Dear Editor,

Someone sent a video to me at 9:47 pm on a Friday night of the Opposition Leader Mark Golding making a speech on a political platform I would later discover to be in St Ann South Western. I stared at the screen of my Android tablet in a mixture of shock, second-hand embarrassment, and perverse amusement as Golding tapped the microphone repeatedly, repeating “Yow, yow, yow…” then said what he said.

Despite totally ruining the sanctity of this writer’s Sabbath rest, my main issue is not with the language used by Golding. Only the socially disconnected still clutch their pearls in horror upon hearing fellow Jamaicans swear ‘Jamaicanly’. My problem is the hypocrisy surrounding the whole thing, including the hypocrisy of Golding himself.

Golding, son of Sir John Golding and Patricia Golding, is a member of the Jamaican aristocracy. Indeed, this opinion is not mine, it is his own. He has publicly said (and the tapes are available) that it is time for him and his “topanaris” colleagues to administer the country’s affairs. In Jamaica, we understand “topanaris” to mean the elite, privileged, or otherwise untouchable individuals. Jamaican Patwah dictionary defines “topanaris” as an “uptown, snobby, or wealthy person that does not like to share”. This is not an attack, these are the facts. And it is against this background of facts that I ask the question: Why does Golding refuse to be true to himself?

Those of us with more than a passing interest in politics and governance will recall a well-spoken, genteel, and dignified person entering the Jamaican Senate in 2007 and later going on to serve as minister of justice from 2012 to 2016. He did reasonably well and may take credit for the islandwide decriminalisation of marijuana. But since winning the presidency of the People’s National Party (PNP), we, in my opinion, have seen a different Golding emerging: a person given to bizarre and unpredictable utterances and actions.

What is striking for me is that this is not the way he speaks in Parliament. This sort of Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde behaviour begs the question: Why does Golding feel the need to put on “Jamaican” airs when he attempts to speak to or connect with the ordinary Jamaican? Is it that he perceives them (us) as inherently different from himself? Does he view himself as a tourist in the land of his birth? It seems he is manifestly aware of some divide he is trying to bridge as he swaggers about the platform, seeking to project bravado and a devil-may-care attitude, which is painfully at odds with his upbringing and what I believe is his natural state. This, in my opinion, is hypocrisy of the highest order, and it is taking him nowhere fast.

After Jamaica Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) Everald Warmington’s expletive-laden address, the general secretary of the PNP called for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to charge the MP. Shall Golding also be charged? What will the National Integrity Action, Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal, Jamaicans for Justice, Medical Association of Jamaica, Port Authority of Jamaica, Carol Narcisse, and the rest of the people who have set themselves up as the collective conscience of the nation say? Will they simply accept his cavalier apology, and write this off as another manifestation of “political silly season” rhetoric? When will Jamaicans begin to treat Golding as what he claims to be: a serious contender for the top job at Jamaica House? When will we force him, with the weight of public opinion to take serious stock of and put careful thought into his utterances and actions?

In the meantime, Jamaicans have a choice to make. Are we choosing frivolity, hype, sussu-sussu, and innuendo, or are we choosing visionary, decisive, and fruitful leadership? This is not to say that the JLP is without fault. But as voters we should not compare the current Administration to the Almighty, we should compare it to the alternative.

One thing is certain, the current PNP and Jamaica cannot prosper at the same time. You must choose one or the other. I intend to choose Jamaica.

Oyeton Clarke

Supervisory medical technologist

oyetonclarke@gmail.com