IN politics in the United States of America, an aspiring politician or elected politician seeking higher office has to publish at least one book explaining his or her philosophy, view of the world and allude to what policies they would pursue if elected.

In Britain and the US, former politicians write books in the hope of exonerating themselves from their misdeeds or rewrite history to favour their term in office eg Messrs Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Tony Blair. Sometimes if history will not easily absolve them of what they have perpetuated on their fellow men, then it may be a three-volume work eg Mrs Margaret Thatcher, Mr Henry Kissinger.

Avarice also has been a prominent motive for these mostly dishonest and self-promoting tomes.

It has also become commonplace in the US and UK for the press to ask politicians to name two or three books which have influenced them other than the mandatory mention of the Bible. The answer is often laughable eg Mrs Sarah Palin who could not name any or Mr Bush whom the Republican promoters claimed had read over 50 books a year.

Alas, here in Jamaica, most of our politicians neither read nor write, with very few exceptions, for example those who are journalists, like Ambassador Anthony Johnson — with regard to writing, exceptions easily include Messrs Michael Manley, Edward Seaga, Oswald Harding and Delano Franklin. Mr Manley is the only leader who dared to set down his thinking prior to and after policy-making. Mr Seaga’s critics have claimed that his books are intended to create a favourable place for himself in history and should be approached with more than the proverbial grain of salt. Mr Franklin is both an author and editor which probably explains why he is absent from the Shadow Cabinet of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

There are former university lecturers eg Dr Peter Phillips, Dr Omar Davies and Dr Christopher Tuffton who have published in academic journals and there may be some scribblers of poetry and the occasional newspaper. We are not counting works of fiction eg the novel by Mr Douglas Manley, and Mr Michael Henry owns a publishing house.

None of these constitute a personal political manifesto. The explanation is partly the absence of thought in the political ranks and partly the absence of a book reading public of more than a few thousands.

Politicians are apparently too busy to write, but we are not aware of them reading books. We are sure they are reading snippets on the Internet but that is entirely different from the sustained intellectual exercise of reading a book. What is the excuse or explanation of why our politicians are not reading books while ironically urging the children of Jamaica to read more books. To prove our point we will administer a reading and writing test to our politicians.

We challenge members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to name three books they have read in the last years and explain why they found these books important to their political activities. We will publish a short submission by any MP or Senator and as an added incentive we will publish their picture. We are confident that we will receive no submissions, thereby proving our point.