Dear Editor,

Prime Minister Andrew Holness publicly laments that the political class, in which he is the leading active participant, is “treated with schizophrenia and disdain”.

The prime minister should call to mind that, inescapably, there is never smoke without fire. There is no other class of persons in the society who treat each other with the kind of disdain that takes place among the political class.

Also, there is no other class of individuals who treat the public with the disdain that the political class often chooses to do. And awful examples that are set by them distinctly serve to fuel the fire.

The members of the political class disdainfully savage each other, often without reason, and that could not reasonably be expected to escape the notice of the public.

With impunity, they make spurious accusations against, and blatantly tell lies to and about each other without apology; they break their oaths and renege on solemn pledges and promises that they make to each other.

They will stridently disparage a project being pursued by their opponents and when the project is completed, attracting acclaim, they will turn around and affix the name of one of their own to the finished product. And, if someone should dare to raise the reasonable concern of insincerity, the scornful refrain of “bad mind and grudgeful” immediately follows.

They turn a blind eye to the graceless behaviour of their colleagues and adherents, and show no gratitude even to their senior colleagues who anchor their upward mobility in the political field. Simply put, disdain flows within and among the political class.

But it does not stop there. There is no other class of people who, with self-centred and partisan motives, withhold from the public long-denied rights, interests, privileges, and benefits that are in their gift alone to regularise and make available.

Examples that are set, particularly to the impressionable youth, by members in the highest echelons of the political class include disdainfully shunning principle, flouting the rules, and even running afoul of the law.

How could it ever be regarded as appropriate for leaders of the political class to choose to roll out the red carpet at the Norman Manley International Airport in welcome of a deported convicted sex offender — regardless of their own view of his guilt or innocence — and in the very next breath move to admonish and urge our young men to refrain from committing the offense of rape?

There is more! But the prime minister, leader of the political class, might spare a moment’s thought for the fire from which the uncomfortable whiff of the smoke of schizophrenia and disdain flows toward the political class.

And experience suggests that, purposefully, that is where the thinking, a deep studied reflection, ought to begin. Perhaps, however, the root of the problem is that, totally oblivious to their covenant with the people, senior members of the political class routinely swat away this type of suggestion with the disdainful snort of “bad mind”.

A J Nicholson

Former minister of justice

nicholsonaj1@gmail.com