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.