NEW FOREST, Manchester — Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the informal culture in the society and the narrative of lawlessness for survival need to change, adding that the Government has the support of the “silent majority” in enforcing law and order.

“I don’t want to be seen as the prime minister who is trying to stop people from eating a food as there are those who will try to craft that narrative — pitting law and order against survival — that if we enforce the law, if we create order, then people won’t survive, and that is in the minds of many Jamaicans,” Holness said on Tuesday in south Manchester.

The prime minister, in addressing the National Land Agency’s Systematic Land Registration Land Titling Ceremony at New Forest High School, said the Government is faced with changing “decades of breakdown in standards and rules and expectations”.

“The hardships that we now experience are precisely because we do not have an even system of law and order where everyone can benefit from it. And what we must be debating now is how do we get this even, fair, transparent system of public order and the rule of law for everyone to benefit,” said Holness.

The prime minister, in referencing the widespread public debate on the child restraint provision under the new Road Traffic Act, to which the Government has made changes, said it was an “unfortunate presentation”.

“We had a major incident in the country which has somehow managed to capture and possibly even galvanise frustration and agitation in the country, but you know what is surprising? That, in as much as there are complaints regarding what is, in my opinion, an unfortunate presentation of a clause in the new Road Traffic Act, there are still many Jamaicans, and I would dare say the silent majority, those people who form middle Jamaica [who support law and order]. They appreciate and understand what this Administration is trying to do in breaking the culture of informality, in re-establishing the rule of law and public order in our country,” said Holness.

“Still, that silent majority will not come out and say it. They will not endorse because they fear the backlash of those who may be uninformed or those who are vested in chaos and disorder. This Government is the Government for all people: those who are misinformed; those who are vested in chaos and disorder; and those who want to see a Jamaica that is orderly, law-abiding and peaceful — that is what this Government is about…We understand that we can’t make change overnight [as] where we are now took centuries, decades of breakdown in standards and rules and expectations,” added Holness.

Jamaica, he said, is entering a new dispensation of the enforcement of its laws.

“In the previous dispensation you would never have this kerfuffle about the seat belt for children because nobody believed it would be enforced. Now, everybody understands that the Government is serious about enforcement,” he said in reference to the new Road Traffic Act.

“The enforcement is not to punish people. The enforcement is not about greater revenues. No! The enforcement is about public order and public safety — meaning your safety — that is what it is about,” he said.

“So I urge Jamaicans, don’t get caught up in some of the nonsense that is being said. Your country is changing right before your very eyes, but when you are in the midst of change it can appear confusing, chaotic, and oftentimes imperceptible. But when the history is written and you look back at this era and you ask yourself, ‘When did things change for traffic management and public order in Jamaica?’ the historians will have to point to this period in Jamaica’s history.”