Dear Editor,

I believe Prime Minister Andrew Holness is exhibiting too much dictatorial tendencies.

He continues to use states of emergency (SOEs) in a way that usurps the Parliament by announcing them back to back so that he does not require the support of the Senate.

I can recall other acts that are controversial. The courts ruled on two instances and I remember the fiasco of trying to appoint a new Cabinet secretary and attempting to put the chief justice on probation.

What would our constitution look like today, or even the structure of our security forces and the justice system, if Holness had been the prime minister when the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) controlled the one-party Parliament between 1983 and 1989.

You speak to the average man on the streets and they are very nervous with the the propensity of the prime minister to be dictatorial in his actions.

We have seen and heard across several media outlets where the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is saying that in many tenets of good governance, in which the input of the Opposition was usually sought, that grouping has not been consulted by the prime minister.

For 2023 Holness must clean up his acts and the perception that he can be a dictator if given the latitude.

Jamaica is a participatory democracy and our people like fair and just leadership.

Every single one of us should remember Prime Minister Michael Manley’s regrettable statement about “5 flights a day to Miami” for which he paid dearly and almost cost him his political career — although history later absolved him — because people perceived the statement to be dictatorial. Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, too, suffered politically from perception that he had many dictatorial tendencies.

Check yourself, Holness.

Fernandez Smith

Former JLP municipal councillor

fgeesmith@yahoo.com