Dear Editor,

Somehow you get the impression that despite Portia Simpson Miller’s enduring popularity, she was never accepted as part of the People’s National Party’s old boys club. She was only good for winning elections, and hence tolerated.

There were major impediments to the success of Simpson Miller as prime minister, even in modern Jamaica. Portia didn’t help matters much with her frequent outbursts and threatening language that confirmed the fact that she was from an underclass and was refusing to rise above it. Her message of loving the poor resonated with poor people, but as to whether she accomplished much in using it is questionable.

Certainly she was next in line after P J Patterson’s retirement, and Dr Peter Phillips similarly is the next in the queue. The PNP rigidly holds to this type of succession in leadership regardless of age or competence. This time around it is unlikely that there will be much ‘bloodletting’ as the lone candidate (and those touted to run) is from the right background, attended popular schools, from the right clubs, and is from the correct class.

Mark Clarke

Siloah PO, St Elizabeth

mark_clarke9@yahoo.com