Opposition’s Letter To PM Juvenile, Infantile Even

Below is a let­ter from the leader of the People’s National Party (PNP) to the Nation’s Prime Minister regard­ing actions his par­ty took in decid­ing not to sup­port an exten­sion of the lim­it­ed State of Emergency in two parishes.

As could be expect­ed from Peter Phillips the let­ter was argu­men­ta­tive, tit-for-tat, and juve­nile in spir­it, while undu­ly com­bat­ive and infan­tile in it’s lack of sub­stance.
Phillips demon­strat­ed that he and his par­ty are fun­da­men­tal­ly more pre­oc­cu­pied with the opin­ions of inter­est groups than he is with the real­i­ties on the ground.
It is impor­tant to note that though there is a 21% decline in homi­cides over the cor­re­spond­ing peri­od last year the Opposition leader made no men­tion of the few­er dead and maimed Jamaicans.
Clearly, those most con­se­quen­tial ele­ments are unim­por­tant to the esteemed oppo­si­tion leader.
What mat­ters it seems is the inces­sant need to gain the pop­ulist high ground.

This let­ter demon­strates a cou­ple of things which I shall hereto­fore try to high­light.
(1) That the Opposition PNP can only gov­ern from behind, vis a vis, tak­ing posi­tions which are pop­u­lar.
There is noth­ing wrong with con­sul­ta­tions and gain­ing con­sen­sus, but good gov­er­nance is not always about doing what peo­ple like.
Populist posi­tions are not always right and they gen­er­al­ly result in unsound poli­cies.
Real lead­er­ship is tak­ing unpop­u­lar well thought out posi­tions which are in the nation­al good for the long term.
(2) Consulting with one lawyer or a mil­lion lawyers from the very same UWI does not mean sound con­sti­tu­tion­al prin­ci­ples, they all group­think.
One mil­lion so-called experts val­i­dat­ing bad deci­sions results in a bad deci­sion still.
(3) Probably most con­se­quen­tial is the fact that the polit­i­cal oppo­si­tion lacks the matu­ri­ty which is free of polit­i­cal oppor­tunism and the poten­tial for gain from cheap pop­ulist pos­tur­ing to lead our sophis­ti­cat­ed coun­try deep into the 21^st century. 

The SOE is not a long-term crime-fight­ing tool. Nevertheless, over 300 few­er dead Jamaicans this year over the cor­re­spond­ing peri­od last year, and a 21% reduc­tion in homi­cides over­all is noth­ing to scoff at.
That the PNP chose this hill to die on shows it’s lack of empa­thy and care, the num­ber of peo­ple being killed is total­ly unim­por­tant to the par­ty and it did not even elic­it a men­tion.
The PNP opt­ed instead to advance the more polit­i­cal­ly expe­di­ent pop­ulist path which appeals to those liv­ing, the ever-res­o­nant issue of “RIGHTS.“Unfortunately most Jamaicans who are focused on rights are unaware of their respon­si­bil­i­ties as cit­i­zens.
The PNP has always weaponized that.