Dear Editor,

Since high school, one of my closest friends has sneered at me for being a closeted Labourite. Quite frankly, I’ve never seen myself aligned to a party as I’ve often had my criticisms of the “Bell Boys” of Belmont Road, though in less measure than the “Head Boys” of Hope Road.

Right up to this election I’ve continued to harbour reservations about my Government — as every citizen ought. However, those reservations had to contend with the evidence of work that has been done. For too many, such objective scrutiny is either too much to consider or simply not enough to convince a change in their outlook of the party.

I am no pundit, but I have never assumed the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to be the people’s favourite despite its back-to-back win. Poor voter turnout and a weak People’s National Party (PNP) afforded them the delusion of a new era in voter behaviour, because Jamaicans simply do not like the JLP.

Despite the inability to honestly deny that the country is in the best shape it has ever been, detractors of the JLP are willing to either not vote for it or simply microcomb their way through any possible issue they can find. The public sector, through unions such as what I consider to be a highly political Jamaica Teachers’ Association, has seemingly made it its duty to ignore the efforts of the JLP despite the track record of tangible benefits.

The JLP has been too lost in the fog of its list of achievements to realise that the electorate is not rational. Its campaign strategy is so stubbornly focused on maintaining what it has that it doesn’t realise that those who sway votes do not care. Meanwhile, the PNP has been surgically campaigning to win an election on the things the electorate want to hear — money, money, money, and who it will give it to.

The JLP, though in the middle of wage negotiations, is trying to be responsible for an economy it thinks it will have next year and foolishly offered the public sector 0 per cent. That should have been 4 per cent. It seems oblivious to the fact that its every move is artillery for its opponents, and denying the insatiable appetite of its electorate for the sake of prudence is a reckless election decision.

Its manifesto is a properly thought-out document for a country, but woefully disconnected from the individual. It is bringing healthy green juice to a class party when the other guys are bringing orange soda. Its insistence on big-picture Administration could very well deny it a victory if it does not tend to the pixels.

Outside of Kingston and large business owners, the ‘economy’ is an aloof concept for which the average Jamaican truly has no regard. People expect the Government to do something for them individually — infrastructure and policy do not get their votes.

Despite its strong track record, the JLP consistently does not tie its achievements to the common man. These very intelligent people keep reasoning with the nation of individuals. Tell the people how you paid their light bill for months, gave their grandparents who never worked a pension, and allowed them to carry home more of their pay!

There is no way the PNP can manage to give every child $10,000 per month — even though the average pensioner does not get that much — and not harm the budget. Still, this is what people want to hear, this is what people will vote for though will never receive.

Statistics will not win the people — the masses can’t spend it. In the words of too many Jamaicans, “We a suffer” — though public sector wages are the highest they have ever been; the minimum wage has almost tripled; the poverty rate has fallen; and the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been.

People do not want to hear the truth. Truth does not win elections. “Bitter medicine” may have single-handedly lost JLP Leader Andrew Holness his first campaign. The PNP had to administer it, but never promised it. Truth to the masses is at best uninspiring or at worst scary. Instead, managing emotions is the single most effective way to sway people.

JLP, your campaign strategy is isolating you from the aloof undecided voter, from the openly biased public sector, from the masses.

Perhaps, now, I am more open about my political bias than I was in high school. Still there is much I do not find commendable about the JLP, but it is not enough to deny that its track record of development is sound. The PNP has always been a proper election machine, even when its policies don’t add up.

The JLP has a week left to smell the coffee; otherwise, its party of nerds will lose the popularity contest. Time to get silly.

Dave Richards

D1darichards@gmail.com