Dear Editor,

Just as I was clear in my mind to participate in the next general election, the situation in St Elizabeth North Eastern hit the news.

I will declare that I attended a Rotary function at Palladium and was inspired by arguments put forward by Raymond Pryce. He explained that, after 53 years, Jamaica was competing on the same stage and same level as Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA. He explained that, while we were right to have First-World expectations, we should temper those expectations with a healthy dose of reality as to our financial and economic realities after centuries of underdevelopment. I started to track him on Facebook and reached out to fellow Rotarians in Manchester and St Elizabeth to see if there could really be such a thing as a new politician with a refreshing outlook and approach. So I got enumerated.

Then the eruption in his constituency started. Then the arguments of violence and intimidation. Then some nasty remarks across traditional and social media by his opponents. Then the announcement that he was no longer interested in representing the constituency. Then the announcement that the Mayor Everton Fisher had been chosen. Then the news that Kern Spencer was back. Then the news that it was Redman. It was even reported that Pryce was “stripped” of his position as deputy general secretary. Were it true, it would have been akin to the case of a cow chopping off its own tail, only to face regret and seek to reattach it.

This case is really a curious one, especially when one considers that Pryce always speaks glowingly of the prime minister. In fact, many of my ‘links’ and I have a private joke about what interviewees in media say about Simpson Miller. Before their next heartbeat, Pryce usually opens an encyclopaedia of reasons they are mistaken and presents Simpson Miller as the greatest prime minister ever.

This case is a serious one for the People’s National Party, more than I believe they have realised. For, while I just got enumerated, I know several people who said they voted for the PNP and were considering doing so again because of newbies like Pryce, Damian Crawford and Lisa Hanna. With the treatment of these, it seems that some in the PNP are trying to injure their own chances of re-election, or are set on weakening the party.

Omari Anderson

Lucea, Hanover

amari.anderson87@gmail.com