My brother, a prominent attorney in the western end of the island, told me of him visiting a near 100-year-old woman in the community in St James where our father was a renowned pastor and Member of the House of Representatives, as parliamentarians were then called. In trying to convince her to cast a vote for the representative of his choice, she emphatically said she would not be putting her finger in “no COVID ink” when it is not going to help her.

That is a funny story, but there is a deep truth to it. Stellar performances in the just-concluded political debates notwithstanding, how will the results on September 3, 2020 serve to move Jamaica forward?

Jamaica is in a malaise. Life is lived in what I call the zone of unease, where even the greatest optimist experiences moments of deep questioning. Held in the thrall of great natural beauty and even greater natural promise, breakthrough seems forever imminent.

In these situations it is not unusual for one to harbour feelings of revolt. I am not speaking here of a bloody revolution, although unrequited love and unresponsive politics have on more than a few occasions had this outcome. I, like Boris Pasternak, am of the opinion that, in our present situation, “It is not revolutions and upheavals that clear the road to new and better days, but someone’s soul inspired and ablaze with the need for change.”

While I enjoy political banter and greatly admire those who decide to serve the nation through politics, for me the last thing that Jamaica needs in its present state is another politician or political party doing the same old things and expecting different results. What Jamaica needs most is a Martin Luther King Jr or a William Wilberforce.

Martin Luther King Jr gave expression to his desire for change through leadership of a non-violent resistance movement in America. His was an outstanding life of selflessness and sacrifice for a cause, starting with a bus boycott in 1955 which led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ending when he fell to an assassin’s bullet on April 4, 1968. At age 35, he became the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, and in death has had a public holiday named in honour of his peaceful but forceful resistance to injustice, inequality and inhumanity.

Wilberforce fought for governmental rectitude and moral decency working from within the system. In 1787 the 28-year-old member of the British Parliament wrote in his diary: “God Almighty has set before me two great objects — the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of morals.” Forty-six years later, and only three days before his death, the seemingly impossible dream of ending the highly profitable trade in Africans was achieved on the basis of the moral argument strenuously put forward by Wilberforce and his small band of nonconformist colleagues.

Jamaican society will not be transformed by people in Parliament whose main preoccupation is avoiding political suicide. Neither will it result from preachers pontificating to captive audiences inside their churches or from the monied class complaining in hushed tones from the safety of their verandas. An elderly and dying John Wesley wrote to the young Wilberforce: “Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you?”

It’s time for the individual or individuals who are secure in that call, and have counted the cost, to step forward and give leadership to the majority who believe we deserve much better than what we have. 

hmorgan@cwjamaica.com