The PNP’s Disdain For The Electorate Will Elude Thousands And Thousands Of Die-hards.….

People’s National Party Leader Portia Simpson Miller and her party has decided to forego the debates process and make itself available to a friendly panel of questioners hosted by RJR.

The People’s National Party on Thursday said it has accept­ed an invi­ta­tion from the RJR Communications Group to take part in a 90-minute ses­sion focus­ing on the 2016 gen­er­al elec­tion. According to the Jamaican Media one Journalist has announced that she will not be par­tic­i­pat­ing in that ques­tion and answer being host­ed by the RJR group as a mat­ter of principle.
This medi­um wish­es to con­grat­u­late that Journalist who refus­es to sur­ren­der her jour­nal­is­tic prin­ci­ples in order to be in on the sen­sa­tion­al­ist fer­vor sur­round­ing a polit­i­cal party.

By cre­at­ing pre­con­di­tions to par­tic­i­pat­ing in the debates the PNP has demon­strat­ed that it does not con­sid­er itself con­strained by rules of accountability.
Thumbing it’s nose at the Jamaican peo­ple, the People’s National Party has demon­strat­ed that true to it’s prin­ci­ples, noth­ing has changed from Michael Manley’s ide­o­log­i­cal flir­ta­tious affair with Communism before he was sent pack­ing in 1980 by the Jamaican people.

The nar­ra­tive Jamaica is PNP coun­try ought to stand as a stark reminder to all Jamaicans that that par­ty does not believe in the demo­c­ra­t­ic process. The prime Minister’s refusal to speak to the Media for the greater part of her term in office, her par­ty’s refusal to account regard­ing Trafigura, Finsac , and oth­er scan­dals, is in line with it’s most recent deci­sion not to debate the opposition.

These are not the actions of a demo­c­ra­t­ic par­ty , but a par­ty will­ing to do the bare min­i­mum to get through the elec­toral process hop­ing to be allowed to go back to being unac­count­able and above the law. A news release from the PNP Thursday said that a PNP con­tin­gent, led by Portia Simpson Miller, would field ques­tions from a group of jour­nal­ists drawn from with­in the RJR Group’s news­room. The ses­sion will be broad­cast before February 22, the release added.

Regardless of the dis­re­spect and dis­dain come February 25^th thou­sands and thou­sands of Jamaicans will emerge from all walks of life, over hills and gul­lies to vote for the People’s National Party. None of this will mean any­thing to them because as they will read­i­ly tell you they were born “Kumreds”.
It’s dif­fi­cult to envis­age how that par­a­digm is reversed in light of the pre­vail­ing lack of edu­ca­tion on the part of the wider elec­torate . The Political par­ties expect the peo­ple to vote for them regard­less of their behav­ior this time will be no different.

We wish to update this sto­ry since it was first reported >
The RJR Media group has announced that the 90 minute ques­tion and answer it had sched­uled between the group and the two major polit­i­cal par­ties is now off.
RJR has advised that Opposition leader Leader Andrew Holness advised that he would now decline par­tic­i­pa­tion as the RJR fora is being posi­tioned by the People’s National Party as an alter­na­tive to the Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC) debates,” the RJR Group said. RJR Group calls off news forum with PNP, JLP

This medi­um sup­port the deci­sion of the Opposition par­ty on the basis that the debates process is an estab­lished pro­to­col designed for can­di­dates offer­ing them­selves for lead­er­ship of our coun­try to be ques­tioned by the media with a view to edu­cat­ing the pub­lic as to what they would do if elected.
The People’s National Party does not have the right to sum­mar­i­ly decide it will not par­tic­i­pate in that estab­lished prac­tice (though not a law) while seek­ing alter­na­tive means which it deduces may be more friend­ly to it’s poli­cies. MB