Time To End Curry Goat Politics…

More and more Jamaicans and insti­tu­tions appear to be see­ing the need to have fixed Election dates as opposed to hav­ing the sit­ting Prime Minister decide when to call elec­tions. At best the present mod­el more resem­bles some­thing from a Monarchy as opposed to our Parliamentary Democratic system.
The Private Sector Organization Of Jamaica through it’s head William Mahfood is among the lat­est to add his voice to the cho­rus which includes the Editorial Page of the Jamaica Observer , the Electoral Commission of Jamaica the Opposition Jamaica Labor Party among oth­ers. Ironically this small medi­um and this writer have been call­ing for fixed elec­tion dates for years. Fixed elec­tion dates is not a panacea or sil­ver bul­let for what ails Jamaica but it is one step in the right direc­tion as it relates to Governance.

For years we have argued that a sin­gle indi­vid­ual , (irre­spec­tive of sta­tion or par­ty) hav­ing the pow­er to decide elec­tions is bound to manip­u­late the option and abuse that privileged.
If that pow­er is removed from the hands of politi­cians their abil­i­ty to hold the coun­try to ran­som while they tin­ker with the process to get the results they desire from the polls goes away.
People who Govern are sup­posed to do the best job pos­si­ble of gov­ern­ing. They should enact the poli­cies they cam­paigned on and live with the consequences.
Technically elec­tions are due more than a year from now and of course some are con­fused won­der­ing what then is the fuss about.?
The Constitution demands that elec­tions be held no more than 5 years from the date of the last elections.
The last nation­al polls were held on December 29^th 2011.
The Jamaica Observer and polit­i­cal pun­dits all agree it was the Prime Minister her­self who placed the nation on elec­tion foot­ing by telling her sup­port­ers to quote“Get ready”. Additionally Dr Peter Phillips, had also, dur­ing the cam­paign, stressed the urgency of get­ting the elec­tion out of the way to remove the uncer­tain­ty among some prospec­tive investors and to get the coun­try back on track.

Now con­front­ed with what seem like an immi­nent loss the Prime Minister is walk­ing back all of that now claim­ing she will await God’s touch to decide when to call elec­tions. Of course she awaits Gods touch while giv­ing a pletho­ra of sil­ly rea­sons why she is not yet ready to call elections.
Quote: “You will be appro­pri­ate­ly informed when my mas­ter touch­es me and say ‘my daugh­ter go nigh’,”
This non­sense is no way to run a coun­try. Its time Jamaicans set aside the cur­ry goat and red stripe pol­i­tics and embrace and begin to chart a course if not for them­selves for their chil­dren’s future.