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Published On:Thursday, November 26, 2009

By MEGAN REYNOLDS

Tribune Staff Reporter

mreynolds@tribunemedia.net

CRIME conscious pastor Bishop Simeon Hall is calling for political parties to find some common ground and form a national coalition to combat crime as it spirals out of control.

The leader of New Covenant Baptist Church in Independence Drive, Nassau, insists politicians in the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) opposition and Free National Movement (FNM) government must stop blaming each other for rising crime while leaving the people at risk.

Debate sparked in the wake of the parties' political conventions last month, with the PLP blaming rising crime on the FNM's scrapping of their Urban Renewal initiative, and the FNM maintaining they have maintained the programme, but changed the format.

PLP chairman Bradley Roberts said the PLP version of Urban Renewal, "was structured in such a comprehensive form that it addressed not only crime, but all the criminogenic circumstances which inevitably led to crime."

He added: "The attempt to undermine the effectiveness of the programme by the FNM government has resulted, and is continuing to result, in anarchy and chaos in our society today."

However, the FNM maintains Urban Renewal is still alive and well, but police are now in a liaison role rather than in charge of the programme.

Mr Roberts also called for Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest to resign from his post after 18 international cruise ship passengers were robbed at gunpoint while on an eco-tour of the Bahamas Association for Social Health (BASH) late Friday morning, and accused the minister of having a role in demoralising the police force, helping to force the early retirement of qualified police officers and supporting the removal of police from public schools.

But political blame-gaming is not a sufficient response to the serious concern for public safety brought on by a marked increase in violent crime, Bishop Hall said.

As former chairman of the National Crime Commission, Bishop Hall is keen for crime to be tackled in a meaningful way.

He said: "I am amazed some politicians (past and present) would point fingers and cast blame for the current quagmire of problems we face.

"We will not make any serious dent in the current crime nightmare if those who make the laws remain at the lowest level of blaming each other.

"It would be wrong to blame the crime problem on any one person or group; we are all culpable."

Any politician who has served for the last 35 years should be well aware 50 per cent of the country's crime problems were planted in the 1970s and 1980s, when the drug trade debauched the entire Bahamian society," Bishop Hall said.

Therefore such long-serving politicians are disqualified from finger-pointing on the issue, he added.

"Truth be told, a national coalition involving both political parties and other civic and religious groups is imperative if we must save the day," Bishop Hall submitted.

"The young men with guns are not listening to the pronouncements from the pulpit, nor those from parliament.

"Some young people are not checking - we must go beyond the blather of easy talk to concrete and decisive action.

"Too many people are benefiting from the crime problem and the crime will not be solved or abated as long as it is in the interest of the powerful and influential for things to remain as they have always been."

He added: "It is regrettable that while our country is teetering on the edge of social disintegration, some politicians remain adversarial rather than patriotic and nationalistic in their approach to the big issues."