Clarke should apologise
Dear Editor,
As a Labourite I was never offended by being called “damn fool”.
When I heard the context in which it was said, it was clear that Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding wasn’t branding all Labourites. The reality with Golding is that most people don’t believe he’s genuine when he’s talking in patois. Nevertheless, he apologised and it was the right thing to do.
Nigel Clarke is widely regarded as the best finance minister since Edward Seaga, Donald Sangster, Noel Nethersole, and Harold Allan. He’s also seen by some as the current front-runner to be the next leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Clarke is doing so well and calling Mark Golding Massa Mark is a distraction that he never needed, a mistake, and he should apologise.
Any JLP supporter who justifies calling someone Massa Mark is a hypocrite or young. These Labourites have forgotten the days when the People’s National Party (PNP) used to brand the JLP as the white man’s party and used all sorts or racist slurs to denigrate the leader and party members. To see the current JLP doing the same thing is very unfortunate. The JLP should be the party of substance and not identity politics.
Politicians here and all over the world have called their opponents idiots, how does that make them racist? If Peter Bunting had called some Labourites damn fools, would Clarke have called Bunting massa or would he have called him a man without manners?
Clarke should know better and should avoid the gutter politics. In 2018 Clarke was referred to as “black royalty” by Peter Bunting and he was rightly condemned for those comments.
The likes of Matthew Samuda, Kamina Johnson Smith, Tom Tavares-Finson, Phillip Henriques, Christopher Tufton, Horace Chang, Karl Samuda, Audley Shaw, and other individuals of a light complexion in the lower and upper Houses of Parliament should have taken a stand against Clarke’s comment.
Teddylee Gray
Ocho Rios, St Ann
teddylee.gray@gmail.com