Dear Editor,

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, are you failing your people?

I so hate to ask this question, but I am not sure if you are rising to the levels required at this moment.

You gained power by promising better days. I was hoping that you would have made some revolutionary changes and brought about some renewed sense of hope to the population, and especially the young adults. So far, we have been experiencing uncontrollable crime and wanton indiscipline. Bus and taxi drivers are taking over the streets and fighting with the police. All while citizens film these occurrences and always seem to be against the defenders of the law. Something is wrong with this picture, and Holness this rests solely on your shoulders to find a better way.

I want to be fair to you, Prime Minister. Prior to COVID-19 the economy was gaining some momentum and the citizens generally felt that their lives were improving a bit. They wanted to give you time. As well, they liked how you handled the pandemic’s initial stages. I am sensing that after your landslide election victory during the pandemic the people have been getting weary and feeling very disillusioned.

Sir, you visited Singapore with a delegation to see how that Government functions. I was very optimistic that by now you would have laid out a plan to the nation as to how we are going to achieve some of that country’s amazing results. Let me remind people that Singapore is just the size of St James with a population of five million people, compared to Jamaica’s population of three million. According to Wikipedia, Singapore is ranked by the World Economic Forum as the third least-corrupt and the most pro-business country in the world. On average each Singaporean earns about US$65,000, compared to Jamaicans earning about US$9,000 on average. Sad, indeed, especially when we were once ahead of this country, and it took the Singaporeans just one generation to surpass many countries in its economic indicators. So, Holness, when are we going to engage our people in going after this Singapore model?

I would like to suggest that we need to earmark an area of the country to use as a development model that we can put in all the systems to achieve those goals. Let us use Six Miles as a starting point and take in Cooreville Gardens, as well as every community on that side of Washington Boulevard; turn right on to Molynes Road, all the way up to South Odeon Ave in Half-Way-Tree across to Maxfield Avenue and down Hagley Park Road; still focused on the right hand side, and along Spanish Town Road back to the starting point at Six Miles.

You will notice, Holness, that your constituency is included in that carved out area. We should mobilise all the resources that we need for this development. We should start with our human resources to survey people’s living standard and bring in all the social workers and civil engineers needed to redesign the area if necessary, cut straight major roads running from east to west and north to south opening up the communities, and have somewhat of a grid layout. Staff the area with all the government agencies and offices. We are going to operate as if this is a new city. We are going to put in all the incentives to encourage businesses to move in. We will have the police to citizens ratio at the highest international standard.

Let’s change building density with taller buildings. Let’s have a world-class sewerage and waste management and recycling operations. If we need to designate the area a special economic zone or any other designation, then let us do so. Let us set some serious targets to see the education and income levels of that area increase significantly. Then let’s replicate this across the entire country.

Let us get rid of all the impediments that people need to strive and succeed. Holness, we can do it and we must do it.

In addition to achieving the bipartisan consensus that this development needs, we will also get the best political manager since Edward Seaga to manage this process. Let him report directly to you and cut across all government agencies and ministries to get the desired results.

Holness, this is your moment to cement a lasting legacy. This is a moment to bring the citizens along in a step-by-step process to the country’s greatness. This is a moment to excite and get Jamaicans in the Diaspora to the centre of the country’s development. This is our moment to start to see crime levels fall precipitously and the social and economic well-being of our people ascend to stratospheric levels.

The Jamaican people are very smart people and that is why they wanted you to lead this renaissance in Jamaica. That is why they elected you with a bigger mandate for your second term. I urge you not to let them down.

Shawn Johnson

shawnjohnson1@gmail.com