Dear Editor,

It seems to me that there is something fundamentally wrong with the JLP. Since 1972 they have won only three of the 10 elections held in this country, with one of those being the 1983 poll which was uncontested by the PNP.

What could account for Bustamante’s party, the party of the working class, being so roundly rejected by the mass of working class Jamaicans? I suspect that the reasons are numerous.

It seems to me that two facts are immediately apparent. One, the JLP’s considerable penchant to blame the PNP as the party that always “destroys” Jamaica’s economy does not resonate with the majority of our people. Maybe it is that the populace sees in this continued characterisation of the PNP a blaming of the people for the difficulties we face.

After all, if people — 70 per cent of the time since 1972 — have voted in a non-performing party, then certainly we must bear some of the responsibility for the country’s demise.

After all, if people — 70 per cent of the time since 1972 — have voted in a non-performing party, then certainly we must bear some of the responsibility for the country’s demise.

Second, is that the JLP always paints itself as the fixer of the economy. It seems obvious to me that fixing the economy does not give you a free pass to lose touch with the realities of people. While we need “cash to care” as Eddie Seaga said in the 1980s, we must find a way to make people feel as if we do care for them, even before the cash arrives.

The continued arrogant and high-handed manner in which the JLP politicians speak to public sector workers perhaps is an indication that indeed the party sees the people as the real problem with Jamaica. Maybe the message they convey is, “We have a country to fix, but you the people keep on getting in the way”. And the people do not like it.

There is no doubt that the JLP need to rebuild, and in so doing they need to learn some people skills. The greatest example of this is that the party was not able to pull out more than its base to the polls in this election. The greatest tragedy is that it is Jamaica that loses, because without a strong alternative, then we are left open to the greater possibility of failure as a nation.

The JLP must rebuild and recapture some of the ideals of Busta, who is no doubt turning in his grave at what the present leadership have done with his party, indeed allowing Jamaica to become “PNP country”.

David Pearson

davynth@gmail.com