by Jean Lowrie-Chin |Jamaica Observer column for 5 August 2013
Yes you, our political representatives – it’s you
we’re talking to this Independence week!
You offered yourselves for election to Parliament and Parish
Councils. You took oaths to serve your
country with the highest standards of ethics.
Collectively, you are 63 Members of Parliament, 216 Parish Councillors
and a bulging Cabinet – aren’t you concerned that the population you swore to
serve is suffering collective grief from crime, violence and economic hardship?
“It's
you - it's you - it's you I'm talkin' to
…. Would you let the system make you kill your brother-man?
No, Dread, no!” – Bob Marley
…. Would you let the system make you kill your brother-man?
No, Dread, no!” – Bob Marley
We don’t have to tell any of our leaders about their
past. You know who you are, you have
your secrets. So here is what we the people want to tell you. The Truth Commission may never happen here,
but we want you to have a very frank conversation with your God. You go to many Church services, do many Bible
readings, sing many hymns.
Michelle Knight, one of the women abducted and
chained for 11 years by that monster Ariel Castro in Ohio, USA, told him at his
sentencing, that he was “hypocritically going to church every Sunday and
returning home to torture us afterwards”. Of our leaders, we ask, “Are you doing
an Ariel Castro on Jamaica?” This
Independence, Jamaicans may be forcing a few smiles but we are in pain.
President of
the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), Christopher Zacca (left);
President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions Lloyd Goodleigh (second
right); Youth Advocate, Jamaica Youth Advocacy Group, Kemesha Kelly,
representing civil society groups, are joined by former Prime Minister Bruce
Golding as they display copies of the agreement during yesterday’s signing
ceremony at King’s House in Kingston. (Jamaica Observer photo: BRYAN CUMMINGS)
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On the eve of Emancipation Day last week, Government,
private sector, labour and civil society interests signed the long-discussed
“Partnership for Jamaica”, which has evolved from the “Partnership for Progress”
and the “Partnership for Development”. While
agreeing with ‘the spirit of the agreement’, the opposition JLP did not sign. Now
comes the hard part – who will put aside the selfish interests of their
respective parties and sectors to focus on one goal: Jamaica’s well-being?
It’s you I’m talking to dear signatories. You can return to your offices and places of
business and continue as usual, playing those cynical games that have hijacked
our progress. Or you can pull out that
declaration of partnership, study it and seriously commit to working for
positive results. By ‘work’ we mean not
those interminable meetings, but a timetable of action, shared with the media
who can help us to ensure that all those beautiful words announced in the
hallowed halls of Kings House will alleviate the unspeakable misery of
Jamaica’s poor.
Journalist Janet Silvera - Gleaner photo |
Bright young attorney Debbie-Ann Gordon Crawford may
have set up business in Kingston, but she has not forgotten her home parish of
Westmoreland where she spearheaded a Health and Information Fair about a week
ago at Torrington, with the assistance of Food for the Poor. Hundreds of elderly and ailing folks were
able to get medical checks and supplies of staples as they streamed in for help.
If these folks are doing this without benefit of the
public purse, and access to a Constituency Development Fund, how much more
could our political representatives achieve with their clout? Let us use this
51st Anniversary of Jamaica’s Independence and ‘talk big woman and
big man t’ings’. Please examine yourself leaders and make yourself right with
the Almighty. Then let us see the light
you promised to shine when you swore to lead ‘so help you God’.
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