No one needs to tell Colonel Trevor MacMillan the gravity of the problem that faces him in his new role as national security minister. If he needs to be told, he ought not be in the job - a presumptuous claim by anyone.

We are going ahead, nonetheless, in reminding Colonel MacMillan of a little of the nature of the beast he has to confront. There are the hard numbers: More than 560 homicides in Jamaica already this year, and that statistic does not include the number of people killed by the police - alleged criminals, allegedly shot having engaged the cops in firefights. There were more than 200 of these last year.

Or, we can take the fact of more than 1,574 murders last year, placing Jamaica among the top three countries for homicides in the world.

Yet, as horrifying as these statistics are, they do not capture the real story or the full extent of the problem. Data, after all, have a way of presenting a distant, sanitised, disembowelled version of the truth. In the case of Jamaica, it wipes away the blood and the gore and the rising stench of fear.

Brazen act

Perhaps the image of the beast that Colonel MacMillan, the police chief, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, and perhaps Prime Minister Golding, need to hold before them is that of Sushania Young and how she died: in Half-Way Tree; at mid-morning; on a bright Monday; in the presence of scores, perhaps hundreds, of people. Ms Young was indeed, young - only 25.

In the heart of a busy plaza, a man with whom she was apparently having a conversation pulled a gun and pointed it towards her. She ran. He fired. She ran. She fell. He came over her. He fired. Into her head. He escaped, if that is what it can be called, after such a brazen act.

Whatever the motive, the killing of Ms Young was not merely criminal behaviour. It was an act of terrorism in an environment of anarchy. As was the case on Saturday when a bus driver was shot dead as he steered his bus, whose passengers were being robbed, into the fortress-like Central Police Station.

Do not have luxury of time

The point here is that Colonel MacMillan, Admiral Lewin, and especially Prime Minister Golding, have to be clear that they are not operating in an environment of 'normal' criminality. This is a circumstance that demands more than conventional solutions. Nor do we have the luxury of time if Jamaica is to be rescued as a viable society.

In other words, Colonel MacMillan, with responsibility for policy, has to craft solutions that will demand thinking outside the box. The task force report he helped to author for Mr Golding as a multidisciplinary approach to the problem of crime offers a good start to a solution, particularly if the current crisis is stabilised. But it will not be sufficient to reverse anarchy.

There is need, concurrently, for some tough, effective policing and a willingness to consider unconventional ideas. And enforcement will have to be absolutely ethical. At the same time, Colonel MacMillan may find that he will have to forego some old friendships.