The 2012 election is a chance to change our future and the life chances of our kids. The MPs we elect to take us into the second 50 years is the key. The first 50 were broken promises and failure. We can’t progress with tainted MPs so we must find new ones. Election 2012 is not about party but about a new MP for your area, one who will unite around good policies regardless of party. Enough is enough. We now know tribal politics does not work, so let us trust our nation to good managers for the next 50.

Bruce speaks well and Portia is pretty, but these do not a nation build. We need MPs whose careers before politics show they have the skills to make us prosper. The usual teacher, lawyer, trade unionist candidate for MP failed. A minister who has a complex area to manage – a port, airline, public utility or Jampro – appoints a proven manager, not a teacher or party loyalist. This proves ministers know where the expertise to run the country lies. Once I won a project and a certain PM voided the contract and gave it to his friend who promptly subcontracted me to do the work. Why? He had to deliver the best to the PM so he chose the best man to do the job. We need the best managers in Cabinet. Why elect an MP who has no track record? Donald Trump is new to politics and we too need some top managers as MPs. It’s good that you love your party, but you tried the rest, now try the best! Put Jamaica first for once and see the results.

Each new Cabinet raises our hopes but disappoints. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Try something new! Bruce and Portia started out with good intentions. A man who calls an enquiry, arrogantly takes on a Pit Bull QC whose meat and drink are advocacy and hopes to walk away unscathed can’t be thinking. Can the JLP ask Dudus to pay for the enquiry too? Bruce’s party political broadcasts/talk show seemed to have gone to his head. What happened to equal air time for all parties? Does our Broadcasting Commission or Fair Trading Commission approve? Any democracy would see these political broadcasts are an abuse of office and unfair competition. Juvenile bravado and debating skills do not make a PM. Stop faffin’ around with words and lead! Despite my better judgement I love Jamaica. I won’t enter the Promised Land, neither will Bruce or Portia, so check these facts:

First, we have been twice in the arms of the IMF – we went to them both times. We trusted our politicians and followed them faithfully; we staged no revolutions or coups; fought no wars and gave JLP and PNP a run of over 20 years each – no change!

Second, our Cabinets governed, our Opposition opposed; entrepreneurs were intrepid and farmers planted. Cabinets got $bs of taxes, loans, grants and aid; earned $bs in easy money from low-hanging fruit – tourism, bauxite, remittances; but economic independence still eludes us. They tried their best, but their best is not good enough!

Third, our politicians are well-meaning. None set out to bilk us, even when they did. They did not go in to get rich, but still the transfer of public funds to politicians and their cronies is massive. A few were erudite, some semi-literate and all failed.

So where has this got us? What is the net result after 49 years? Consider this:

(1) We will start the second half-century with the same problems as in 1962.

(2) Our black politicians took 49 years to pass a Bill of Rights to give us – the scions of slaves – the rights our ancestors were denied. And we must praise them? No way!

(3) After 49 years of stress our experts say half of us have psychological problems. Why? Simple! Poverty, unemployment, crime and fear; we have a lull in murders, but the guns and killers are still out there. No portfolio performs creditably. Years of failure, tension and abuse can sap a nation’s strength. Change must start with new MPs.

(4) We lost perspective. Politics is a vehicle to select MPs but we made it a life-and-death struggle, and even when MPs fail we do not fire them. Our politics is surreal! like “Call of Duty” it is a video game we play and replay, not real life!

(5) Inept leaders passed and each left a “mini me”. Bruce is just a lesser Eddie. China and India were poor, exported people to cut our cane and banana. We dissed them: “Coolie two fi one” and “Chinie nyam dog”. Today they buy our estates and we beg them aid. Marcus put it plainly, “Up you mighty race!” We must reject the heirs of old politics and find men who can build teams brighter than themselves and lead us to prosperity!

Our esteemed public defender asks us to be ambassadors abroad, so I now push the fire with this cautionary tale. Once upon a time Delroy Grant, 53 – an avid Jehovah Witness – was given four life sentences by a UK court. A polite taxi driver – smart dresser, well-liked – he dominated the media in March and his serpent smile draped all front pages. For 20 years “Night stalker” Delroy brutally robbed and raped people in their beds and terrorised the UK; a thousand crimes, 300 reported sexual assaults on men and women some in their late 80s – gerontophilia – and in 2009 they caught him. This depraved man told officers not to bother fingerprint him as he wore gloves; told the court his ex-wife planted his semen on rape victims to spite him and said the rapist could be his own son, Delroy Jnr. He was arrogant in court but the media were kind to us, giving just facts, not sensation. Brought up by a grandmother in Jamaica; was he abused sexually then and vented his anger on white people in the UK? Delroy is not typical of us, but his crimes will define us in Europe into the future. Kingston-born Courtenay Griffiths QC – a top-ten UK barrister – thought his client’s crimes “perversely disgusting and uniquely revolting”. Use of this case in police training will sear our bad name into recruits forever – the longest-running case, costing over $1 billion, 30,000 suspects questioned, 3,000 DNA samples taken and most featured on Crimewatch TV. Other inmates are so horified at his crimes he may not live long in prison; only in the Guinness Book of Records. The moral: things happen to us abroad, we don’t know why and “get vex”. We now know “Delroy was here!” What you don’t know can hurt you. As you travel, be aware, foreigners know more than they say. Be conscious!

Newsflash: The diaspora think pressure by our High Commission for donations to fund the 2012 anniversary is unbecoming. Sir HC, please rethink the strategy!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK.

franklinjohnston@hotmail.com