This is an open letter to each and every single one of you politicians in the race to sit in Parliament.

I wish to express my frustration at the quality of campaigning that is currently taking place in the lead-up to the soon-to-be-announced national election. I am very happy that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has delayed the calling of the election until some time next year. Maybe this will give you some time to reflect and consider your conduct at the various political rallies.

I find your speeches and behaviour, in many instances, rather pompous, puerile, irrelevant and, most of all, totally disconnected and insensitive to the current plight of average Jamaicans and their families. Why are issues like the size of Andrew Holness’s house dominating the political discussions? How does the nation benefit from these types of discourses? How does singing songs about guns being loaded in Montego Bay at political rallies give me hope to more effectively deal with the issues we face as a country and to provide for my wife and three children in the Jamaican context?

In light of the widespread lack of disinterest in the political process, especially among young Jamaicans, I am appealing to you that maybe it is time for you to consider elevating the quality of your political exchanges and discussion. The evidence is there before you, dear politicians; your message is not connecting nor seems to be attractive to the majority of citizens.

For too long, in election after election, you politicians have depended on the votes of a handful of party diehards to get into power, while more than half of the citizens of the land have consistently declined from participating. Obviously, they are not impressed, and you politicians should be concerned about this because if such significant numbers of Jamaicans are not impressed by your message, then a win at the national polls, supported by approximately a quarter of the citizens, cannot really be considered a real win or vote of confidence by the people of Jamaica.

Can you please begin to talk about what you are going to do about Port Maria and other low-lying areas where many Jamaicans, including myself, live? In this the days of global warming and rising sea levels, these towns flood every time it drizzles. The people in these areas have been voting for you for many years now. What have they got in return? Can you talk about the fact that the primary schools are generally too far behind the levels at preparatory schools? What are you going to do about that?

Can you consider that, so far, your message has done nothing to inspire the majority of our bright and talented young people, resulting in failure to convince them that there is a future in staying and working in Jamaica. The vast majority of them with whom I interact are, in fact, looking forward to the first given opportunity to migrate in order to live, work, do business, and raise families in other countries since, for some reason, you, on both (or all) sides of the political fence, have failed to ignite them with a Jamaican dream.

What do you have to say to overtaxed Jamaican parents who have not got a pay increase in the longest while, but yet are face with rising prices at the supermarket, at the gas stations, and everywhere else that they turn to for goods and services? What do you have to say to the little farmers who are about to give up under the barrage of praedial larceny? The issues go on and on.

If you begin to discuss these issues, I will attend your political rallies; however, honestly, it seems like you politicians are living on a different planet and therefore cannot relate to or sort out my issues. I would like to propose that in order to get the rest of Jamaicans interested in the political process, please consider doing away with the ‘jump and wine, get something and wave, curry goat and beer’ approach to offering yourselves as candidates for national leadership. It is clearly not attracting the majority!

Maybe you can have those special sessions for your diehards who do not seem to care whether you have a vision or not — they will vote and follow you till they die. As far as they are concerned, they were either born Labourites or Comrades — doctors can maybe explain how that happened. However, for the remaining majority of the people, I suggest that you begin to talk intelligently about your vision for the nation. How we can face the issues together. Give more definition to the Jamaican dream. What are our core values to give guidance? Show us how we can build a future together. Deal with the bread and butter issues that are facing the people. And, most of all, please assume that the people are intelligent and can reason. We know sense from nonsense.

At this point in time, I am seriously considering giving up my role as a proud volunteer with Citizens’ Action for Free and Fair Elections, which I have engaged in for many years. This political process is increasingly becoming less and less sensible, more and more perfidious, and seemingly designed to impose regimes on the nation that, at the end of the day, pillages the Jamaican people and leaves politicians and their influential financiers more well off and more enriched while the masses continue to wallow in poverty.

As a loyal citizen, I am truly looking forward to a change. May God help and bless Jamaica.

Pastor Wesley C Boynes is a pastor. Send comments to the Observer or to wesley_boynes@northgateglobal.com