“When our children misbehave we scold them, when an employee fails to perform…they are fired, but when politicians act in like manner we put them on a five-year cycle, hoping for a change that never comes.”

Politicians — employees of the electorate — having completed the period of courting for our votes mostly become afflicted with a controlled malady called amnesia; forgetting the sweet promises on their trek to power. They revea their true character to their employers and present themselves as the people’s boss. Citizens then suffer gross mismanagement of the country’s affairs.

Who really is to be blamed? It is easy to find fault with others without examining our own weaknesses. People will continue to do bad things if good people allow them to do it. We have allowed successive governments to treat us with contemptuous disdain. Most recently, the Government proposed signing an MoU for a US$5-b logistics project — larger than the country’s net reserves — yet only a sprinkling of people know anything about the principals or any details of the project. The lack of accountability grows. We might wake one morning to hear that the country is sold to the highest bidder. We allow them to get away with it.

Has anyone ever compared your governments’ treatment of the citizens with that of any other country in the Caribbean? Check the records for legal cases against the State, of those that met the full scrutiny of the courts, awarding compensations to citizens. Check how much of these cases have been opposed by the Attorney General’s Department.

Look at the Finsac debacle. The then government an economic environment that resulted in massive layoffs, stifled manufacturing sector, and capital flight, leaving many to the mercy of a banking system. Interest rates reached record 80 per cent. If that was not enough, they sold the debt for 30 per cent of its value without structures to protect citizens from abuse. Would an American government allow any company to operate in its country against its citizens’ interest? Did the Government show any remorse? What did we do? Return them to office.

Despite our multiple positives in academia, sports, music, intellect, and being world-class performers, the majority of Jamaican continue to swim in the pool of anger, frustration, fear and penury. Isn’t it time citizens demanded accountability from those elected to serve? And, what about the Opposition, shouldn’t they be equally held to a high standard of accountability? Who really is the employer and who is the employed?

If we do not have a serious examination of our nonchalant attitude and behaviour towards politicians we will be sinking surely into an abyss of political dictatorship, where power is handed on a platter by the delegates of both parties. Is that what we want as a people? Politicians must be made aware that if their attitude toward governance is not in the best interest of the citizens their tenure in office will be no longer than summer in Alaska.

tonymiles1940@gmail.com