THE EDITOR, Sir:
SHERLOCK AND Bennett (1998), in the book The Story of the Jamaican People, quoted the words of James Anthony Froude, a noted British intellect in his time, where Froude insisted that "It is as certain as any future event can be, that if we give the negroes, as a body, the political powers which we claim for ourselves, they will use them only for their own injury. They will slide back into their own condition, and the chance will be gone, of uplifting them to the level to which we might have no right to say that they are incapable of rising."
We have entrusted the administration of the country to a Government which is bent on proving, without any doubt, that they are incapable of such a task. It seems also, that they are bent on validating the claims of James Anthony Froude. In The Sunday Gleaner dated February 22, Ian Boyne quoted Mr. Seaga's claim which he made on the Breakfast Club on Wednesday, February 18 that "The People's National Party (PNP), simply does not know how to run a market economy, for 'They are repentant socialists, reluctant capitalists'. Mr Seaga, like Froude, has expressed a similar lack of confidence in this afro-Jamaican Government.
There is too much evidence of the Government's continuing inability to manage and administer the country, its people, natural resources and institutions. Aware of the inevitable social and civic resistance to its governing style, the PNP seems to be putting in place relevant legislation and laws to quiet the voice of the frustrated citizenry, who are on the brink of revolt. The Government needs to take the bold step in averting social decay, economic decline, and ecological degradation, by firstly breaking all relationships which are notoriously incestuous and dismantle affairs and institutions that continue to rape the natural resources of the country, to sustain conditions of deprivation of the majority of the population, to disenfranchise the majority of Jamaicans, and to preserve the lascivious lifestyle of the minority, while simultaneously pushing the masses still further into conditions of poverty and hopelessness and proximity to revolt.
The time is now, for country to come first, second and third, where we all must make sacrifices. However, the level of sacrifice made will have to be commensurate with the level of responsibility.
The Government now has the task of proving both Seaga and Froude wrong on all claims. Can it rise to the occasion, or is it already too late?
I am, etc.,
EARL BAILEY
earlplanner@hotmail.com
Kingston
Via Go-Jamaica
