THE title of this article, especially the inclusion of “fire trucks”, does not intend to inveigle anyone to get into a mighty stampede just to create third parties in every nook and cranny of Jamaica. On the contrary, and if even subliminally, this writer believes that the old hearse and the malfunctioning ambulance have some utilisable value. Although thoughts of establishing or revitalising the third-party movement in Jamaica appear exciting, they are not seminal. In fact, pontificating about the wonders of third parties could amount to a monumental waste of time, given the rigidity of our slavish devotion and quixotic relationship with the political old hearse and malfunctioning ambulance.

In other words, talking about creating or resurrecting third parties in Jamaica as viable political entities is almost akin to engaging in intellectual masturbation. As awful as it seems, a great many Jamaicans have already self-actualised politically, and have no interest whatsoever in any other political entity outside of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and the People’s National Party (PNP). Put simply, if we cannot even as much as tolerate useful criticisms of the existing political synagogues and ginnigogs, without denigrating one another or degenerating into political twits, how then are we even going to begin the conversation about third parties as electable and viable political creatures to replace the old hearse and malfunctioning ambulance?

Having just said that, it is reasonable to ask, so what is this fuss all about? Are there really better alternatives to third parties? Yes, one of the alternatives is for us to send enough independent members to Parliament so that they can be real game-changers with sufficient power to influence legislative agendas and outcomes. Is this how we are going to slow the old hearse and malfunctioning ambulance? Yes, fire trucks will have the gumption to agitate for and secure far-reaching constitutional reforms that will enable us to advance as a free society, beyond the “dip and fall back” approach we currently embrace. They will understand the “fierce urgency of now” and will do so cognisant of the need for accountability and transparency.

Allegorically speaking, “fire trucks” refer to revolutionary thinkers who do not have to operate under the existing JLP/PNP political convention, but operate instead as independent non-partisan representatives of the people. Fire trucks refer to new modes of thinking and reasoning. They inspire and support paradigmatic shifts in how we process and ultimately act upon challenges, risks, and opportunities that circumstances and forces under, and beyond, our control and sphere of influence impose on us. Therefore, fire trucks are also synonyms, as well as metaphors, for real citizen activism and people empowerment. Fire trucks are similes for intelligent, smart and lasting people-power actions that can make a big difference for the greater good of Jamaica.

In this context, people power bears no semblance of the comedic farce we allow the political old hearse and its sister malfunctioning ambulance to pass off as meaningful and legitimate power. Nonetheless, it is entirely up to us to recognise that we will continue to live in darkness, because we choose not to see the faults and flaws in the current political arrangements. Sure as day, the sceptics will pronounce the fire trucks to be philosophically appealing but impractical. They will most likely ask, who are these fire trucks? The fire trucks are Jamaicans, drawn from every occupation and stratum. They are your private sector leaders, police, schoolteachers, farmers, academicians, religious leaders, young people, lawyers, and average citizens with something worthwhile to contribute besides “spit balls” and emptiness.

Without engaging in hysterics, Jamaica is perhaps the only place where political practitioners and followers are as benevolent as they are malevolent toward their party of choice. But they would never invest in new fire trucks in any meaningful or sustainable fashion, even while they seek to extricate themselves from the clutches of poverty and underdevelopment.

Still, our preference is to curse the old hearse “dog rotten” — as my late aunt was wont to say — and to use and abuse the opportunistic malfunctioning ambulance without regard to its perennial defective apparatus. We excuse our political bipolarity, however disappointing our experiences, on the premise that our continued allegiance is to the JLP or the PNP. We hold it to be true that either of the two will lead us to the promised land. We maintain our hope by continuing to repose faith in the capacity and competencies of the drivers of the old hearse and the ill-equipped ambulance because too many of us believe it is politically sacrilegious to call a spade a spade.

As with most things, the hearse started out on steady axle. Men and women of impeccable credentials and competencies designed the integrity and sturdiness of its locomotive. However, somewhere between its manufacture, testing and maturity, its spark plugs lost power and it has been sputtering since. The ambulance has been in a state of perpetual dysfunctionality since its inception. Its conception was legitimate, but there was no guiding philosophy or ideological compass to guide, manage or control the pragmatism it was made to transport. Hence, there have been no ends of turmoil and unnecessary speeding since it hit the road.

Overall, neither the old hearse nor the malfunctioning ambulance seems to understand that strategy requires three things: ends, ways and means, and if they do understand, they are very adroit at demonstrating this understanding only at election time. Therefore, outside of only very brief periods of electoral success, both have tinkered with one or two of the strategic components, but never all three simultaneously while governing. Some Jamaicans believe that the concept of the political hearse and its sister ambulance remains firm, and that it is not so much the vehicles that are defective, but more so the drivers.

Our style of politics and political allegiance to the old creepy hearse and the opportunistic and noisy ambulance is as weird as it is unfathomable. We need fire trucks that will bring about big shifts in the management of our affairs as well as in the methodologies we use for solving our problems. Nothing will happen, though, until we change gears in how we progress and develop as a people. We are uninterested in changing course; still “better must come” remains our clarion call. We cry out for justice, but we abhor the rule of law. We call for equal rights and justice, yet we remain secretly wedded to the “Animal Farm” societal structure in which some pigs are better than others.

The fire trucks understand that government exists to do for those what they cannot collectively, nor individually, do for themselves. The fire trucks know not to “fool-up” people with grandiloquence and empty promises. The fire trucks will not give succour to those who call for economic growth, but refuse to understand how it comes about. Those who want better roads, water supply, higher wages, better schools, hospitals and housing, but do not want to pay their fair share of taxes. Those whom we are always helping — members of the oligarchy — to evade paying their fair share of taxes, and who shield gunmen, rapists, paedophiles, and murderers, but raise cane about the high incidence of crime and violence.

Finally, the fire trucks know how to reject the spurious and contemptuous argument that framers of our constitution advanced out of sheer disdain for us that to give the people justiciable rights is to derogate from the sovereignty of Parliament. In other words, our governors that we elect must have control over our lives, but there should be no justiciable recourse open to the masses of this country — no matter the destruction they visit upon the people — to bring them to book. Fire trucks require support, unity, and fixity of purpose because they do not run on empty. The people are the fire trucks; as such, the people must take a stand and set their engines rolling.

Burnscg@aol.com