Greatness comes from the people
Dear Editor,
I write in response to a letter of June 14, “Jamaica needs a great prime minister”. My opinion is that the country will achieve and maintain greatness only through its people. The success or failure of any country depends on its people. To give the impression that leaders such as the prime minister of Jamaica or the president of the United States are responsible for a generation of wealth is false and this country Jamaica had better think again.
I wish to comment on two great leaders, Sir Alexander Bustamante and Norman Washington Manley, who are now national heroes. Norman Manley advocated for Jamaica’s self-government but wished for federation with other Caribbean islands within the Commonwealth. Sir Alexander Bustamante considered otherwise and a referendum was held to declare Jamaica’s position whether to go it alone or be federated. The result of this is what we are today in terms of Independence – with full responsibility for our laws, education, economic growth and all amenities.
The capacity of a country and its people to develop must be through education. We as a country was told that education cannot be eaten and that what the people want is a little more flour and a little more bread. We as a people must face the facts and realities of life that no one was born great. Great men and women come from straw hence my registered statement, “From Straw to Strawberry whose hallmark and achievement is from the people then and the people now.”
What leadership does in any organisation, whether a president of a service club or a prime minister, is positive motivation: how to motivate the people to achieve their goals. Parents need to encourage their children to excel. Mr Editor, let someone answer this question: Did Jamaica on December 29, 2011 have the money to fix the potholes all over the country, and did not fix them in order to give a little Christmas work? No, I don’t believe they had and it is equally true that the present administration does not have the money.
Think again.
Glen V Bromfield
53 Hope Road
Kingston 6
