New British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Peter Mathers, addresses the Lions Club of Kingston yesterday at the Jamaica Pegasus. At left is Lions President Desmond Brown. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer NEW BRITISH High Commissioner to Jamaica, Peter Mathers, has urged Jamaicans to break "formal and informal links with organised crime" to quell lawlessness across the nation.
Addressing the Lions Club of Kingston Speakers' Meeting at the Jamaica Pegasus yesterday, the High Commissioner said a change in attitude in consumer countries was necessary to defeat the drug trade, as well as reducing supply. He encouraged citizens to embrace initiatives, such as Crime Stop, designed to bring together the police and the public in the fight against crime.
"We accept that there are many major problems facing humankind, man-made and natural," he said, "but we can all help each other in seeking solutions."
However, keen to stress that crime and drugs only make up one prong of the British-Jamaican diplomatic relationship, Mathers chose to concentrate on areas of trade and development for the bulk of his lunchtime address.
"I am not one of those who see globalisation as a threat, or as a phenomenon skewed in favour of big business and against the interests of smaller or developing countries," he said.
"Globalisation provides new opportunities from which we can all benefit," he asserted, highlighting that Jamaica has found a lucrative market in the UK.
Mather noted that Jamaican exports to the UK in 2001 totalled 117.91 million pounds(sterling), while British investment in Jamaica, at the last count in 1998, was 855 million pounds, with global giants Cable and Wireless, British Airways and Shell among those big businesses investing heavily in the island.
He urged Jamaican businesses to be more aggressive in the new climate and to lobby government to carve a favourable, economic climate.
"You don't want your politicians legislating in a vacuum," he said, suggesting that private sector concerns must be "taken forward into the arenas of the main political parties."
Mathers also welcomed any advice from the private sector, while outlining plans for UK-driven enterprise development in tourism and export markets.
"Any ideas or suggestions for ways we might improve these programmes would be extremely welcome," he said.
Other linchpins of the UK development programme include public sector reform in collaboration with the Health, Education, Youth and Culture and Finance and Planning Ministries, with a view to incorporate the Ministries of Justice and National Security as well as security and justice, education reform aimed at developing all-age schools in rural areas, poverty reduction and community development.
"These are problems that face us all," he said. "But we can identify solutions on a co-operative basis because our aspirations are also shared."
High Commissioner Mathers comes to Jamaica with experience of European, Mideastern and Caribbean issues. He has served in various diplomatic capacities in Sweden, Iran, Holland, the UN and Barbados.
