The big news in Jamaica concerning the destruction of illegal homes erected by squatters in Coopers Pen, Trelawny, reminded me vividly of one of the main reasons why I became disenchanted with the People's National Party (PNP) and joined the struggle to get them out of power in the 1970's.
It's a long saga, and I outlined it fully in my book, "Looking Back...the struggle to preserve our freedoms."
Link:LOOKING BACK......... by Joan Williams - Audiobook - Audible.com
The recent Coopers Pen development is a sad story about what happens when poor, struggling people are fooled by corrupt politicians who use them as pawns to gain power.
The destruction of the homes and assets of the residents is heartrending and everything should be done to assist them in their plight.
I indicated at the top that it was squatting (land stealing) which mainly drove me from the PNP, for I was first made aware of this initiative pushed by the late DK.Duncan, former General Secretary of the PNP, shortly after we had paid down on farm land in St. Catherine and were struggling to pay the mortgage before one grain of rice was reaped. Just about then Duncan and his fellow political criminals started to target medium and large sized land owners with "capturing." (They claimed they had the right to take some of our land as they had none and we had too much, hence they were going to capture some!)
Had the PNP succededed in this socialist thrust, we would have had far more gullible poor people losing their hard earned assets through legal bulldozing, as in many instances, that is the only option left to legitimate land owners who were targeted by these socialists.
For once free loaders move on to your land, it is a long and extremely expensive and tedious process to get them off.
In the case of Coopers Pen, the owners have been going to court from 2012 (14 years!) to gain access to their land. And in every case, the courts had ruled that they must get the use of their land for their own use as the squatters have no rights to it.
But look how it has ended!
About fifty families, some with babies just days old, were thrown out of their houses and their assets destroyed by bulldozers in the early hours of the morning.
The JLP which has been consistently in power since 2016 does not have clean hands in this matter either. For our constitution does not recognize parties but governments and it is the Ministry of Housing that has consistently represented (misrepresented?) the interest of the residents in Coopers Pen.
This incident once again not only demonstrates how terrible it is for people to be exploited by politicians, but also, the fact is that these politicians, whether PNP or JLP, don't really give a hoot about the poor.
