In our quest to tackle our problem of crime, there are some additional critical steps that may have to be considered at the political level.

I am proposing that we seriously look at suspending our Constitution and have a power-sharing arrange-ment set up in the Parliament and a Cabinet comprising the present prime minister retaining his position for three more years and the opposition leader becoming the deputy prime minister.

There should be an equal number of Cabinet ministers serving from both sides of the political aisle. The roles of the prime minister and the deputy prime minister will be reversed after those three years and the Cabinet roles would remain the same. Non-performing ministers would be removed and replaced with a party member.

No elections

There would be no elections in the next eight years and the constituency representation would remain the same. If the MP is older than 70, he should relinquish his/her position as MP and, with the consultation of the party, he/she would appoint a successor from the party. That age barrier should not preclude MPs from serving as ministers of government.

We should recognise that the political parties have only slight ideological differences and so there has to be a mechanism worked out to settle those differences at the Cabinet level.

Arbitration panel

My proposal is that we appoint an arbitration panel headed by the governor general and the local Privy Council as well as the members of the Electoral Commission to be final arbiters on any major ideological differences in the Cabinet.

What the country needs at the moment is some breathing room, so that we can extricate ourselves from the corrosive politics that has so engulfed us over the last 40 years. If these suggestions are taken on board, we could then tackle the crime problem, along with the social and economic difficulties in a bipartisan or non-partisan manner.

I am, etc.,

SHAWN JOHNSON

ngraJamaica@yahoo.com