JAMAICA 2007 Electoral Debates - Crime should have been focus - Analyst
PHOTO BY PETA-GAYE CLACHAR/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Dr. Ken Baugh chairman of the Jamaica Labour Party
PHOTO BY PETA-GAYE CLACHAR/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Dr. Peter Phillips, vice-president of the People’s National Party.
Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Thursday | August 9, 2007
Political analyst Charlene Sharpe Pryce has criticised both participants in the first national debate for not putting the country's number one problem - crime and violence - as a priority in the first six months of any new administration.
Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips, and Opposition Spokesman on Health and Environment, Dr. Ken Baugh, participated in the first national debate held last night at the Creative Production and Training Centre in Kingston.
Both debaters had divergent views on the root cause of crime, with Dr. Phillips saying that the drug trade was at the centre of crime while Dr. Baugh contended that joblessness and lack of proper social intervention were significant causal factors.
"To some extent they are both on the same side of the coin but really what is the priority area," Mrs. Sharpe Pryce said.
She noted that Dr. Phillips appeared to be responding more to international pressures in dealing with crime.
She said the focus on job creation and providing more educational opportunities were useful proposals by Dr. Baugh in addressing the problem.
"They really should be looking at this multifaceted approach that they need to be taking to deal with the crime issue, it cannot simply be the social conditions and the drug condition," she said.
Another analyst, Keith Collister, described Dr. Phillips as a strong debater, but argued that his weakest point during the first half of the debate was his attempt at defending the Government's record on crime.
Response to hanging weak
The response to hanging, he argued, was weak, noting that Dr. Phillips tried to blame the Privy Council and its rulings for the Government's inability to carry out the death penalty.
Commenting on this issue, Dr. Baugh chided his opponent for blaming the Privy Council, arguing that the courts in Jamaica were in a deplorable condition and that there were enormous delays in the justice system, and cases were not properly tried.
Environmentalist Hugh Dixon is of the view that the debate was weak, adding that there was a "shortage of vision on how the issues will be solved and addressed by any administration in terms of policy".
"But I don't think that the issues are being addressed around how the solutions will be tackled by either administration," he concluded.
