When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself as public property. — ThomasJefferson

I recently stopped at a roadside vendor to buy a cold ‘jelly coconut’. It was a few minutes before Sweet Hour of Prayer [midday]. The ‘jelly’ quencher was a godsend. Only the crackly sound of the vendor’s radio was louder than my thirst. I bought another for good measure. While digging into the delicate gristle-like ‘meat’ of, arguably, the best gift to Jamaica by the Spanish colonials, the midday newscast started. I listened intently. The vendor ‘stationed’ the radio to facilitate a ‘crisper’ reception.

Dwayne Vaz’s inflammatory comments at a People’s National Party (PNP) rally in St James last week and qualified apology was the lead story. The vendor’s sotto voce remark at the end of the first news item was deafening: “Vaz mus’ be tink mi born when mi madda gone a market,” he said. His tone of deep frustration reminded me of some lyrics in the Bob Marley song

Talkin’ Blues: “I feel like bombing a church, now that I know the preacher is lying.”

Later in the day I listened to the complete recording of Vaz’s tirade. These incendiary words were spoken by him: “Mi hear a likkle ting guh dung roun’ a Granville tonight. I don’t get di full story, suh I don’t really waah seh nutten. But mi hear some Labourite roun’ di corna a laugh an’ a talk seh how PNP office bun dung. But, and according to dem, whole heap more tings lef fi come. But wi waah tell den seh, caah wi nuh know if a dem dweet or wah. A dem dweet? A dem dweet? But guess wah, a baby strength dem have. Girl strength alone dem have. Eh? U see wah gwaan today? Unnu see wah gwaan today? Montego Bay, load up di gu!”

Vaz is the member of parliament for Westmoreland Central, a seat formerly held by one of Jamaica’s most loved politicians, the late Roger Clarke. Vaz is a legislator. By his own admission, he did not know who set fire to the office in Granville, St James, of a PNP councillor and deputy mayor of Montego Bay Michael Troupe. He did not wait for the police to do their investigation. Nonetheless, he called for divisive, dangerous and potentially deadly action. In the relation to the fire at Troupe’s office, Senior Superindtendent Steve McGregor, head of the St James police, said last week: “Nothing that we have is indicating that it was politically motivated.” Vaz had jumped the gu[n]!

Vaz said in a radio interview last that he was just trying to rile up the crowd. To rile means to make ‘agitated and angry or to upset’. If Vaz’s intent was to sponsor mayhem, his introduction of Vybz Kartel’s

Weh Dem Feel Like was a perfect match.

Kartel is a convicted murderer. He is lyricist to one of the most violent songs in contemporary dancehall:

Verse 1

Min uh inna nuh long talking (talking)

Mi dawg a do di … barking (barking)

Magi-barrel a spin like a car rim, down a Madden

Dem haffi carry (…) badness a nuh show weh you star in

Fi get no bandoolu shot and fake scarrin

A real cop, a real killa, real bawlin’

When you mother (mother) see you spread out like tarpaulin

Did Vaz lose touch with his senses? Was he in a delirious state? I think Vaz was in full charge of his faculties. His utterance was a dwarfed Machiavellian stunt. A tendency has developed in our politics where lies, crackpot jokes, incendiary remarks, and myriad forms of tomfoolery are retailed on the political stump. Developmental issues are not a premium.

Joseph de Maistre wrote in 1811: “Every nation gets the government it deserves.”

When National Security Minister Peter Bunting called some Jamaicans ‘John Crows ‘ [scavengers], he achieved an immediate political effect at the rally at which he spoke. Bunting’s comment riled the supporters. Our politicians know that nowadays a general public backlash is inevitable after crass public conduct. When the flood of public criticism starts, a mealy-mouthed apology is drafted and circulated to the unsuspecting. It’s all about bread and circuses.

Vaz’s apology and initial stout defence of his comments on the radio last Friday fitted perfectly into the formula of dwarfed Machiavellainism: “My miming of a song has been completely misconstrued, and those who may have heard me doing this during the playing of lyrics of the song

Wah Dem Feel Like by the incarcerated Vybz Kartel have misunderstood the context.

“While I definitely do not condone the actions that led to the confinement of the referenced artiste, his artistry did find fondness in my musical collection, and I have asked for his music to be played on occasion.

“My repeating the words of the song was only in reference to loading our supporters into vehicles to go to mass meetings as we normally do, and so I want to make it abundantly clear that there was no intent on my part with regard to anything to do with violence or encouraging violence, or for any form of retaliation.

“This is not me. I did not say or mean to say anything about weaponry in a negative or violence-prone way. I also made it clear in my presentation that I was in no way blaming anyone for the fire and so any coincidental or misunderstood conjoined comment about weapons was definitely not done encouraging any of my supporters or anyone supporting the People’s National Party toward any type of violence.

“That is not what I am about and not what this party is about. And I was simply referencing a song that happens to unfortunately contain lyrics that appear to speak to gang behaviour and for this I apologise to everyone.” (

The Gleaner, December 11, 2015)

Jamaicans are generally forgiving people, but most of us don’t like “when people tek wi fi fool”. The coconut vendor said as much last Friday when we spoke at length after the midday newscast. Vaz’s backhanded apology was an insult to our intelligence. He will not suffer any consequences sufficient to make the next irresponsible politician engage his/her brain before his/her mouth.

Vaz’s meetings with the National Executive Council of the PNP and the Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment-Brown were, as country folks say, a ‘sham’ [façade], nothing more, nothing less.

Paul Burke, general secretary of the PNP said on radio last week, “As far as we are concerned, he [Vaz] has done what is required.” That comment was before Vaz met with the ombudsman. After his meeting with the ombudsman last Tuesday, Vaz put out a second apology to calm public rebuke. He will organise a values and attitudes conference in his constituency as part of the ‘atonement’. ‘Poppyshow’, anyone?

Is the treatment meted out to Vaz even remotely characteristic of how ordinary folks are treated by State agencies? In any self-respecting liberal democracy Vaz would have resigned. In Jamaica, palliatives are kings. Our politics treats ordinary folks as cannon fodder.

We should not lose sight of another fact. The podium on which Vaz made the dastardly comments was the same platform on which Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller also spoke. Can she discipline Vaz? One year into the job as a parliamentarian Vaz has learned to ape his seniors. Rural folks put it best, “Chip nuh fly far from block.” Children learn by example, and especially those of their parents.

Vaz is part of an Administration where there is an absence of leadership at the top. Taking immediate and ultimate political responsibility is almost foreign to this Portia Simpson Miller Administration. The reality of losing State power is the only stimulus that prods the near-dead moral ‘conscience’ of this Government. Norman Manley must be spinning in his grave.

There is a litany of evidence to support my thesis that Simpson Miller does not lead.

When Dr Fenton Ferguson, former minister of health, made little or no preparation for the arrival of CHIKV, he was defended by the prime minister. Under Ferguson’s watch there was countrywide suffering, which cost the economy, conservatively, $7 billion, and $13 million lost man-hours of production time, according to data from the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica.

When septuagenarian A J Nicholson made the dastardly “flexi-rape” remark in Parliament, he did not resign and the prime minister did not fire him. Nicholson remains the majority leader in the Senate, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a senior Cabinet minister.

When junior minister, Richard Azan, was reprimanded in a scathing report by the contractor general, and universally condemned by civil society, he was later reinstated in Nicodemus-like fashion, ignoring howls of protests from all sectors of the Jamaican society.

Last October, the country found out that near $200 million of National Housing Trust funds was used to purchase the Outameni property, ostensibly to establish a kind of ‘Emancipation Park’ in the west — at least that is one of several explanations the country got. The prime minister said she heard about the matter in the media. Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis later delivered a body blow to the wavering stories by the then board chaired by Easton Douglas.

“The Auditor General’s Department says that the National Housing Trust’s (NHT) purchase of the Orange Grove/Outameni property in Trelawny in 2013 was a buyout of a bad debt owed by the owners of the property to a local merchant bank. The decision to purchase the property followed a letter from the owners, Orange Valley Holdings Limited, in November 2012, bringing to the attention of the NHT board its indebtedness and urging it to negotiate a buyout of the bank loan covering the realty.” (

Jamaica Observer, April 22, 2015).

The NHT falls under the responsibility of the prime minister. What action did she take in light of public outrage? She reappointed Lambert Brown, Sonia Hyman, Percival LaTouche, and Robert Budhan; four members of the board that presided over the cock-up. Still, only 30 per cent of those who contribute to the National Housing Trust get a housing benefit.

When Phillip Paulwell, minister of science, technology, energy, and mining, bungled and botched the 381-megawatt energy project, he was stoutly defended and embraced by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in Parliament.

“ ‘Let me make it quite clear: I have a minister of energy in place. Unless he does something wrong that would affect and impact the Jamaican people in a serious way and the Government of Jamaica [he will not be fired],’ Simpson Miller said, in responding to a question from Opposition Leader Andrew Holness.” (

Jamaica Observer, June 4, 2014)

When Anthony Hylton embarrassed the country with the Krauck and Anchor Hoax, and damaged our reputation abroad, he was given political hugs and kisses by Portia Simpson Miller.

Dr Fenton Ferguson spoke these words at a function at the Princess Margaret Hospital on Wednesday, October 21, 2015, “I know a lot of persons out there believe that it is 18 babies or 42 babies who were probably walking around or, in a certain, born well and, therefore, came to the hospital and were infected and died. It is not so. These are babies that were born and had their own challenges by virtue of time of birth and weight.” (

RJR News, October 22, 2015). He was not reprimanded by Simpson Miller.

If Ferguson were reprimanded, he might not have said these words in Parliament on Tuesday, November 27, 2015: “When a baby is born seven months, their organ systems are not well developed… Their immune systems are significantly compromised. So I don’t want anyone to give any impression that these are babies in the real sense. I am talking about neonates versus full-term babies, and that is why they ended up in the nurseries because they have special issues.”

The minister with responsibility for information, Sandrea Falconer, told us a day after at a Jamaica House press conference that Ferguson experienced a “slip of the tongue”.

The genetically connected, socially powerful, and privileged minority face little or no consequences for their actions in Jamaica. Punishment is the preserve of the poor. The man who is caught stealing fruit from the orchard of the governor general is given a hefty prison sentence. The government minister who wastes hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money is rewarded with a national honour.

Many foolishly believed Portia Simpson Miller would have changed the status quo. On January 5, 2012 she gave these commitments:

“The Jamaican people have sent a clear message. They want a more accountable and transparent Government which consults them; and they should expect nothing less.

“On my watch, I pledge that the rule of law will be paramount and we will serve with humility.

“On my watch, I pledge that we will honour the faith and trust of the Jamaican people.

“On my watch, I pledge that we will reject governmental extravagance and be vigilant in eliminating corruption.

On January 5, 2012, the Jamaican dollar was $86.78 to US$1. Last time I checked our dollar was $120.34 to the US currency. PNP spin doctors, some in suits, tell us devaluation is the best thing since sliced bread. Our dollar is now valued at less than US$0.01. Poverty is running at 20 per cent, says the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.

Since the start of the year, 1,157 Jamaicans have been slaughtered. This is a 23 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year.

All major world indices tell us Jamaica is headed in the wrong direction. The PNP has spent 22 of the last 26 years in power.

The business of government is too serious a matter to be left to this Administration, says one of my readers. I agree. More of us need to stop behaving Milquetoast. This Kakistocracy [Government by the worst people] must end.

When power is concentrated into fewer hands, wealth will be concentrated in fewer pockets. — Will Spencer

PS: Happy Holidays to all my readers and, indeed, all Jamaica.

PS: Happy Holidays to all my readers and, indeed, all Jamaica.

Garfield Higgins in an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.