Tweet
PNP political stupidity in flag fiasco
Thursday, April 19, 2012
"I am appalled that in the year in which we will be celebrating our 50th year of Independence, a few misguided members of a political party have seen it fit to show utter disrespect to Jamaica's pre-eminent national symbol.
"That these members belong to a party of which I am president, and a government which I have the honour to lead, has caused me immense personal pain, and the action is not something that anyone, especially me, can afford to whitewash. In our past where our politics has divided us, we have always agreed to unite around our flag, especially when our sporting heroes have made us proud on the world stage. It is therefore especially troubling that that very symbol was used as a tool of divisiveness.
SIMPSON MILLER... seems not to have learnt how to convert the unintended consequences of foolish and petty politicians into personal political pluses
1/1
"When Jamaicans travel abroad, PNP and JLP see our flag as representing Jamaica in a much bigger way than party affiliation can give us meaning. Today I condemn the action and I have issued firm instructions that those involved will never again have the opportunity to desecrate this national symbol. As prime minister, the buck stops with me, and I would like to apologise to the JLP, but especially to the Jamaican people who have quite rightly expressed displeasure and rage over what happened.
"I can assure you that this action will not be indicative of how my party conducts government or the broader affairs of this country. I want to assure you that this and other matters which drive a deep wedge between us as a people will never again happen in my administration." - From the speech which Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller never made.
As a seasoned politician, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller seems not to have learnt how to convert the unintended consequences of foolish and petty politicians into personal political pluses. The very fact that the buck stops with her, and in the farthest reach of collective responsibility, nothing which takes place in government or the PNP can conveniently bypass her must mean that she has to address the flag fiasco.
My worry, however, is that in the tribal and petty action of a PNP politician deciding that the green in our flag should have been omitted at the swearing-in ceremony of the mayor of Montego Bay, he or she was merely acting on the overt or subliminal messages of the leadership of the PNP.
Prior to the local government elections, this is a bit of what the prime minister said in Manchioneal. "I want you to send a strong message to 'Baby Bruce' and the Jamaica Labour Party tonight; they call for a referendum, they didn't know that the referendum pass already; it pass already on the 29th of December when the People's National Party won a resounding victory, when Jamaicans said no more to rudeness and crudeness.
"They walk around and beg for mercy, but as I drove around travelling from St Thomas to Manchioneal there will be no mercy. When they were calling for mercy in this country they remained deaf; they paid no attention; so now you can't be calling for mercy, because there will be no mercy. We will be sending you a message you can't hold we again. So when they calling for a referendum I want you to do it sweetly and nicely on the 26th. They want referendum give them referendum, just turn up the thing."
Now this speech is curry to the goat of the PNP diehard, but when I heard it, it was my view that it was not befitting of a prime minister, even one on the political hustings, especially when we were in the middle of a spike in murders. To me, she should have learnt from her long experience in politics, stretching all the way back to 1976, that in 2012 she had the handle in healing the nation and that the divisiveness of 1976, as her "no mercy" speech implied, had to be left behind.
We have seen on CNN the numerous times when enemies of the United States want to send a strong message to the US, they burn and trample on the "Stars and Stripes". When an idiotic political operative in the PNP decided that the green in the Jamaican flag was too representative of the JLP, did that person really believe that he or she was acting in a manner that would displease the PNP leadership? I do not believe so.
We are usually only at war with ourselves so it seems par for the course that we trample on what belongs to us. It escapes us that when we do this we diminish ourselves and provide to the international community a bigger picture of the laughing stock that we have willingly made of ourselves.
That the prime minister has so far not condemned this action is troubling, but in plotting the political graph from then to now, maybe I should not be surprised.
Some have begun the process of comparing wrongs. PNP wrongs versus JLP wrongs. "Di flag ting bad, but look weh Bruce did do fi protec' Dudus," said a PNP diehard to me last week. He missed the point. Bruce Golding made his errors, huge ones, and the nation sent him a strong message and sent his JLP into the political wilderness.
The nation is now asking of the PNP administration, in the words of Bob Marley, "Now you get what yu want, do you want more?"
More is expected from our political leaders, especially in this watershed year when we will be celebrating the 50th year of our political Independence. Economically, there is not much to celebrate, and the truthful words coming from the finance minister, Peter Phillips, and energy minister, Phillip Paulwell indicate that tough times are ahead. All we will have left to celebrate is the oneness in our gaping needs, the national spirit that brought us together in times of celebration (World Cup 1998, Usain Bolt 2008) and made us hold hands in tragedy (Hurricane Gilbert 1988), and the knowledge that if we can bridge the political divide we can grow as a nation.
Looking for national leadership among our politicians is problematic, as in the 50th year of our Independence, the foolish and petty unforced flag fiasco error is telling us that they are comfortably stuck in a tribal, divisive past.
They will not provide the solutions because they are the problem.
observemark@gmail.com
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1sca6Ouzl
Thursday, April 19, 2012
"I am appalled that in the year in which we will be celebrating our 50th year of Independence, a few misguided members of a political party have seen it fit to show utter disrespect to Jamaica's pre-eminent national symbol.
"That these members belong to a party of which I am president, and a government which I have the honour to lead, has caused me immense personal pain, and the action is not something that anyone, especially me, can afford to whitewash. In our past where our politics has divided us, we have always agreed to unite around our flag, especially when our sporting heroes have made us proud on the world stage. It is therefore especially troubling that that very symbol was used as a tool of divisiveness.
SIMPSON MILLER... seems not to have learnt how to convert the unintended consequences of foolish and petty politicians into personal political pluses
1/1
"When Jamaicans travel abroad, PNP and JLP see our flag as representing Jamaica in a much bigger way than party affiliation can give us meaning. Today I condemn the action and I have issued firm instructions that those involved will never again have the opportunity to desecrate this national symbol. As prime minister, the buck stops with me, and I would like to apologise to the JLP, but especially to the Jamaican people who have quite rightly expressed displeasure and rage over what happened.
"I can assure you that this action will not be indicative of how my party conducts government or the broader affairs of this country. I want to assure you that this and other matters which drive a deep wedge between us as a people will never again happen in my administration." - From the speech which Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller never made.
As a seasoned politician, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller seems not to have learnt how to convert the unintended consequences of foolish and petty politicians into personal political pluses. The very fact that the buck stops with her, and in the farthest reach of collective responsibility, nothing which takes place in government or the PNP can conveniently bypass her must mean that she has to address the flag fiasco.
My worry, however, is that in the tribal and petty action of a PNP politician deciding that the green in our flag should have been omitted at the swearing-in ceremony of the mayor of Montego Bay, he or she was merely acting on the overt or subliminal messages of the leadership of the PNP.
Prior to the local government elections, this is a bit of what the prime minister said in Manchioneal. "I want you to send a strong message to 'Baby Bruce' and the Jamaica Labour Party tonight; they call for a referendum, they didn't know that the referendum pass already; it pass already on the 29th of December when the People's National Party won a resounding victory, when Jamaicans said no more to rudeness and crudeness.
"They walk around and beg for mercy, but as I drove around travelling from St Thomas to Manchioneal there will be no mercy. When they were calling for mercy in this country they remained deaf; they paid no attention; so now you can't be calling for mercy, because there will be no mercy. We will be sending you a message you can't hold we again. So when they calling for a referendum I want you to do it sweetly and nicely on the 26th. They want referendum give them referendum, just turn up the thing."
Now this speech is curry to the goat of the PNP diehard, but when I heard it, it was my view that it was not befitting of a prime minister, even one on the political hustings, especially when we were in the middle of a spike in murders. To me, she should have learnt from her long experience in politics, stretching all the way back to 1976, that in 2012 she had the handle in healing the nation and that the divisiveness of 1976, as her "no mercy" speech implied, had to be left behind.
We have seen on CNN the numerous times when enemies of the United States want to send a strong message to the US, they burn and trample on the "Stars and Stripes". When an idiotic political operative in the PNP decided that the green in the Jamaican flag was too representative of the JLP, did that person really believe that he or she was acting in a manner that would displease the PNP leadership? I do not believe so.
We are usually only at war with ourselves so it seems par for the course that we trample on what belongs to us. It escapes us that when we do this we diminish ourselves and provide to the international community a bigger picture of the laughing stock that we have willingly made of ourselves.
That the prime minister has so far not condemned this action is troubling, but in plotting the political graph from then to now, maybe I should not be surprised.
Some have begun the process of comparing wrongs. PNP wrongs versus JLP wrongs. "Di flag ting bad, but look weh Bruce did do fi protec' Dudus," said a PNP diehard to me last week. He missed the point. Bruce Golding made his errors, huge ones, and the nation sent him a strong message and sent his JLP into the political wilderness.
The nation is now asking of the PNP administration, in the words of Bob Marley, "Now you get what yu want, do you want more?"
More is expected from our political leaders, especially in this watershed year when we will be celebrating the 50th year of our political Independence. Economically, there is not much to celebrate, and the truthful words coming from the finance minister, Peter Phillips, and energy minister, Phillip Paulwell indicate that tough times are ahead. All we will have left to celebrate is the oneness in our gaping needs, the national spirit that brought us together in times of celebration (World Cup 1998, Usain Bolt 2008) and made us hold hands in tragedy (Hurricane Gilbert 1988), and the knowledge that if we can bridge the political divide we can grow as a nation.
Looking for national leadership among our politicians is problematic, as in the 50th year of our Independence, the foolish and petty unforced flag fiasco error is telling us that they are comfortably stuck in a tribal, divisive past.
They will not provide the solutions because they are the problem.
observemark@gmail.com
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1sca6Ouzl
Comment