Dear Editor,

There has been a lot of discussion in the media and across Jamaica since the prime minister started to proclaim that she is “ready”. I now see every night on local news the herds of green and orange doing their thing with their delegates and supporters. As the party faithful strut their stuff it seems national issues disappear. So we are no longer speaking about fiscal discipline, youth unemployment, lowering crime, growing the economy or debt repayment. It is all “trumpet” this, and ring “bell” that.

Much of the commentary is about the departure of Raymond Pryce from representative politics. While Michael Peart, Gregory Mair and DK Duncan have all announced their departure, there is a national outcry, especially among the youth, for the news on Pryce. This is actually confusing. The People’s National Party (PNP) had in Raymond Pryce one of its best ambassadors. His work on decriminalising ganja, to clear the records of mostly young men who were wayward in their youth to give them a second chance in life, assisted my older brother to re-enter the possibilities lane.

Some say it’s poetic justice, though, that he is leaving after stirring up our collective attention on civil society organisations. Or maybe he knows something that we don’t, which is why he insisted on shining the light on them. Then it’s the way he spoke to my peers and me through newspaper lines and comments on television and social media, telling us that there was a different way and a new approach to politics. Certainly, like Chris Tufton and Lisa Hanna, Pryce has national appeal beyond the PNP. Yet as a “delegate” from Santa Cruz said: “We want an MP where we can knock pon him gate when we hungry.” That may be what is needed for a few in Santa Cruz. The PNP, however, should want more than that from its representatives in Parliament. To govern a country in difficult times needs more than just welfare mentality among party circles. So I am confused as to how the PNP expects to get broad support in an upcoming election from a scrutinising public when we see how they genuflect to the basest requests.

I am further confused as when I see interviews with the proposed replacement for Pryce we literally “laugh out loud”. No disrespect intended, but really! I guess the question is whether or not politics requires a national outlook and a focus on the capacity of representatives to capture the imagination of the national psyche or whether all politics is local.

But who are we anyway? Just the future workers of Jamaica who are becoming increasingly diminished by the politics of yesteryear.

Latoya Chin

Hope Pastures

lattychin95@gmail.com