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Governance has overwhelmed the JLP
Mark Wignall
Thursday, December 06, 2007
LOOSE dogs have a habit of chasing speeding cars. Because the vast majority of cars passing a dog never stop nearby, the dog has the luxury of running back from the chase and convincing itself that had it caught the car, it would have ripped off the wheels, torn the engine from its housing and despatched the driver.
In most instances of the car making a sudden, unexpected halt, in reality all the dog can do is lift one leg and urinate on a wheel and probably say in dog-speak, "That will show you to mess with me."
It's been three months since the JLP won the general elections, and just one day after the non-event of yesterday. I say non-event because, outside of the party diehards, not many people are convinced that electing a set of parish councillors will get them better service delivery than the hit-and-miss type which exists now.
As I write this column (Wednesday, December 5), I have yet to meet one person who is interested in voting. Indeed so low is the interest that it has brought out the worst side in our politics. In recent days two junior ministers, Everald Warmington and Bobby Montague, have made royal fools of themselves while trying to coerce likely voters to support the JLP. Then, in trying to defend the idiotic speech of Mr Warmington, House Speaker Delroy Chuck spoke on various radio programmes and displayed his own brand of political stupidity.
In Montague's case, I am particularly disappointed. In local government elections the best that both political parties can bring out to vote is the party diehards - about 40% in total, with the PNP enjoying an advantage of just under 4% points. With this in mind, the politicians tend to wallow in the bottom muck whenever they are appealing to this lot.
It needs to be stated that party diehards expect victimisation. It is the politics practised by their bosses in the political parties and it is what they themselves practise if a 'contract buss' next week. It is a sad stain on our politics, but the language used by Warmington and Montague is the type understood by an uncomfortably large percentage of those they were trying to 'woo'.
When the people demand good government, they will get it. Until such time the JLP is here to continue the rot of the last PNP administration.
Prime Minister Golding has found himself painted into a corner. To apply disciplinary action against these elected representatives he has to consider the slim parliamentary majority he has. Fact is, he can only govern within certain limits. Beyond those limits, his hands are tied.
The reality is, the JLP chased the car and, oops, on September 3, 2007, the vehicle stopped. While a majority of voters and non-voters (60%, November 2007 - Stone Poll) are of the view that the JLP needs more time to tackle Jamaica's most urgent problems (violent crime, unemployment), nothing in those responses gave any indication that Jamaicans would be willing to forgive the JLP for what appears to be inaction in the face of a smouldering public anger at the times and recent events.
One astute Observer reader wrote recently: "We need outside help. We have to treat this matter like any disaster that has overwhelmed the plans and capacity of any society, city or country. We are suffering a volcano of violent crime, an earthquake of social upheaval and a hurricane in declining morals and sensitivity."
In the last few weeks of the PNP's last term, garbage was collected twice per week in the section of Havendale where I live. Immediately after the win, it moved to once weekly. I found myself making excuses.It was Hurricane Dean. Then it moved to once per fortnight. And all this with JLP firebrand Joan Gordon-Webley at the helm of the perennially troubled NSWMA.
So, murders have gone skyward since the JLP win in the same time that the new administration has decided that silence from the prime minister is golden. Security Minister Derrick Smith has a bit of the PJ Patterson aura about him. Whenever he speaks, his tone urges us to sleep. Second, the tenor of his pronouncements has failed to convince us that he recognises the depth of the crisis facing us all.
If a person had told me on September 4, 2007 that in the early days of December 2007 I would be expressing such disappointment in the new JLP administration I would have laughed him or her to scorn. But, the reality is there. Tremors in the financial sector with a serious economic fallout in the making. Garbage piling up, multiple killings, a 'dead' national security minister and, worst of all, a sense that it is the criminals who are now enjoying the upper hand.
One online reader wrote me: "I have been reading the paper over the past few weeks and I am very disheartened by the level of violence. I plan to return to live in Jamaica in the next two years. I have many friends who hope to return home, but are all scared for their lives. I try not to be negative, but the problem is staring me right in my face and I can't seem to come up with enough excuses about the problem of crime. I have a sister living in Jamaica and she says there is a generation of lost boys there and she does not know what to do with them. These boys are what is causing the problem; leaving high school and most of them are not able to read and write, not able to conduct themselves in an interview and very lazy.
"There has to be a massive re-socialisation of these young men or we are doomed. When is the church going to wake up and lead by example? They could make a significant impact on crime in Jamaica. I think if the church sets up a hotline to get information from people they would get a lot because the people don't trust the police, but they trust the pastor and most of the gunmen's mothers are church members. We should not only focus on street-level crime, but wipe it out at the top and it will send a clear message that it will not be tolerated."
Even though I am still counted among those willing to give the government more time to find its bearings, I am beginning to get the impression that the JLP has no compass and has no idea what to do with the car which stopped on September 3. Maybe the JLP has simply decided to do what a four-footed canine would do to the car. Soil a wheel or two.
Hope I am very wrong.
observemark@gmail.com
Mark Wignall
Thursday, December 06, 2007
LOOSE dogs have a habit of chasing speeding cars. Because the vast majority of cars passing a dog never stop nearby, the dog has the luxury of running back from the chase and convincing itself that had it caught the car, it would have ripped off the wheels, torn the engine from its housing and despatched the driver.
In most instances of the car making a sudden, unexpected halt, in reality all the dog can do is lift one leg and urinate on a wheel and probably say in dog-speak, "That will show you to mess with me."
It's been three months since the JLP won the general elections, and just one day after the non-event of yesterday. I say non-event because, outside of the party diehards, not many people are convinced that electing a set of parish councillors will get them better service delivery than the hit-and-miss type which exists now.
As I write this column (Wednesday, December 5), I have yet to meet one person who is interested in voting. Indeed so low is the interest that it has brought out the worst side in our politics. In recent days two junior ministers, Everald Warmington and Bobby Montague, have made royal fools of themselves while trying to coerce likely voters to support the JLP. Then, in trying to defend the idiotic speech of Mr Warmington, House Speaker Delroy Chuck spoke on various radio programmes and displayed his own brand of political stupidity.
In Montague's case, I am particularly disappointed. In local government elections the best that both political parties can bring out to vote is the party diehards - about 40% in total, with the PNP enjoying an advantage of just under 4% points. With this in mind, the politicians tend to wallow in the bottom muck whenever they are appealing to this lot.
It needs to be stated that party diehards expect victimisation. It is the politics practised by their bosses in the political parties and it is what they themselves practise if a 'contract buss' next week. It is a sad stain on our politics, but the language used by Warmington and Montague is the type understood by an uncomfortably large percentage of those they were trying to 'woo'.
When the people demand good government, they will get it. Until such time the JLP is here to continue the rot of the last PNP administration.
Prime Minister Golding has found himself painted into a corner. To apply disciplinary action against these elected representatives he has to consider the slim parliamentary majority he has. Fact is, he can only govern within certain limits. Beyond those limits, his hands are tied.
The reality is, the JLP chased the car and, oops, on September 3, 2007, the vehicle stopped. While a majority of voters and non-voters (60%, November 2007 - Stone Poll) are of the view that the JLP needs more time to tackle Jamaica's most urgent problems (violent crime, unemployment), nothing in those responses gave any indication that Jamaicans would be willing to forgive the JLP for what appears to be inaction in the face of a smouldering public anger at the times and recent events.
One astute Observer reader wrote recently: "We need outside help. We have to treat this matter like any disaster that has overwhelmed the plans and capacity of any society, city or country. We are suffering a volcano of violent crime, an earthquake of social upheaval and a hurricane in declining morals and sensitivity."
In the last few weeks of the PNP's last term, garbage was collected twice per week in the section of Havendale where I live. Immediately after the win, it moved to once weekly. I found myself making excuses.It was Hurricane Dean. Then it moved to once per fortnight. And all this with JLP firebrand Joan Gordon-Webley at the helm of the perennially troubled NSWMA.
So, murders have gone skyward since the JLP win in the same time that the new administration has decided that silence from the prime minister is golden. Security Minister Derrick Smith has a bit of the PJ Patterson aura about him. Whenever he speaks, his tone urges us to sleep. Second, the tenor of his pronouncements has failed to convince us that he recognises the depth of the crisis facing us all.
If a person had told me on September 4, 2007 that in the early days of December 2007 I would be expressing such disappointment in the new JLP administration I would have laughed him or her to scorn. But, the reality is there. Tremors in the financial sector with a serious economic fallout in the making. Garbage piling up, multiple killings, a 'dead' national security minister and, worst of all, a sense that it is the criminals who are now enjoying the upper hand.
One online reader wrote me: "I have been reading the paper over the past few weeks and I am very disheartened by the level of violence. I plan to return to live in Jamaica in the next two years. I have many friends who hope to return home, but are all scared for their lives. I try not to be negative, but the problem is staring me right in my face and I can't seem to come up with enough excuses about the problem of crime. I have a sister living in Jamaica and she says there is a generation of lost boys there and she does not know what to do with them. These boys are what is causing the problem; leaving high school and most of them are not able to read and write, not able to conduct themselves in an interview and very lazy.
"There has to be a massive re-socialisation of these young men or we are doomed. When is the church going to wake up and lead by example? They could make a significant impact on crime in Jamaica. I think if the church sets up a hotline to get information from people they would get a lot because the people don't trust the police, but they trust the pastor and most of the gunmen's mothers are church members. We should not only focus on street-level crime, but wipe it out at the top and it will send a clear message that it will not be tolerated."
Even though I am still counted among those willing to give the government more time to find its bearings, I am beginning to get the impression that the JLP has no compass and has no idea what to do with the car which stopped on September 3. Maybe the JLP has simply decided to do what a four-footed canine would do to the car. Soil a wheel or two.
Hope I am very wrong.
observemark@gmail.com
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