Give The PNP Some Gasoline, Some Matches And Let Rome Burn.…..

Political par­ties are run by peo­ple . People are immoral, cor­rupt self-serv­ing and arro­gant . As such it’s not out of the ordi­nary to see polit­i­cal par­ties go through seri­ous tran­si­tions . In some cas­es becom­ing relics of their for­mer selves, until they get the mes­sage vot­ers want them to get, that it can­not be busi­ness as usual.

The Republican par­ty in the United States would prob­a­bly be a region­al par­ty were it not for the unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic prac­tice of ger­ry­man­der­ing . A prac­tice which cre­ates grotesque­ly shaped dis­tricts to keep them with­ing the par­ty in con­trol of the leg­isla­tive branch.

In my native Jamaica the Jamaica Labor Party has gone through it’s own learn­ing cure, a curve of it’s own cre­ation , made pos­si­ble by arro­gance, self­ish­ness ‚elit­ism and infighting .
As such the peo­ple grav­i­tat­ed to what they viewed as their least worse choice, the PNP. Through it all, the JLP con­tin­ued on a self destruc­tive path which allowed the PNP to hold pow­er for an unprece­dent­ed 14 ¹⁄₂ years unbro­ken tenure in office.
Yes there was vote buy­ing, yes there were oth­er meth­ods used by the PNP to keep power.
Nevertheless none of that mat­ters when the Jamaican peo­ple make up their minds that they want a cer­tain par­ty out of office, as we wit­nessed in the last nation­al elections.
In that unbro­ken peri­od of time in office Percival James Patterson, Portia Lucretia Simpson Miller and com­pa­ny not only wrecked the Island’s econ­o­my , they ush­ered in a pop­u­lar cul­ture which places no val­ue on human life, A gen­er­a­tion which large­ly eschews moral­i­ty. A gen­er­a­tion which has com­plete­ly rede­fined what it meant to be Jamaican.
In the process the PNP, it’s lead­er­ship and dyed-in-the-wool sup­port­ers took on the mantra Jumeka a pnp kun­try , and actu­al­ly believed it.

The PNP took our coun­try from the pearl of the Caribbean to the pari­ah of the region. Our peo­ple are ridiculed and shunned across the region and beyond. Our coun­ty which oth­er Caribbean natives pri­vate­ly claimed as their own is now pub­licly cas­ti­gat­ed and disrespected.
Through it all I prayed and hoped for two things, the rebirth of the con­ser­v­a­tive par­ty Alexander Bustamante cre­at­ed and the total destruc­tion of the can­cer we know as the PNP.

I believe I may be the only Jamaican not in a quandary about the tur­moil with­in Norman Manley’s par­ty today.
Why ?
Because I have con­sis­tent­ly prayed and argued for the demise of that polit­i­cal par­ty. As such I can­not be dis­mayed that my prayers are being answered.
I look at the PNP as a stu­dent of his­to­ry. I con­sis­tent­ly remind myself that Bustamante a found­ing mem­ber of the PNP left it and formed the JLP , rec­og­niz­ing that the par­ty he helped to form was becom­ing too rad­i­cal for his liking.
If the par­ty was too rad­i­cal then imag­ine now..
When we look at Jamaica and how she could have been posi­tioned on the glob­al stage today , what with the indomitable spir­it of our peo­ple , our entre­pre­neur­ial spir­it , our intel­li­gence, we could be the nation the world point to, as it points to Israel today, minus the oppres­sive occu­py­ing boots on the neck of anyone.

Despite this, in areas where the PNP has not sti­fled our coun­try , eg, ath­let­ics, our ath­letes have con­sis­tent­ly demon­strat­ed what a tiny nation can accom­plish when they are allowed to soar and the cor­ro­sive cor­rupt­ing influ­ences of pol­i­tics have not infect­ed their abilities.
No nation even remote­ly close to our size and pop­u­la­tion have accom­plished what our ath­letes have, even up to the Rio Olympics.
Our young stu­dents con­tin­ue to defy con­ven­tion­al wis­dom, tear­ing down men­tal bar­ri­ers as they demon­strate the pow­er of the mind academically.
Juxtapose that with the areas where pol­i­tics have dom­i­nat­ed and we can see who the true ene­mies of the Jamaican peo­ple are.

Our dias­po­ra com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to be tremen­dous sources of growth, devel­op­ment and sup­port, not just for their respec­tive adopt­ed coun­tries but for Jamaica land we love as well.
To my fel­low Jamaicans I humbly sug­gest, let Rome burn. If you can, give them some gaso­line , give them some matches.
It’s time the mem­bers of the PNP and it’s lead­er­ship be remind­ed that Jamaica is our coun­try, not PNP not JLP , it’s our country.
Not their pri­vate pig­gy bank to be plun­dered . Not for them to sell off to the high­est bid­der. Not for them to use to fat­ten their pock­ets and our peo­ple are cer­tain­ly not there for them to hold in contempt.