Robert Nesta Morgan | Why I want to be an MP

It’s very important to remember where we are coming from, because it helps us to figure out where we would like to go.

Somewhere around 1999 a pothole developed at my gate due to heavy rains. I was concerned, as I saw over the years many roads in my community suffer the same fate. How could this problem be remedied?

We were humble farmers. My grandmother planted yellow yam and sold them with green bananas in the May Pen market. I accompanied her sometimes and had my fair share of scary rides on the market truck.

My community at the time was close-knit and I spent many nights sleeping at a church sister’s house when grandma wasn’t home. The community nurtured me and protected me as according to them, “Yuh a guh come out to summin”.

An interesting phenomenon about ‘country people’ is how they take other people’s children and grow them as if they are their own. I know of many families who took in children who were not their own, and fed many others who had less.

Our poverty forced us to work together, especially at planting and reaping time, where pots of rice and corned beef or chicken back, with sugar and water, aka ‘wash’, were the order of the day. On one specific occasion, I remember when my grandfather got the entire street to help him build his wooden kitchen for free, except for a plate of food and some drinks. It was not strange, as he would have done the same.

My community has seen better days. The rural-to-urban drift has devastated North Central Clarendon. Many of our more educated and successful sons and daughters have either migrated out of Jamaica or left for more prosperous fields.

Despite this, North Central is rich with human resources and natural beauty. We boast one of the best high schools in the Caribbean, Clarendon College, and have nurtured some of the great Jamaicans who have made a mark on the society.

Captain Horace Burrell, Donna Scott Mottley, A.J. Nicholson, the Broderick brothers, and the Pickersgills are just of few of the big names who called this place home.

My quest to fix the pothole at my gate led me to the politicians, who could not help, as Jamaica was just recovering from a major economic collapse. I sought the advice of an elder, who told me that if I was the member of parliament (MP), the road would be fixed. People tell sixth- formers things all the time, and this I felt was one of those great dreams that someone like me, from where I come from, would not achieve.

VERY POWERFUL TOOL

But a year into attending UWI, I began to realise that politics is the most powerful tool for social and economic change we have, and whether we like it or not, politicians hold awesome power to cause such change.

It was not until 2005 when I first met Andrew Holness, as a new university graduate teaching at Clarendon College, that I felt inspired to become a representative. The echoes of Mr Mitchell in my head became louder, and as I moved up the political ladder a feeling of guilt overcame me.

Was I becoming one who benefited so much but did not return to give back? At first I gave back through donations and scholarship to students, religiously every year finding new ways of paying my debts.

Despite these donations and interventions, the reality became clear that someone in my position could do bigger things if I had the power to influence politics and government action at a high level. I realised that my people yearned for leadership, not just leadership as a traditional concept, but leadership based on a partnership.

It is watching and learning from party leader Andrew Holness that has opened my eyes to a new way of development, one focused on incremental change through infrastructure, education and technology. The answer for many rural communities is finding a new development paradigm that is not twinned with urban developmental plans, but tailor-made for rural realities.

It would be strange to find a school in urban areas that doesn’t have good Internet or running water. It would be peculiar to find communities in urban areas where 80 per cent have no piped water. Schools such as Lennon High suffered for 50 years without water, until last week when the prime minister turned on the pipes.

There are schools in North Central Clarendon where more than 40 per cent of the students are on PATH. This reflects a deep poverty which is often hidden, because rural folk tend to have access to land to grow food, and their income is often supplemented by remittances. Over 50 per cent of persons in Rock River reported income of less that $50,000 per month, while more than that reported the same income in Mocho.

We need a paradigm shift. A focus on modern agricultural techniques that give higher yields, while creating linkages with local industries and overseas markets, is a part of the answer. However, we also need to significantly improve the educational outcomes of youth in rural communities, create a modern infrastructure with reliable water and decent roads as well as better technologies, if we are to lay a foundation for long-term prosperity in these parts.

I speak here with first-hand authority, as I have benefited from that good education at Garvey Maceo and Clarendon College, but I was lucky to have mentors who bought my books and fed me as an economically challenged student.

I could not be here without Mr Phillips at Garvey and Mrs Porteous at Clarendon College. Their sacrifices in my interest continue to spur me to give back to Clarendon in general and North Central in particular.

During my campaign, I continue to ask why more children of country people cannot be like me, or have the opportunities that I have had. I do not feel comfortable in being an anomaly in my community, and I continue to work hard to ensure that more young people have the opportunities I have had.

To me, being an MP is not about sitting in Parliament, but more about sitting in communities, and leading a great change such as I have seen in other parts of Jamaica, like East Rural St Andrew. It is not rocket science. With government support and good leadership, we can change our rural communities and create opportunities, so our youth don’t always feel inclined to leave and only return to visit on holidays.

My resolve is to see North Central as an example of how we can, through partnerships, rebuild our communities. I am happy that the prime minister has committed to create a different developmental plan for rural communities. Based on his track record, I am confident that rural communities will see real change.

I want to be one of those change agents.

Robert Nesta Morgan is the Member of Parliament-elect for North Central Clarendon.