Prime Minister Calls for United Effort to Tackle Violence

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, is calling for a united effort to reduce violence in society, particularly interpersonal conflicts, which could result in murders.

“When we analyse the murder statistics, you know what we find? Gang murders have gone down but interpersonal crime resulting in murder is going up. It tells a story that personal conflict is resulting in the violent loss of lives, so we have to as a Government, as a people, JLP and PNP, we are going to have to join together to deal with this issue of violence. One place we can join together is the church,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Holness was addressing the fourth annual National Day of Prayer, ‘Heal the Family, Heal the Nation’, at the Power of Faith Ministries International Inc. Miracle Cathedral, Portmore, St. Catherine, on January 3.

Also participating in the event was Leader of the Opposition, Mark Golding.

“When I said we’re going to have to treat with this issue of peace in a deliberate way, Mark, in a non-political way, it is something that we have to join together to treat with peace, because our society is in conflict… we have personal conflicts; we have conflicts at the workplace and conflicts in the community,” the Prime Minister said.

“Murders are down 7.5 per cent… . Serious crimes are the lowest they have been in 22 years. Though our economy is doing well, though we are building the infrastructure, though the statistics show murders are going down, violent and serious crimes are going down, how people feel, what they are being exposed to, what comes across on their social media, it is having an impact on their mental health and well-being, and that is dangerous,” he said.

The Prime Minister noted that he has received preliminary data from the National Violence Prevention Commission, and the Government will soon take steps to implement the necessary interventions.

“We’re going to start working on those to see how we can incorporate, not to the exclusion of anybody; everybody will be involved,” he said.

The National Violence Prevention Commission was mandated to conduct a continuing comprehensive review of all existing public and private violence-prevention programmes as well as the Government’s strategies.

Its purpose is to identify gaps in the prevention and intervention services and make recommendations with respect to appropriate programmes.

The Prime Minister thanked the organisers of the event, noting that “it is important as a nation that each of us get it right with the Lord”.

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition said Jamaica has the capacity to overcome challenges and urged Jamaicans to never give up hope.

The event was hosted by the Power of Faith Ministries International Inc. and the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches, under the theme ‘Restoring the Heart of our Nation as one Family’.

The ceremony was attended by scores of Jamaicans and several members of the Houses of Parliament.