The wave of popular uprising which began and spread across the Middle East from 2010 through 2012 popularly known as The Arab Spring has not had the liberating effect that many thought it would, despite the bloodshed and the toppling of some long-standing dictators in some instance. Instead, it has largely collapsed with the situation in countries like Libya and Egypt seen as worse than before.

Tunisia, the birthplace of the movement, the one country to emerge with a fledgling democracy, is now at risk as multiple terrorist attacks, and an ensuing state of emergency have activists fearing even greater repression than what obtained under the late dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Two or so years ago, I had the sense that there were Jamaicans who wanted our own Arab Spring and were actively fanning the flames of discontent toward that end. I wrote that it was not a good idea — that social change can be accomplished with none or little shedding of blood; that I did not want to see one more Jamaicans die in any kind of political uprising, or for any of our schools, post offices, police posts, or heritage sites to go up in flames in any protest actions.

This does not mean that there is not a need for serious agitation targeted at better governance, including less corruption, greater accountability, and an inclusive vision of greater participation by the people in decisions that impact their lives. What it means is a kind of leadership that has the best interest of the people of heart, exemplified first for respect for their lives above all else. This means great emphasis on non-violent actions and creative disruption in the way we see and participate in the political process.

The People’s National Party (PNP), which now forms the government, campaigned on a platform of revolutionary change in 1972 with the people at the centre. While much has changed since then, much remains the same. But the party now seems disinclined to pursue that platform, uncertain, it seems, how to appease the constituencies that most opposed it, while hoping to meet the expectations of the people.

The reported statement by finance minister Peter Phillips, for example, that the Government has done all it can for the poor reflects a mindset that the poor is a monolith to which the Government owes only welfare-type intervention. This is inimical to what development ought to mean or to how the PNP of yesteryear would have viewed them — as people with potential/talents in need of opportunities to be brought into the nation-building process. For the most part, this is what they are, and until we begin to see them that way, talks of an inclusive society or sustainable development will remain just that.

What is clear, when one listens carefully, is that the people and the political establishment, are on a collision course. The Government is stuck in that same colonial mode that Manley attempted to dispense with, and the people are moving on. There is what, Dr Martin Luther King Jr called a marvelous new militancy that is beginning to build in the country and it is fermenting, bottom up, in the People’s National Party — as it should. The unfinished social justice agenda and the long-overdue decolonisation process will come front and centre whether the leadership of the PNP wants to deal with it or not. It is being demonstrated, in part, in constituencies where people are rejecting ‘establishment candidates’ over those that they choose themselves.

Fifty-three years into our Independence, our political leadership has not demonstrated the resolve or vision that is required to overhaul the constitution and provide the people with greater ability to participate in the decisions that affect their lives and hold their elected representatives accountable. The people, however, are making it clear that they are no longer prepared to be used as props or photo-ops in the scripts of other people’s lives, while they pursue their own self-aggrandisement, and they appreciate what the establishment does not: That there is nothing wrong with a frontal challenge to orthodoxy, when such orthodoxy is oppressive to the people or otherwise does not respect their dignity as human beings, or their right to self determination. That’s what Sam Sharpe, Nanny, Paul Bogle, George William Gordon, and Marcus Garvey did in Jamaica. Why do we celebrate them as heroes but fear the principles for which they fought and died?

Hanover Eastern Member of Parliament Dr D K Duncan, for example, should not interpret a challenge to his leadership of the PNP’s Region Six, within the confines of what the party constitution stipulates, as personally disrespectful or necessarily disunifying, in any way. On the contrary, this is what happens in mature democracies and it is what Prime Minister Michael Manley championed during his eight-year tenure from 1972 to 1980. Dr Duncan was a part of that movement. To his credit, he has pivoted away from the situation by deciding not to contest the chairmanship.

This newspaper, which began with the proud goal of taking more than a superficial approach to news and at the issues affecting every Jamaican, in a recent inspired editorial, articulated the following seven undesirable traits of Jamaican politicians: 1) possessing ambition far beyond their talent, professional experience and qualifications; 2) displaying more opportunism rather than commitment to service; 3) displaying egotistical self-aggrandisement instead of humility; 4) pursuing political power as an end in itself while not believing in anything, demonstrated by those who flip from party to party depending on which offers the best prospects for self-advancement; 5) putting public relations over performance; 6) displaying no sense of shame regardless of the number of scandals one is involved in; 7) treating politics as a life-long profession instead of a period of service.

This is how the thinking public views our politicians and a framework that they should all use to evaluate themselves. I will also add one more critical reference point: If you contested the 1980 General Eelection on side, or elections prior to that, it’s time to go!

Grace Virtue, PhD, is a social justice advocate.