Jamaica’s Political Dynasties Not Good For Democracy…

One of the rea­sons that Africans were exploit­ed by Europeans, is that Africans nev­er ful­ly seemed to grasp the con­cept of strength through uni­ty. Instead of orga­niz­ing as nations, they orga­nized as [tribes].
My Nigerian friend tells me that with­in a hun­dred square miles inside his coun­try, you will find as many as sixty(60) dif­fer­ent lan­guages and dialects.
Whether this is an over­state­ment or not I do not know, I have nev­er been to Nigeria, but his point is well taken.
In all fair­ness to the Africans, the Europeans too were splin­tered into vicious tribes who preyed on each oth­er much the same way that African tribes preyed on each other.
The dif­fer­ence with the Europeans, is that they weaponized the Chinese inven­tion of gun-pow­der, and the world has not been the same since.

[Andrew Holness & wife Juilet]

Today, African peo­ple in the Diaspora still are splin­tered and divid­ed as if those traits are still a part of our DNA. We cling to trib­al norms and cus­toms which inex­orably weak­ens us, even when we are greater numerically.
And so, even though we say we have cast off the shack­les of our colo­nial­ist pasts.….… or sor­ta, we cre­ate oth­er monar­chist sys­tems of oppres­sions because of those trib­al­is­tic DNA mark­ers that are still inside us today.
How else would you explain the pass­ing down of con­stituen­cy seats from fathers to sons & daughters?
It start­ed a long time ago, Bustamante and Norman Manley were close cousins. Both were instru­men­tal in the for­ma­tion of the two polit­i­cal par­ties which alter­nate pow­er between them in our coun­try today. Was there no one in the PNP to take over after Norman Manley, why did his son Michael Manley have to be the heir apparent?
Why did Bruce Golding have to become heir-appar­ent to his Speaker of the house dad Tacitus Golding? Surely Jamaica would be a much dif­fer­ent, arguably a bet­ter coun­try with­out the nepo­tism that cre­at­ed Michael Manley & Bruce Golding’s tenure.

[Peter Phillips & his son Mikhael]

Could Daryl Vaz have found anoth­er dis­ci­pline or is the lure and perks of Jamaican pol­i­tics so entic­ing, so much so, that he had to fol­low his father Douglas Vaz and now his wife is eat­ing at the gravy trough?
Oh wait, there is a lot more between the old and new, the Prime min­is­ter and his wife are eat­ing at the same gravy trough, Pernell Charles‘ is try­ing his lev­el best to get his son a seat at the trough, so too was Derrick Smith and so is the old com­mu­nist DK Duncan forc­ing his daugh­ter Imani Duncan, into ever polit­i­cal crack that opens up.
His daugh­ter acts as though there should be a coro­na­tion for her and a seat pre­pared for her. Imani Duncan was not the only child that Duncan tried to force to eat at the trough, he also tried to push his oth­er daugh­ter Patricia to the trough as well.
The idea of polit­i­cal dynas­ties is not con­fined to Jamaica by a long shot, but that does not mean that we should cel­e­brate them.
The more entrenched they become, the more they shut oth­ers out of the process.
There is the Leader of the Opposition PNP Peter Phillips and his son Mikhael Phillips, and a whole series of oth­er entan­gle­ments by virtue of mar­riage, and blood.
For exam­ple, the same DK Duncan is now mar­ried to Beverly Anderson the wid­ow of Michael Manley. Others include Angella Brown-Burke, Burke is mar­ried to PNP fix­ture Paul Burke, who is a first cousin to Saint Thomas JLP mem­ber of parliament
James Robertson.

There are those who believe that these entan­gle­ments are wor­thy of cel­e­bra­tion, it is easy to under­stand why. The same trib­al men­tal­i­ty that cre­ates these polit­i­cal dynas­ties is behind the self-appoint­ed élite class, [you know], those who have a degree or two, who cel­e­brate, rather than repu­di­ate them.
Earning a degree is not some­thing to make their lives bet­ter it is for them a kind of men­tal carve-out that sep­a­rates them from the mass­es, so of course, they have no prob­lem with these dynas­tic developments.
Public ser­vice is an hon­or, it should be avail­able to each and every Jamaican, regard­less of their social,familial, or finan­cial status.
The con­tin­ued pro­lif­er­a­tion of these dynas­ties is not what we should be encour­ag­ing in our country.
Whether the elec­torate is sophis­ti­cat­ed enough to rec­og­nize & repu­di­ate this prac­tice is anoth­er matter?

[ Paul Burke & WIFE Angella-Brown-Burke]

Mike Beckles is a for­mer police Detective cor­po­ral, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer,
he is a black achiev­er hon­oree, and pub­lish­er of the blog chatt​-​a​-box​.com. 
He’s also a con­trib­u­tor to sev­er­al websites.
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