Editorial/s

Regional heads meet this week in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, to explore crime and security issues, and to come up with a plan of action to deal with this surging tide. At their annual meeting last month in Bahamas, the Caricom heads of government indicated an increasing sensitivity to the rising levels of crime in virtually all member-states. They also recognised the increasing linkages between crime and the movement of narcotics throughout the region, and agreed a threat existed to both the internal and external security of their countries and the Caribbeam community as a whole.
The instigator of the plan to meet and deal with growing criminality across the region was Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister, Patrick Manning. His move to ensuring regional participation in dealing with the troubling issues of crime and security is a welcome one. It is something we have been recommending even from this further distance. It is without doubt that as nationals living abroad we continue to hold major stakes and bonds in the Caribbean, whether in ties to families in the homeland, or in major investments in businesses and properties. Manning, along with other leaders in the Caribbean such as Jamaica and Guyana, is undoubtedly aware of the weighty role we play in supporting social growth in our homelands, as well as the significant contributions we make to the economies there. So without doubt, crime and security are paramount on our minds as it is for Caribbean nationals, not only because of our investments there, but are also important factors for our personal safety when we visit.
It is of particular importance, then, that the deteriorating crime and security issues be fully addressed this week in Port-of-Spain. This, in the light of the continuing intensity of crime in Jamaica, the dramatic increase in criminal activity, including kidnappings and murders in Trinidad and Tobago, and the horrific events in Guyana involving the massacres in Luisgnan and Bartica.
It is not only important that these signs of a growing abyss be addressed, but is also critical as nationals both at home and abroad that we make our voices heard - that the sessions this week be more than mere words and political posturing; that decisions and determinations be speedily implemented to be effective across the entire Caribbean.
What we have to do to beat this scourge is insist on a wider approach with regional instruments to ensure effectiveness; we also need to see that the necessary regional legal framework be established towards that end. As nationals staggering under the weight of rampant criminality, we must also make the Caribbean’s governments understand that we will not accept parochial commitments to separate island and state sovereignties that could lead to compromises - to do so would delay a speedy and well-equipped response to the criminal problem. We do not need half-measures. Instead, what we are looking for are solutions based on an effective regional, and not wholly national, complement of forces with across-the-board authority to take out the criminal plague.