Any threat against the life of Jamaica’s Prime Minister must be immediately and unequivocally condemned.
There can be no ambiguity on this point. Political rivalry is not warfare, and leadership disagreement is not a license for intimidation.
Threatening violence against a head of government is an attack on the democratic order itself — one that must be treated with maximum seriousness by law enforcement. Every such threat must be fully investigated, run down to its source, and every perpetrator brought to justice — swiftly, publicly, and decisively.
Jamaicans know all too well where political violence leads. We have walked that road before. We buried the victims, counted the communities torn apart, and watched our political culture teeter on the brink.
The scars remain. That dark chapter taught us hard lessons: that rhetoric can kill, that disinformation can mobilize mobs, and that reckless political leadership has real, bloody consequences.
Which is why today’s return to violent rhetoric is so dangerous.
The current atmosphere did not arise by accident. It has been stoked — deliberately — by a style of politics rooted not in facts but in provocation, distortion, and emotional manipulation. The leader of the People’s National Party has, through a campaign of exaggerations, selective truth, and open disinformation, helped create an environment where rage masquerades as patriotism and hostility substitutes for argument. It is the textbook recipe for escalation: convince supporters they are under existential threat, portray opponents as enemies rather than fellow Jamaicans, and drown facts beneath noise.
That political playbook has consequences.
Violent rhetoric does not remain rhetorical for long. History shows this with brutal clarity — not just in Jamaica, but across the world. When political leaders normalize extremism or encourage grievance without grounding it in truth, unstable individuals interpret those signals as permission. Online vitriol becomes physical menace. Chants become threats. And threats become action. Some defenders argue that leaders cannot be responsible for the behavior of extremists. Legally, perhaps not. Morally and politically, absolutely. Leadership means owning the climate you create. When your messaging is laced with personal attacks, half-truths, demonization, and appeals to grievance rather than reason, you are not just opposition — you are an accelerant. You become gasoline to the fire you create.
Mark Golding and his band of unpatriotic attention seekers are recreating a Jamaica we eschewed as we look for a brighter future built on a foundation of hard work and personal responsibility.
Maintaining a political movement based solely on the ignorance and a sense of entitlement of supporters is not just a dereliction of responsibility; it is, at the very least, treasonous.
Jamaica worked too hard to climb out of the pit of politically fueled violence to return to it now.
We deliberately turned toward community peace initiatives, electoral reforms, bipartisan restraint, and public campaigns for political decency. We taught a new generation that ballots replace bullets — that disagreement belongs in debates, not in graveyards. That progress must not be undone by the ambitions of any single politician seeking relevance through outrage.
Threats against the Prime Minister — or any political figure — must never be dismissed as “noise,” nor exploited for partisan advantage. This is not about party loyalty; it is about national survival. A democratic state cannot allow its leaders to govern under violent intimidation, nor tolerate messaging that encourages it. The rule of law demands firm action — thorough investigations, prosecutions where warranted, and transparent accountability for those who manufacture threats.
But enforcement alone is not enough. Our political culture must also reassert its red lines:
- No lies dressed as activism.
- No grievance masquerading as patriotism.
- No dehumanization in service of votes.
- And no tolerance for rhetoric that makes violence thinkable.
The Opposition has a constitutional duty to criticize the government — fiercely, even — but it also carries a responsibility to protect democratic stability. Leadership is measured not by how loudly one shouts, but by how responsibly one speaks. Inflaming the public for political advantage is the behavior of a demagogue, not a statesman. This is the moment for Jamaica to choose its direction again. We can allow political discourse to descend back into the gutter of hostility that once made the island synonymous with electoral bloodshed — or we can defend the hard-fought maturity of our democracy by demanding higher standards from all who seek to govern. The disgusting threats against the Prime Minister must be condemned without qualification. They must be pursued without hesitation. And the culture that nurtures those threats — built on lies, provocation, and reckless rhetoric — must be dismantled just as vigorously. Because the safety of one leader is not merely personal. It is symbolic. When any political office holder is threatened, what stands under assault is the nation’s belief that power is transferred by law — — -not fear.
Jamaica’s democracy is stronger than any demagogue. But it requires vigilance to stay that way.
As a measure of my seriousness on this, I am willing to volunteer my time with a team of like-minded patriots to hunt down and bring to justice these ignorant and violent individuals who believe that free speech gives them the right to propagate death threats and acts of intimidation.
We either bring them to justice or bring justice to them.
(MB)
