Dear Editor,

On Thursday, September 24, 2015 I had the benefit of hearing a programme on Nationwide Radio with Cliff Hughes interviewing three anonymous people who participated in a demonstration in support of the released chairperson of the Prickly Pole Primary School, and by extension to get rid of Lisa Hanna, the sitting member of parliament (MP).

Besides the fact that they were incognito on the radio, retaining colourful aliases, their reasoning provided my epiphany. This is the reasoning of those who are delegates in political constituencies. These are the people who decide who will become MP and ministers of government.

This was their reasoning:

One took her child to the demonstration because she thought it would make a better impression for her cause to have the chairperson reinstated, and the child was the sufferer of the poor representation of the sitting MP. It seems someone called her to say that what she said didn’t sound right, so later on she said that the child was taken to the demonstration because no one was at home when school was let out, and the child shouldn’t be alone.

The second anonymous person said that he was a “diehearted” PNP because he was born into a PNP family and he is going to be a PNP for life. His prime minister can send anybody, he will vote for them; but Lisa had to go. She didn’t spend any of the money to fix the little school. In addition, apparently she was not using the available resources to fix some elderly constituents’ leaking roofs. All the previous MPs had been helpful to the members of the constituency by fixing up houses and so on. And Lisa didn’t stop by to see how things were, so she had to go.

The third anonymous person said he was neither PNP nor JLP, but Lisa was the problem. She was not present in the community. She did not spend the money she had to fix the schoolyard, so they were not pleased. His child was “asthamatatic”, and the poor schoolyard condition was a threat to his child’s health.

It is my epiphany that these people represent the political sophistry of the nation. I see clearly now the reason the ministers of government are so clueless and have no demonstrated capability to either comprehend the remit of their ministries, or manage them. They, like the delegates who select them, are only in politics to get what they can out of it for themselves.

This exposure of Jamaica’s political reality is good to know. Anyone who is a patriot of this great country, and sees the need to develop a political system of accountability, responsibility and vision must recognise that political aspirants and incumbents have only themselves in mind.

Sadly, after hearing the delegates from St Ann, I am of the opinion that there is no hope in these parties as they exist today. These people who select and are selected will never be able to comprehend the functions in Parliament and responsibility to the electors, and will support their parties till they die. Unfortunately, the rest of us remain shackled by fear of change, and crippled by inertia. We cannot continue to be held hostage by the least visionary and least ethical.

Hugh M Dunbar

hmdenergy@gmail.com