Soldiers on state of emergency mission
KINGSTON, Jamaica –
The Government failed in its push to extend the states of emergency (SOEs) it declared for seven parishes as all eight Opposition senators voted ‘no’ during the debate on a motion for the extension in the Senate on Friday.
Despite pleadings by the Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Kamina Johnson Smith and her government colleagues, the Opposition closed ranks during what was a sometimes contentious debate.
The SOEs were declared by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on November 15 for the initial two weeks as is legally allowed. Any extension, for up to three months at a time, must be sanctioned by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament. The SOEs were imposed in sections of the so-called southern crescent of Kingston and St Andrew, Clarendon and St Catherine and the tri-parish area of St James, Westmoreland and Hanover.
On Tuesday, the Government used its super majority in the House of Representatives to achieve the required two-thirds majority to vote to extend the security measure until January 14. But, the government needed to peel off the support of one opposition senator in the 21-member Senate in order to achieve the two-thirds majority in the upper chamber.
The opposition senators voted no despite the appeal from 15 private sector organizations, and statistics presented by Holness on Tuesday that since the declaration of the SOEs, the murder toll for a one-week period had fallen to its lowest ever since 2015.
As they have done repeatedly, Opposition senators argued that the SOEs were unconstitutional and that matters were still before the court. Senator Donna Scott-Mottley took issue with what she said was the government’s treatment of SOEs as another tool in a tool kit to be used routinely. She argued that this was not contemplated by the constitution. According to Scott-Mottley, the impression given by the government was that the SOE was the only thing that can help in the crime fight.
Government Senator Ransford Braham rubbished a suggestion from his opposition counterpart Lambert Brown that the government, rather than asking the opposition for its support to extend the security measure, should instead just make a declaration every 14 days until it achieved its objective. Braham said the advice was both unconstitutional and non-sensical.
Brown also noted the statement from the Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson when the latest SOEs were declared, that the police had prepared over 300 intelligence packages on persons identified as violence producers.
Brown questioned why those persons were not targeted instead of subjecting much of the rest of the country to SOEs. He also questioned how many of them have been detained in the 10 days since the SOEs were in force.
Earlier, both Scott-Mottley and Brown walked out of the chamber over claims that government senator Aubyn Hill had referred to Opposition senators as supporters of criminals. Hill denied making the statement but eventually withdrew in the interest of peace and the importance of the debate.
The two senators later returned to the chamber and made their contribution to the debate.
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