Central Westmoreland By Elections Real Test

By ‑Elections to be held for the seat occu­pied by the late Roger Clarke in Central Westmoreland will be a sig­nif­i­cant indi­ca­tor in Jamaica Politics. The out­come of those elec­tions will deter­mine once and for all whether Jamaicans as a peo­ple can turn the cor­ner from blind polit­i­cal alle­giance and embrace a future of hope. Or whether they will con­tin­ue in the squalid gut­ter of polit­i­cal patri­o­tism , hun­gry and with­out a future.

The seat has been occu­pied by the People’s National Party for 25 years. Conditions in the Constituency leaves much to be desired though the People’s National Party have been in office for all except 4 years of that time.
The Elections will be a three-way affair this time between Financial con­sul­tant Faye Reid- Jacobs of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Businessman Dwayne Vaz, for the

PNP and Independent can­di­date Ras Astor Black of the Jamaica Alliance Movement.

Candidates of both major Political Parties were sup­port­ed at the nom­i­na­tion process by their respec­tive par­ty lead­ers . Jamaica Labor Party Leader Andrew Holness said quote, I sense a wind of change and the Jamaica Labour Party has put up its sails. We are mov­ing in Central Westmoreland,”.

Word of advice to Holness, noth­ing good hap­pens unless one lay the foun­da­tion and work like Hell to make a dream become real­i­ty. Bad things hap­pen all by them­selves. If they are going to win that Central Westmoreland, seat the JLP will have to get up of it’s col­lec­tive behind, go out and con­vince peo­ple why they need to embrace change.

Not to be out­done the Leader of the People’s National Party, and Prime Minister , Portia Simpson Miller said quote. 

“It will come back. This is PNP ter­ri­to­ry,” In ref­er­ence to the Constituency. Typical Simpson Miller under­stand­ing of politics.Gang-land, Garrison, enti­tle­ment. It’s ours, as if the peo­ple have no say in who their elect­ed Representatives are.

Miller went on to say,“The real­i­ty is that President Obama became a black pres­i­dent of the US and it was not expect­ed that a black man would have become pres­i­dent in the US,”.

That was vin­tage Portia, mak­ing a weak attempt at being the vic­tim, play­ing up the gen­der card. Someone in the gath­er­ing of PNP big­wigs should have had the good sense to nudge their Leader and remind her she is the Prime Minister. At some point Portia must come to the real­iza­tion that she is the leader of the coun­try. She can­not be allowed to play gen­der and class games in order to retain power. 

She has the pow­er, the peo­ple must demand she use it in their inter­est or step aside. This will be the best indi­ca­tor of whether the peo­ple are turn­ing the cor­ner, whether the winds of change are blow­ing the oth­er way, as Holness seem to believe. 

It was not the JLP tak­ing the Cassia Park Seat in the Local Government Elections as some Laborites seem to believe. Central Westomreland will indi­cate to the JLP and Jamaicans in the dias­po­ra whether the Country will con­tin­ue on the down­ward slide to becom­ing a failed state mired in pover­ty and crime.