Dear Editor,

The People’s National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament for Clarendon South Western Lothan Cousins has pretty much spoken more political babble.

To sum up, he has said that the private sector supports the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and not the PNP because the PNP is the supposed party of the people and the JLP is the party of the elites, and no black man will support the JLP over the PNP.

Let’s start with the accusation that the private sector is funding the JLP exclusively. During the last election alone, $300 million was donated, split between the two parties, by private donors. Noted among those donors were Proven Investments, which donated $2.5 million to each party; JMMB, which donated the same amount; and VM Group, which donated $1 million to each, according to The Gleaner article published on April 17, 2022 entitled ‘$300m donated to parties ahead of 2020 election’.

This, however, does not reflect the scale of the donations as only donations made six months before or after the elections were made public.

It should also be noted that banks, the target of much public ire, usually donates to both sides of the aisle and concerns were expressed by a member of the PNP about a possible fallout in funding for the party from the banks because of Comrade Fitz Jackson’s pending lawsuit against Scotiabank.

But, to hear Cousins’ speak, it would appear as if members of the private sector have never funded the PNP at all, the party ran its multimillion-dollar campaigns on the will of the people.

The other problem is when he tries to use identity politics, which Thomas Sowell, an economist and sociologist, in his two books on the subject, details the dangers of populism and identity politics fused into one. The assumption that one man or group has claimed the agency of citizens based only on their skin colour and perceived helplessness is just as demeaning as slavery. It would be inconceivable to think that poor people do not have the ability to think for themselves, are incapable of thinking beyond the colour of their skin, or are so helpless that they need a saviour from either one of the two parties, much less the PNP, where the only way they’ll see salvation is to help one political tribe fight the other for scarce benefits and spoils every five years, all the while not improving their standard of living. So, if he calls the people of darker tone who vote for the JLP “confused PNP”, imagine what he calls the rest of us?

This is not the voice of a Labourite who is offended or a Comrade who is disillusioned with his speech. This is a young man who, like the 63 per cent of the electorate who abstained from voting in the last election, is fed up with both parties taking us for foolish, meek sheep who don’t know better.

Marcus White

whitemarc918@gmail.com