For PNP Supporters Common Sense Equals Closet Laborite.…..A Cue Maybe For Crawford To Cut Ties…

Never one to trust only in my own ideas without hearing that of others I did a search to see what was the best way to explain what a political Party is, at least which would fit into what I wanted to convey.
This is what I came away with. In a Democracy (particularly in the Westminster system) a government is formed by the person or party who can show that they have the majority of votes in the House of Representatives and can create a Government. It is much easier and practical for a group of people who have very similar outlook on policy to combine to gain power so those policies can be implemented by a majority vote in the House.

I par­tic­u­lar­ly want­ed to look to this type of def­i­n­i­tion in light of what has been hap­pen­ing to a young politi­cian who has shown some tal­ent, made some mis­takes , but have also exer­cised tremen­dous vision, matu­ri­ty and intelligence.
I refer to for­mer People’s National Party Member of par­lia­ment Damion Crawford.
Damion Crawford has cer­tain­ly placed his foot in his mouth in the past but as Jesus once said “whomev­er hath no sin let him cast the first stone”. We Jamaicans are know for doing just that , speak­ing off the cuff and some­times hav­ing to retract some of the things we said when we take the time to exam­ine our­selves , or when oth­ers chas­tise us.
Lord knows I have had more intem­per­ate out­bursts which I had to retract than what should have been allowed ten persons.
So when Crawford referred to sup­port­ers of the JLP as “dut­ty laborites” I was nat­u­ral­ly dis­s­a­point­ed in him because he had pre­vi­ous­ly demon­strat­ed some qual­i­ties I thought nec­es­sary if the Cultist nature of his par­ty was to change in the inter­est of our country.
I was not sur­prised when Damion Crawford walked those unfor­tu­nate com­ments back.

Facts On The Side Of Those Opposed To (inde­com)

Damion Crawford has shown Independence which is a rare qual­i­ty in Jamaican pol­i­tics. The trib­al nature of our pol­i­tics does not allow for Bi-Partisanship. The oth­er par­ty is the ene­my, not only are we repulsed by their poli­cies and ideas we hate them too.
This type of cor­ro­sive pol­i­tics cre­ates gridlock,it seeps out into the body politic cre­at­ing enmi­ty between neigh­bors and fam­i­lies alike.
In the United States over the last ⁷¹⁄₂ years the same type of pol­i­tics caused a total log-jam in the con­gresss to the detri­ment of the nation. It result­ed in the rise of a far right ide­o­log­i­cal lunatic and a clown­ish fas­cist as the stan­dard bear­ers for the Republican party.
Jamaicans know all too well the count­less loss of lives which occurred based on that style of pol­i­tics since we began our jour­ney of self-governance.

Damion Crawford Continues Anti-INDECOM Campaign

On more than one occa­sion I have found com­mon cause with Damion Crawford , not because we agree on some issues but because he has shown the capac­i­ty to un-teth­er him­self from the talk­ing points of par­ty and allowed him­self to think as an intel­li­gent human-being.
True to form as a result of his inde­pen­dent spir­it Damion Crawford fell out of favor with his par­ty. Like the American Republican Party , Jamaica’s People’s National Party insists on strict adher­ence to par­ty talk­ing-points. Any devi­a­tion is seen as wor­thy of expulsion .
In the United States Republicans who dared to work with President Obama or even as much as agree with a com­ment the pres­i­dent made were sum­mar­i­ly pri­maried and replaced with more hard right ideologues.
The stat­ed goal of repub­li­cans was to stri­dent­ly and blind­ly obstruct Obama’s agen­da which ulti­mate­ly would cause him to fail.
This after the new President was just elect­ed with a plu­ral­i­ty of the votes by the American peo­ple to exe­cute the agen­da he placed before them.
In the case of Jamaica an inde­pen­dent thinker like Crawford who dared depart from par­ty ortho­doxy it was career suicide.
Crawford was not allowed to con­test the St Andrew East Rural seat he had won for his par­ty the pre­vi­ous elec­tion cycle. Many peo­ple on the ground said Crawford was dumped because he refused to play the old cur­ry-goat style pol­i­tics and was more focused on edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple in his constituency.
Crawford was replaced in East rur­al St Andrew by Imani Duncan Pryce the Daughter of 70’s hyper par­ti­san ide­o­logue and com­mu­nist sym­pa­thiz­er DK Duncan.
On February 25^th 2016 the seat went to Juilet Holness the 43 year-old wife of Jamaica’s new Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
I have no way of know­ing whether Damion Crawford would have retained the seat for his par­ty had he not been removed. However it has to at least be a sub­ject of thought for the par­ty big-wigs in light of the Labor Party’s sin­gle seat major­i­ty in the 63 seat Legislature.
That is of course if they allow them­selves the right to think.

Recently Damion Crawford tweet­ed out his thoughts on the denial of a job by the NSWMA to the son of Desmond McKenzie under whose min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lio the agency falls.

See also : WHEN GOING OVER AND BEYOND TO DO RIGHT BECOME A FUTURISTIC PATH TO WRONGDOING ….

“So are we say­ing a politi­cian son should not be able to work with gov­ern­ment even if he is qual­i­fied for the Job? #Rubbish,” Crawford began his series of tweets all accom­pa­nied by the hash­tag #FreelittleMckenzie. 
Naturally this kind of ratio­nal think­ing would nev­er go down well with sup­port­ers of his par­ty > Crawford has been brand­ed a trai­tor and worse as far as his par­ty is con­cerned ‚he has been labeled a clos­et Laborite.
The noise has got­ten so loud Crawford felt oblig­ed to respond to his detrac­tors using social media.
Here’s how Crawford respond­ed to his detractors.

Over the last 48 hrs I have observed with concern an effort by some comrades to “manufacture a beef” with me. It seem the new form of attack to those that refuse to participate in political opportunism is to label that individual a labourite. It is my opinion that Desmond Mckenzie’s son should not be disqualified from working at the NSWMA simply because he is the minister’s son. Indeed it is also my opinion that he should not be appointed to a position simply because he is the minister’s son either.

I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with my opinions it is their right to do so but understand that simply because you disagree does not suggest that my opinion would change. If however you have new information deemed by you to be necessary for consideration you may provide that information and I will gladly consider it and if necessary change my mind. However to this point i have no information that nepotism was involved so as far as i am concerned none was. Further i disagree with the position that ethics have anything to do with how something looks that’s optics instead in my opinion ethics only consideration is what is.

I see on a particular in a group titled Jamaicans for Truth some “social media warriors” claiming I should not be doing interviews with Emily Crooks, Cliff hughes nor Abka Fitz Henly as in their opinions these as “labourite journalist” I have and will continue to do interviews with any journalist that ask as long as i feel comfortable that the topic is not outside of my of capacity to comprehend and thus comment. I have no reservation in saying Abka is a friend of mine and a great KC alumnus, nor do I have any reservation in stating that I have had a good relationship with Emily crooks since Taylor Hall when we were both students at the University. I have no intention to malice journalist nor anyone for that matter on the simple basis that that are or are perceived to be JLP leaning. In fact my uncle in whom I am well pleased is a JLP senator and I am definitely not malicing him for his political leaning.

I have always advised political participants not to be a tool to be used by political parties but instead to be a builder that used politics as a tool to build your communities and your country. I pass that advice to the vocal few who seek to bully others who don’t share their opinions from the safety of their keyboards.

In closing for those insistent on labeling me a labourite ask yourself one simple question who is leaking all these things from PNP meetings to the media? It could not be me, because as they have often repeated and in some cases lamented I go to no meetings. Who is it that leaked PNP polls to Daryl Vaz, not me up to todays date I have not seen those polls. Who has engineered a transformation of the PNP into something Micheal Manley would not recognize,not me I have been a constant voice in the wilderness. So maybe just maybe those are the ppl you should be targeting for public ridicule.

If it walks like a duck , quacks like duck, maybe it is a duck. Remember part of the def­i­n­i­tion for polit­i­cal par­ty ?  It is much eas­i­er and prac­ti­cal for a group of peo­ple who have very sim­i­lar out­look on pol­i­cy to com­bine to gain pow­er so those poli­cies can be imple­ment­ed by a major­i­ty vote in the House, hmmm.
Since it has become clear even to sup­port­ers of his own polit­i­cal par­ty that com­mon sense and the abil­i­ty to be ratio­nal is syn­ony­mous with being a Laborite Damion Crawford must now eval­u­ate his posi­tion and deter­mine whether he wants to go down with a sink­ing ship out of blind loyalty.
Crawford’s com­mon-sense approach­es have been anti­thet­i­cal to his par­ty’s ide­o­log­i­cal stubbornness.
Maybe the time has come for Crawford to unshack­le him­self from ide­ol­o­gy and join oth­ers with whom he shares sim­i­lar ideas and a com­mon purpose.