DEMOCRACY BEING THREATENED?

One thing we can not say about Jamaican politics is that it is dull. Also, Jamaican politicians are exceptional hypocrites. 

The latest example of their penchant for dishonesty was displayed by PNP vice president Angella Brown-Burke (daughter of the PNP enforcer Tony Brown who in the 70.s was wanted for the murder of Ted Ogilvie but who was sneaked out of the island for Cuba by the party’s hierarchy?) who led the PNP’s campaign in the recent by-election in North Eastern St. Catherine. 

Ms. Brown -Burke sought to make a federal case on spurious grounds that the incumbent was being helped by government’s largesse in his constituency. 

 Did we hear right? Did such a charge come out of the mouth of the vice president of the same party of former Minister of Finance Omar Davies ?Readers will recall how after the 2007 elections, Davies publicly boasted how he “run with it’ in terms of excessive expenditure leading up the general election.

 Readers will also recall that this partisan waste of taxpayers money cost us some thirteen billion dollars in additional taxes the following year to “carrect it.”

Anyway the use of government funds to try and bribe electors to vote for the incumbent, does not necessarily work as demonstrated by Sheeny Robinson is in St. Ann, for Jamaican voters are extremely sharp and aware of the wiles of politicians and many have adopted the motto”nyam dem out and vote dem out.” 

 The dismal showing of the PNPO in the by-election did support their candidate’s boast that he would create history, since the margin of defeat was indeed historical! Not only has this embarrassing defeat (JLP 6329 to Valentine’s 3672, an increase in the JLP’s margin from 959 to 2657) a resounding continuation rejection of the quality of leadership being offered by party’s president Portia Simpson Miller and the incompetence of the general Secretary Peter Bunting, but also a rejection of the obvious arrogance of the candidate Granville Valentine. 

Very few of us had heard about Valentine before a few months ago when he started an aggressive and vocally intimidating campaign against the Jamaican people, constantly screaming threats on radio, to close down essential services like the National Water Commission and Air Jamaica.. 

One immediately got the impression that he was using his position at the National Worker’s Union to carry out Portia’s threatened nightmare for the country. It therefore came as little surprise when shortly after his strategy was uncovered when he was elected a chairman in one of the party’s regional organizations. Then despite the fact that the PNP’s commissioned polls showed the former candidate Phyllis Mitchell would have been a better candidate for the by-election, he was arbitrarily foisted on the constituency, because, it is said, he supported Portia Simpson Miller while Mitchell supported Peter Phillips in the party’s recent leadership struggle.

 Regardless of the second embarrassing loss in the what is being dubbed at the “dual citizenship affair’ because despite the fact that the PNP has members of parliament who are sitting in the House contrary to the requirements of the Constitution, they had the gall to take to court, those JLP members who are also delinquent, in the hope that the seats in the house would be automatically have been handed to them by the courts, contrary to the wishes of the electorate. 

 No country can have good government when there is no credible opposition to act as a watchdog for the people and double as an alternative government. The democratic system in Jamaica therefore faces a serious threat as the PNP’s present leadership does not offer a credible alternative and the stench of corruption which overtook that party while they formed the government, still reeks to high heaven.