PM Designate And Cabinet Should Be Guided By Humility.….

As the Post election autopsy begins in earnest both the victorious JLP and the vanquished PNP will have time to think about who hold the power in our country . (The Jamaican people.)
This period of reflection must begin with the People’s National Party.

TIME OF REST AND RE-ENERGIZING FOR THE PNP

This ought to be a peri­od of reflec­tion for the par­ty of Norman Washington Manley one of the found­ing fathers of our young Nation . The Party must decide whether it wants to con­tin­ue on a path of failed social­ist ideas, long dis­card by many of the for­mer lead­ing spon­sors of that polit­i­cal ide­ol­o­gy. This is not to say that the par­ty should turn it’s back on it’s core prin­ci­ples of demo­c­ra­t­ic social­ism. I am just not sure what clenched fists and Che Guevara berets have to do with a polit­i­cal par­ty of the 21^st cen­tu­ry in a coun­try which is large­ly a con­ser­v­a­tive nation? In the same breath we must rec­og­nize the per­son­al accom­plish­ments of Portia Simpson Miller. She climbed from the streets to sit at the pin­na­cle of polit­i­cal pow­er. That is no easy task . As we go forth into the 21^st cen­tu­ry it is only appro­pri­ate that we do so with fresh lead­er­ship and new ideas. It is time that the People’s National par­ty re-cal­i­brate, reori­ent and re-ener­gize for the good of our country.

TIME OF HUMILITY FOR JLP

It should nev­er elude the Jamaica Labor Party that this is not a time for gloat­ing, arro­gance or self con­grat­u­la­tion. This is the peo­ple’s vic­to­ry not a par­ty vic­to­ry, the soon­er the par­ty rec­og­nizes this the better.
This is a vic­to­ry by boss­es who refused to be told by their employ­ee “I won’t talk my way out of your employ, so I refuse to answer any of your ques­tions”.
This a vic­to­ry by a peo­ple who were told they will final­ly receive a break from the oner­ous tax­a­tion which con­tin­ue to break the back of their abil­i­ty to feed their families.
This is a vic­to­ry of a peo­ple who are tired of tight­en­ing their belts with no end in sight while their ser­vants live the lives of emper­ors and Kings at their expense.
This a vic­to­ry by a peo­ple fed up and tired of being ripped off in scan­dal after scan­dal, Outameni, Finsac, Trafigura, and a litany of others.
This is the vic­to­ry of a an aggriev­ed peo­ple who grew tired of a leader who tells them to go talk to the PNP even though she heads the party.
This a vic­to­ry for a peo­ple tired of being abused.

As Andrew Holness said after win­ning last night “the par­ty is mere­ly entrust­ed with stew­ard­ship” .
Let this be know to each and every mem­ber of the Party’s hier­ar­chy , check your egos and sense of enti­tle­ment at the door or this will be a very short cel­e­bra­tion before things turn sour. The ardu­ous task begins now.
That of trans­form­ing the mind­set of many mis­led into believ­ing gov­ern­ment is sup­posed to be their bene­fac­tor. “Anything a any­thing”. No respect for our laws. Doing what­ev­er they please.
The process of trans­form­ing the nation from pover­ty to pros­per­i­ty will require that the peo­ple are brought along as equal partners.
This will be no easy task.
So let us enjoy this new begin­ning as we pon­der the enor­mi­ty of the task at hand , tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion that for the last 44 years the JLP has only held office for 12 of those years.
There is exten­sive work to be done in terms of mobi­liz­ing the peo­ple imme­di­ate­ly. This can be accom­plished by uti­liz­ing this fresh polit­i­cal cap­i­tal the par­ty just earned.
Every area of the pub­lic sec­tor should now be giv­en an exten­sive audit in order to prop­er­ly account to the Jamaican peo­ple how their tax­es were being spent as well as to elim­i­nate inefficiency.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE :HOLNESS’ INVITATION TO WALK THE GARRISONS.

One of the things Andrew Holness bemoaned about Portia Simpson Miller was that she refused to walk the Garrisons with him as a sym­bol­ic sign that both polit­i­cal par­ties were com­mit­ted to the destruc­tion of Political garrisons.
Unfortunately for her lega­cy and the coun­try Miller refused claim­ing the PNP had no Garrisons and more dis­turbing­ly that she saw no walls in her con­stituen­cy. A point which sug­gest walls are a nec­es­sary com­po­nent of a garrison.
Understandably, Mrs Miller failed or chose to ignore the psy­cho­log­i­cal impli­ca­tions of polit­i­cal sub­servience and dependency.

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Once sworn in Andrew Holness has an oppor­tu­ni­ty to demon­strate that he was seri­ous about erad­i­cat­ing gar­risons from the Jamaican polit­i­cal culture.
It is impor­tant that Mister Holness be mind­ful of the fact that he won a nar­row vic­to­ry sweep­ing all of the seats not cat­e­go­rized as gar­ri­son seats.
Arguably his mar­gin of vic­to­ry could have been much larg­er if those seats weren’t gar­ri­son constituencies.
Conversely if the PNP had more gar­risons he would today be on the out­side look­ing in. On that basis it is impor­tant that he end the Garrison cul­ture as a top pri­or­i­ty of his administration.

SEE ALSO : WHY PORTIA CANNOT RELENQUISH GARRISON.

Whatever the prime Minister des­ig­nate con­tem­plate , it is impor­tant that he keep the promis­es he made .
I am con­fi­dent that he has gone through the nuances and the minu­tia of enact­ing the par­ty’s sig­na­ture 10 point plan.
As I said before, be kind to the peo­ple as you were when you were campaigning.
The par­ty’s agen­da of mov­ing from pover­ty to pros­per­i­ty can­not become a real­i­ty in the chaos of filthy con­gest­ed streets , zinc fence and ven­dors occu­py­ing major thoroughfares.
It is impor­tant that on day one the new admin­is­tra­tion estab­lish­es that it will be an admin­is­tra­tion that is hum­ble and sub­ject to the rule of law.
People are not opposed to the rule of law, they want to know that the laws apply equal­ly to every­one, regard­less of their sta­tion in society.
It is impor­tant that if ven­dors are to be relo­cat­ed there is dia­logue and alter­na­tive accom­mo­da­tions worked out where feasible.
The optics of heav­i­ly armed police and work­ers with bull­doz­ers evict­ing strug­gling ven­dors is nev­er good politically.
The new Administration will be well served to remem­ber these lit­tle nuggets.