Lester Spaulding WESTERN BUREAU:
J. LESTER Spaulding, chairman and managing director of the RJR Communications Group, has urged the Government to begin weeding out corruption in the police force and recognise that the country could not continue along its "slippery path without serious repercussions".
In an address to the Montego Bay business community at the RJR Western Region Appreciation Dinner and Awards function at the Caribbean Showplace, Ironshore, on Saturday, he lamented the state of the country.
"Not only do we need a serious comprehensive anti-corruption drive in the force, but it must be transparent where progress is continuously reported to the public, through deliberate communication aimed at convincing the public, whose faith the police have lost," he said.
"The country is absorbed by scandal after scandal," he said alluding to a public sector pay scandal, the street people saga, allegations of police drug smuggling, the prison break-outs and what, he said, seemed to be warming up to be the "Contractors Provident Society Scandal".
"This new decade is being characterised by a daily barrage of indiscipline, scandal, corruption, crime, and violence, while hope stands wearily on the sidelines, waiting for some cue to make an entrance". A cue, Mr. Spaulding said, "we might not achieve for now".
Part of the backlash the country is already seeing, according to Mr. Spaulding is children with weapons in school, high illiteracy rates, disregard for human life, increases in white-collar crime and the increase of crime against women. Then there were the persons who are forced to live behind burglar bars or hired security, he said.
At the function 15 awards were presented to RJR Communications Group staff members and Western advertisers. Mr. Spaulding commended the staff for their hard work, diligence, vigilance and the relentless pursuit of excellence which, he said, had helped them in realising their milestone achievement of 50 years in the media.
