within the structure of governance and the most appropriate office to deal with it is the Office of the Ombudsman,” he told his colleagues.
He further stressed that the party was “prepared to give this undertaking to the Jamaican people without hesitation,” but on the basis that the Political Ombudsman undertake the preparation and execution of the declaration.
Mr. Samuda said that while the signed commitment would not in itself solve the crime problem, the contribution could only bring lasting and real results, when every parliamentarian decided that regardless of personal political interests, no comfort would be offered to criminals.
Furthermore Mr. Samuda said, the commitment to exposing corruption in private and public places remained firm.