Hold politicians' feet to the fire
Published:Sunday | March 25, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir
The African saying 'When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers' aptly describes the continual fights between the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) vs People's National Party (PNP) with its attendant ill effects on the Jamaican citizenry. I have zero hope for a brighter day with either of them in government.
I do not feel safe at home anymore and whenever I go out, I feel like I am in a scene from the movie, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The brazen lawlessness on our roads is mind-boggling. No one seems to care. Politicians are far removed from, and seem indifferent to, this reality. They offer regrets in times of tradegies and promises of a proverbial brighter day, but the accompanying actions are absent. Political grandstanding and self-aggrandizement is the order of the day.
Sadly, Jamaica, the island of my birth and object of my profound love, is eternally trapped between the PNP, who is lost in the wilderness of 'opposition' with no relevance insight, and the JLP, which is hubristic but lacks the clear vision and probity that is required to propel our nation towards First-World status.
If only we, as a people, endeavour to hold politicians' feet to the fire for their words and actions and put aside our culture of 'bling' and 'entitlement', Jamaica would be a much better nation. Ordinary citizens do have the power to effect positive change, but are we aware of this? It appears not. A sad state of affairs.
Robert Silence