Last Thursday's call by Dr. Peter Phillips, the new National Security Minister, for a national crusade to rid Jamaica of the narco-terroristic threat, is timely.
As investigative reports published in this newspaper from time to time (and in recent days) have shown, the cocaine trade and its pervasive, corruptive multi-billion-dollar influence pose a clear and present danger of destabilizing this small state.
Indeed, over the last several years, international narco-traffickers have been at work in Jamaica, more than imperceptibly, corrupting people to facilitate their trade and cementing linkages in furtherance of their continuing criminal enterprise.
The new Minister of National Security recognises the powerful temptation of their multi-million-dollar bribes. "Those resources," he said, "make possible, buying officials in law enforcement and other officials and threatening judges," comparing the narcotics trade to "a dagger aimed at the very heart of our society".
Dr. Phillips, in his speech to the country's captains of industry and commerce, warned that "Jamaica must develop a consensus where crime and violence are concerned, as the narcotics trade flourishes where it can exploit disunity and divisions."
His assessment was spot on. With his statement that up to 100 tonnes of cocaine pass through Jamaica each year, he underscored the need for Jamaicans "to understand the magnititude of the problem and the vast ripple effect it has throughout the society and economy."
But there is a critical trumpet that the Minister didn't sound, a crucial bell that he didn't ring. It is the almost seamless linkages between all-powerful political party dons - PNP and JLP - and the international cocaine and ganja connections.
It is one thing for him to recognise narcotics trafficking for what it really is - "a primary cause for the demand for guns and ammunition for the protection of the pernicious trade" - and a significant contributor to many other forms of major crime.
But unless he is serious about extirpating the multinational drug dealers regardless of how deeply embedded the roots of their domestic partners are in the PNP and the JLP, then his speech on Thursday would have been just another inaugural oration.
Clearly he recognises the problem. He has to go one further and demonstrate that he has the political will to deal with it, without fear or favour - and now.
