PNP’s Green Bike Brouhaha, Nonsensical And Hypocritical

Life in Jamaica should nev­er be as com­pli­cat­ed and un-nec­es­sar­i­ly antag­o­nis­tic as it is in her large and pow­er­ful neigh­bor to the north. Politics and the insa­tiable desire to occu­py the halls of pow­er has turned our beloved lit­tle Island Paradise into a rag­ing infer­no of fuss and chaos which is total­ly uncalled for.

Take for instance the recent brouha­ha about the lime green bikes and accou­ter­ments recent­ly brought in for the police. The Opposition People’s National Party has sought to make polit­i­cal hay out of the col­or claim­ing that the choice of col­or for the bikes is tan­ta­mount to politi­ciz­ing the police depart­ment. This not only applies to the motor bikes, but also the elec­tric bikes as well, espe­cial­ly the ones from elec­tric bike for sale UK

This car is sport­ing red streaks and let­ter­ing which could be con­strued to be polit­i­cal if we are intent on nit-pick­ing, tak­ing into account that the stan­dard col­ors have been tra­di­tion­al­ly blue.
A clos­er look will also reveal anoth­er truth, the offi­cer in the car is also wear­ing a lime or neon-green vest, there was no out­cry about this either. This was under PNP leadership.

Australian Metropolitan Police

I have no idea what was in the mind of the Governing author­i­ty when the deci­sion was made to chose that col­or which just coin­ci­den­tal­ly is the col­or asso­ci­at­ed with the rul­ing JLP, albeit a dif­fer­ent shade.
My ques­tion to the Opposition PNP, how­ev­er, is, whether they would have been offend­ed if the col­or was orange or red, the par­ty’s col­ors of choice?

Tasmanian Police
Have we become so polit­i­cal­ly polar­ized that rather than work on the real press­ing issues we would rather quib­ble over nothing?
Are we so polar­ized that we would actu­al­ly stoop so low to make the deci­sion to col­or the bikes green based on politics?

Police in London

Here’s the thing, the idea that politi­ciz­ing the force should not be tol­er­at­ed, (by either polit­i­cal par­ty) is a valid argu­ment to make. I am just not sure when was it that the PNP had this epiphany?

I don’t want to bela­bor the point, but the Opposition PNP has been in pow­er for a very long time, the JLP is now the Governing party.
Being in oppo­si­tion does not mean oppos­ing every­thing, least of all, mak­ing sil­ly argu­ments which only serve to embar­rass the party.
(Hi Fitz Jackson)

There are many ways in which the oppo­si­tion par­ty can be the watch­dog the nation deserves until the nation is ready again to entrust it with state pow­er. At the moment that time is not yet here. Acting like a des­per­ate psy­chot­ic brat on every issue is not a good look and it does pre­cious lit­tle to endear the par­ty to the elec­torate which is get­ting more and more sophisticated.

A good idea may be to retool and gath­er fresh per­spec­tives to see how best the par­ty can serve the nation in the 21^st century.
One way of doing that could be shed­ding the par­ty col­ors, and encour­age the oth­er par­ty to do the same, a move which would have ren­dered this whole issue moot.
We all remem­ber the politi­ciz­ing of every­thing over the past 20 years, lit­er­al­ly every­thing paint­ed Orange. Come on PNP do better.

Remember this shame­ful episode in April of 2012

We could also con­tin­ue to point to the des­e­cra­tion of our flag by the hyper-par­ti­sans who lacked decen­cy and hon­or in the image above. The nation does not need a reminder of just how crass the PNP can be. So in the inter­est of our lit­tle nation let us stop with the trib­al pol­i­tics and this inces­sant rapa­cious attempt all aimed at mak­ing a pow­er grab.