The Dawn Of A New Day In Jamaica…

After Andrew Holness sought his own mandate from the Jamaican people and was told no in 2011, I wrote an article in which I suggested that though a loss stung it was not the end of the road.
JLP MUST SNATCH VICTORY FROM THE ASHES OF DEFEAT:

The events which lead up to the secu­ri­ty forces assault on Tivoli Gardens and issues relat­ed to then Prime Minister Bruce Golding soured the Jamaican peo­ple on the JLP.
It was not sur­pris­ing that they would return the tired jad­ed out of ideas PNP to office after an unprece­dent­ed 14 ¹⁄₂ years in office and a mere four year break.
Like a con­tused wound which need­ed lanc­ing the JLP need­ed to be away from Governance, the Jamaican peo­ple made the cor­rect deci­sion in remov­ing the par­ty from office.

I sug­gest­ed then that if Andrew Holness want­ed to lead the JLP or more impor­tant­ly lead the proud Jamaican peo­ple he would have to earn that honor.
He would have to get into the trench­es , in the crevass­es , the hills and gul­lies , the byways and ham­lets of Jamaica where he would meet the real­ly great peo­ple of Jamaica.
The real­ly great peo­ple I met when I was a young police offi­cer and was sent all over the Island into these small ham­lets and coves where the best Jamaicans reside.
I opined that if he did that and endeared him­self to the peo­ple he would be unbeatable.

Say what you want about Portia Simpson Miller but she suc­ceed where many so-called intel­lects have failed because she endeared her­self to the com­mon man.
I said then Andrew Holness must do the same or he will nev­er ever enter Gordon House as Prime Minister.
Unfortunately for Portia Simpson Miller on February 25^th 2016 she was sent pack­ing because after she was elect­ed she decid­ed to stop talk­ing to the people.Not talk­ing to the Press is not talk­ing to the people.

She refused to address gross cor­rup­tion and incom­pe­tence in her admin­is­tra­tion. She refused to debate the oppo­si­tion as was cus­tom­ary at elec­tion time of late. The peo­ple got a gen­er­al sense she was being disrespectful.
Portia got away from her win­ning ways.
Whether it was the refusal to debate or the fix­a­tion with Holness’s house, or whether it was Labor’s 10 point plan I will leave that for the polit­i­cal pathologists.
In the end she did almost the very same thing she did when she was nar­row­ly beat­en by Golding in 2007. She did­n’t exact­ly promise to be any­one’s worst night­mare but her speech was less than con­grat­u­la­to­ry or magnanimous.
Once again she missed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to be gra­cious . It is prob­a­bly safe to say she will nev­er be Prime Minister ever again , I can see the knives out at her back as the Peter Phillips and oth­ers line up to take her out like Brutus did Caesar.
Portia lost the elec­tion and also failed in her speech to give thought to her legacy.

Over the years one of the labels which stuck to the JLP is that the par­ty is a par­ty for the rich.
It was the far­thest thing from the truth but the PNP was so open­ly hos­tile to the rich or well-off that the mass­es nat­u­ral­ly default­ed to the notion that the Labor Party must be filled with rich peo­ple and there­fore the par­ty was not for them.
That was nev­er the case as I have stat­ed over and over again. The Jamaica Labor Party was start­ed as a work­ing man’s par­ty by the ulti­mate hus­tler and busi­ness­man turned Trade Unionist Alexander Bustamante.
It was Bustamante who spent near­ly two years of his life locked up by the British Authorities for stand­ing up for work­ers rights. It was appalling to see the Government of Simpson Miller pay homage to Norman Manley refer­ring to him as the father of the Nation with­out giv­ing respect to Bustamante or even men­tion­ing Sir Alexander’s name.
JLP DID A POOR JOB OF MAXIMIZING BUSTAMANTE’S CONTRIBUTION : PNP MAXED OUT MANLEY’S…

JLP WIN BIRTHDAY PRSENT FOR BUSTAMANTE , VINDICATION FOR SEAGA

This win was a great birth­day present for Bustamante whose birth­day the nation cel­e­brat­ed on February 24^th .
A day lat­er would have been quite okay by the Chief.
On elec­tion day I called a few of my friends in Jamaica most­ly Police offi­cers work­ing the streets with a view to get­ting a feel for the pulse of the day’s happening.
I spoke to a female sub-offi­cer who is a sup­port­er of the PNP. I asked her why not vote for a change? She explained to me with­out anger , or ran­cor that mem­bers of the JLP were too arro­gant and disrespectful.
This com­ing from a senior police offi­cer who have giv­en years of ser­vice to her country.
This is some­thing I have writ­ten about exten­sive­ly myself , the sense of Elitism and rude­ness some mem­bers of the JLP has shown toward oth­er peo­ple must no longer be tolerated.
https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​h​o​l​n​e​s​s​-​s​h​o​u​l​d​-​g​i​v​e​-​g​a​m​m​o​n​-​a​-​t​a​l​k​i​n​g​-​t​o​-​m​a​y​b​e​-​s​h​o​w​-​h​i​m​-​t​h​e​-​d​o​or/

This is a new day for Jamaica, let this be a day of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. Let Laborites and com­rades come togeth­er as Jamaicans and start on the path of build­ing our great coun­try to be what she can be . Let us put the green back into our flag and nev­er again allow low-class polit­i­cal hus­tlers to deface our nation­al sym­bols and trea­sures even as they are en-robed in the vile cloth of dubi­ous power.

Let us restore civil­i­ty to our coun­try. Let us be revered and respect­ed in the Caribbean and the world again. Let every­one want to come to our coun­try again instead of every­one lin­ing up to leave. Let us tear down the imag­i­nary walls of polit­i­cal exclu­sions so that res­i­dents all, PNP and JLP can expe­ri­ence the cool winds of free­dom , change and pros­per­i­ty. Let us offer hope and promise to our young peo­ple as we make it pos­si­ble for them to put away guns and pick up lap­top com­put­ers , pens and oth­er tools of use­ful trade.
Let us not return to the pol­i­tics of dependency,envy and hate but let us aspire to a future where our young peo­ple can dream of being great right there in their own country.

Let us begin the task of rebuild­ing on the con­cept that Government can not and will not make peo­ple rich but that Government will begin the task of remov­ing the bar­ri­ers so that peo­ple can make them­selves and their chil­dren rich.
This is a new begin­ning for the Jamaican people.
It is a new oppor­tu­ni­ty for the Labor Party to recon­nect and re-engage the Jamaican people.
Let us not waste this oppor­tu­ni­ty. Let us do what we said we would do .
Let us begin the task now.
I am proud of you Jamaica.….….……