When Smart People Sit On The Sidelines Fools Lead.….

In a short yet to the point let­ter to the Editor of the Daily Gleaner promi­nent Lawyer Howard Hamilton QC wrote Wednesday.

No more blood must be shed in the game of pol­i­tics. For every drop of blood spilled, I will per­son­al­ly hold every politi­cian — from the prime min­is­ter and oppo­si­tion leader to all their affil­i­ates and under­lings — respon­si­ble for their action or inac­tion to pre­vent the loss of life. We can­not, as a nation, grow in this back­ward man­ner and hope to achieve any­thing. Is Vision 2030 to be for­got­ten and thrown aside once an elec­tion is to be announced? Will Vision 2030 mis­sion be changed to ‘live, work and die in Jamaica’? To the lead­ers of this coun­try, we need answers and will be hold­ing you all account­able for fur­ther loss of life, whether it be in Newlands or Beverly Hills.

Over the years Howard Hamilton and I have had our dis­agree­ments around some issues large­ly about the way our coun­try should be policed. This is under­stand­able, Hamilton’s voca­tion as a crim­i­nal defense lawyer is dia­met­ri­cal­ly oppo­site to my ear­ly years as a police officer.
THE ROAD TO HELL
Despite our dis­agree­ments on some pol­i­cy I have nev­er heard any­one ques­tion the integri­ty of Howard Hamilton . This is why I’m prompt­ed to respond point­ed­ly to mis­ter Hamilton’s rather impor­tant yet short letter.

When smart peo­ple of good char­ac­ter sits by and refuse to step for­ward in the vac­u­um of lead­er­ship that vac­u­um will be filled by idiots and peo­ple of poor character.
Is there a place on earth where this is more true than Jamaica?
Maybe not!!!
We have the lead­er­ship we have because the best peo­ple grew com­fort­able and dis­in­ter­est­ed . This embold­ened the most cor­rupt least tal­ent­ed to step for­ward and force them­selves on us even­tu­al­ly con­vinc­ing us to place them in posi­tions of trust.
In the process we stood by and watched as our moral com­pass is rede­fined by the worst among us. Our econ­o­my is dec­i­mat­ed. Our Infrastructure aban­doned and crum­bling . Education for our chil­dren unsup­port­ed. Healthcare in sham­bles. Agriculture non-exis­tence. Tourism mis­man­aged and is now lit­er­al­ly all all-inclu­sive which ben­e­fits only a few. Our pro­duc­tive sec­tor gasp­ing for the air of sur­vival and secu­ri­ty ? Well we can only rem­i­nisce about the days when Jamaica was a nice place to live.
To those who say it is nice now,I say unless you know you don’t know.

Despite my fin­ger point­ing I too must also look in the mir­ror and reeval­u­ate the deci­sion I made when I was asked to step for­ward and enter rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al politics.
On that occa­sion I said no.
I have nev­er regret­ted that decision.