Dear Editor,

“It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.” (James Fenimore Cooper)

There is a view in this country that people are turned off by politics. That’s true to an extent, and even dyed-in-the-wool Labourites like myself are now feeling turned off, but for a different reason. And that reason is that Party Leader Andrew Holness’s Administration is being run by public opinion, and mainly the opinion of those who did not vote for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and who will never vote Labour.

The word on the street now is, if you want to get someone removed from the Government just say something incendiary on social media and on certain media house platforms and like clockwork he or she is gone. That’s madness.

Those who want to see the back of this Government are wielding this strategy to telling effect under the guise of wanting transparency in Government. However, given their track record, we know they have no interest in transparency. What they want is to impose their will on the Government – a Government which they didn’t elect. And the Government is meekly following them like a lamb to the slaughter.

In the quest to please others, the JLP has seemingly forgotten those that helped it to become the Government and who it needs to keep that position – its base.

The party doesn’t seem to understand that those in the so-called middle are not the ones who put them in power, but rather the faithful Labourites who braved the winds, Sun, and rain to stand up in lines to vote for the JLP. If half the Labour Party base deserts it at the next poll the People’s National Party (PNP) would win every single parish council up for grabs.

So you people continue to joke around with the base. The party needs to understand that the base is not like the PNP’s who will blindly follow. It’s a base that gets angry and will stay home. That’s how the PNP won so big in 2011. The party base stayed home in droves, and Christopher Tufton lost St Elizabeth South Western by 13 votes.

In 2007, under Bruce Golding, for all his screw-ups, especially with the “Dudus” matter, the party felt like ours. In 2016 the party felt like ours. Since 2020, however, the party is beginning to feel like an alien to many of us. It doesn’t feel like it is ours. Oh, and fun fact, it’s not that I am seeking handouts – I work – but somebody has to say what a large chunk of Labourites are feeling. The party just doesn’t feel like ours anymore.

And you’ve got some good-for-nothing Members of Parliament who are actively driving that alienation of the base by their actions. Now that they have won their seats, they have got all pompous and high and mighty. But the people are watching you all very carefully.

After working our butts off to give the party a 42-seat win, why on Earth is the Government still run by Comrades? It’s the most distressing thing right now. Everywhere you turn you see them, and boy are they mocking us. One begins to feel like this is PNP country after all. So why bother to vote? It’s better to stay home because you have a Government led by Labour being controlled by the PNP. The voice of Jacob, but the hands of Esau, so to speak.

A country cannot be run on the basis of who says what in the media. It doesn’t make sense. The Government is coming across as spineless and willing to fold too quickly simply because people say so.

It’s one thing to lead a Government of change, quite another to be spineless. If this continues, as night follows day, the party will be humiliated at the next polls.

Stop letting these people dictate to the party! Listen to the base! Those who have an ears let them hear.

We love the party leader without doubt, but he needs to stop bending over backwards to please the middle, while ignoring the base. Come on, man, you all need to cut it out. Cut out this nonsense!

Fabian Lewis

tyronelewis272@gmail.com