Tweet
Jamaica at an all-time low
With Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Dear Reader,
I believe that it is now clear to every Jamaican that we are now being led by a government that has all but lost its legitimacy. What is equally obvious is that the political stock of the country's leading Opposition party has simultaneously plunged in value, leaving a clear vacuum for honest and competent people to step up to the national leadership plate.
GOLDING... should do the honourable thing and step down
[Hide Description] GOLDING... should do the honourable thing and step down
[Restore Description]
1/1
I have to confess that as a citizen of Jamaica I am thoroughly ashamed to acknowledge that the government we now have is actually my government. There is a maxim which says that a people deserve the government they have, but even while we admit that the government was voted into office by the people, and even with the current state of apathy that exists, I honestly don't think that the people of Jamaica deserve the kind of government that has evolved since 2007.
In fact, everywhere I go, people who voted for the Jamaica Labour Party are saying how disappointed they are in the Golding administration. "We know that there has always been corruption," I overheard one person saying, "But we can't believe the blatant dishonesty and the outright manipulation that we are now seeing."
Virtually every young person, with whom I have spoken who voted for the first time in the last election and voted for the JLP, has expressed disappointment and disgust concerning the current state of affairs. What is especially distressing is that many of those young people say that they will never vote again and want nothing to do with politics.
Jamaicans in the diaspora are especially incensed by what is happening. Friends of mine living abroad tell me that at the height of the Christopher "Dudus" Coke saga they were ashamed to let people know that they were Jamaicans. They tell me that even now, everywhere they go people marvel that Bruce Golding could still be prime minister after all that has happened.
I am particularly upset that the Golding government has taken "Brand Jamaica" and has helped in re-branding us as a country where drug lords and gun traffickers seem to be afforded privilege and protection.
The problem is that one of the limitations that our country has is the inability to impeach a prime minister when he or she commits an offence and seriously breaches the public trust. Neither does Jamaica have the power of "recall" that other countries utilise when public officials are found to be in breach. The American state of New Jersey, for example, provides in its constitution that "the people reserve unto themselves the power to recall, after at least one year of service, any elected official in this state or representing this state in the United States Congress". In California in 2003, citizens in that state, disgusted with the Democratic Governor Gray Davis, voted overwhelmingly to remove him from office in a recall election.
The dilemma that Jamaica is confronted with is that while we are able to point to corrupt politicians and governments, there are no useful mechanisms to punish the corrupt. So ridiculously lax and ineffective is the system we now have that parliamentarians are allowed to continue to sit in Parliament even while they are under investigation for fraud.
There is enough ammunition in the Dudus and the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips scandals to topple a dictatorship, let alone a prime minister operating within a system that ought to have constitutional and legislative checks and balances, as well as clear rules governing corruption and breaches of public trust. The fact that Mr Golding has been able to continue to govern is one of the biggest indictments of Jamaica's democratic system. We might as well accept that what we have in our country is a "version" of democracy that is in desperate need of repair and reconstruction.
Meantime, the explanation given by the MP for northeast St Ann, Shahine Robinson, regarding her United States citizenship, leaves more questions than answers.
Even political diehards are now admitting that the country is at an all-time low, as far as the moral and ethical leadership are concerned, and people are now accepting the fact that no country, especially structurally vulnerable countries like Jamaica, can sustain itself on corruption and criminality.
As far as the Golding administration is concerned, some very serious questions must now be posed: "Does the prime minister enjoy the trust and confidence of the Jamaican people? And "Can the prime minister effectively govern the country with the types of serious distractions facing his administration day after day?"
If the answer to those questions is no, then Mr Golding should do the honourable thing and step down, and while that is happening, the constitutionalists should be working assiduously to fix the system once and for all.
With love,
bab2609@yahoo.com
With Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Dear Reader,
I believe that it is now clear to every Jamaican that we are now being led by a government that has all but lost its legitimacy. What is equally obvious is that the political stock of the country's leading Opposition party has simultaneously plunged in value, leaving a clear vacuum for honest and competent people to step up to the national leadership plate.
GOLDING... should do the honourable thing and step down
[Hide Description] GOLDING... should do the honourable thing and step down
[Restore Description]
1/1
I have to confess that as a citizen of Jamaica I am thoroughly ashamed to acknowledge that the government we now have is actually my government. There is a maxim which says that a people deserve the government they have, but even while we admit that the government was voted into office by the people, and even with the current state of apathy that exists, I honestly don't think that the people of Jamaica deserve the kind of government that has evolved since 2007.
In fact, everywhere I go, people who voted for the Jamaica Labour Party are saying how disappointed they are in the Golding administration. "We know that there has always been corruption," I overheard one person saying, "But we can't believe the blatant dishonesty and the outright manipulation that we are now seeing."
Virtually every young person, with whom I have spoken who voted for the first time in the last election and voted for the JLP, has expressed disappointment and disgust concerning the current state of affairs. What is especially distressing is that many of those young people say that they will never vote again and want nothing to do with politics.
Jamaicans in the diaspora are especially incensed by what is happening. Friends of mine living abroad tell me that at the height of the Christopher "Dudus" Coke saga they were ashamed to let people know that they were Jamaicans. They tell me that even now, everywhere they go people marvel that Bruce Golding could still be prime minister after all that has happened.
I am particularly upset that the Golding government has taken "Brand Jamaica" and has helped in re-branding us as a country where drug lords and gun traffickers seem to be afforded privilege and protection.
The problem is that one of the limitations that our country has is the inability to impeach a prime minister when he or she commits an offence and seriously breaches the public trust. Neither does Jamaica have the power of "recall" that other countries utilise when public officials are found to be in breach. The American state of New Jersey, for example, provides in its constitution that "the people reserve unto themselves the power to recall, after at least one year of service, any elected official in this state or representing this state in the United States Congress". In California in 2003, citizens in that state, disgusted with the Democratic Governor Gray Davis, voted overwhelmingly to remove him from office in a recall election.
The dilemma that Jamaica is confronted with is that while we are able to point to corrupt politicians and governments, there are no useful mechanisms to punish the corrupt. So ridiculously lax and ineffective is the system we now have that parliamentarians are allowed to continue to sit in Parliament even while they are under investigation for fraud.
There is enough ammunition in the Dudus and the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips scandals to topple a dictatorship, let alone a prime minister operating within a system that ought to have constitutional and legislative checks and balances, as well as clear rules governing corruption and breaches of public trust. The fact that Mr Golding has been able to continue to govern is one of the biggest indictments of Jamaica's democratic system. We might as well accept that what we have in our country is a "version" of democracy that is in desperate need of repair and reconstruction.
Meantime, the explanation given by the MP for northeast St Ann, Shahine Robinson, regarding her United States citizenship, leaves more questions than answers.
Even political diehards are now admitting that the country is at an all-time low, as far as the moral and ethical leadership are concerned, and people are now accepting the fact that no country, especially structurally vulnerable countries like Jamaica, can sustain itself on corruption and criminality.
As far as the Golding administration is concerned, some very serious questions must now be posed: "Does the prime minister enjoy the trust and confidence of the Jamaican people? And "Can the prime minister effectively govern the country with the types of serious distractions facing his administration day after day?"
If the answer to those questions is no, then Mr Golding should do the honourable thing and step down, and while that is happening, the constitutionalists should be working assiduously to fix the system once and for all.
With love,
bab2609@yahoo.com
.... I have also written a couple emails to her....
Comment