Jamaica’s Political Parties and the People who Support them:

In the game of politics there are two types of players who disgust me, the first is the politician and the second is the die-hard party supporter.

 

The Politician and the Party

All politicians disgust me even the ones regarded as a good politicians, in fact they disgust me even more simply because good politicians should be an agent for good but they have mastered the art of playing and sipping champagne with the devils in their own party. They lack the power and will to turn to their own party members and point the finger of shame at the evil doers and as such they are just as guilty. Just the sight and sound of most politicians is enough to send shivers down my spine because Politian’s are liars’, they will say anything, do anything for power and they have all mastered the art of taking the people for fools. In fact the Jamaican politicians show nothing but contempt for the people and the constitution. It makes me really sick to watch these clowns perform their circus acts, prancing around making one empty promise after another, one lie after another with no intention of delivering on these promises, their worthless manifestos are just a book of lies.

2007 Pre-Election

 I cannot tell where the PNP ends and the JLP begins they are no longer a party separated by an ideology, they are both equally worthless and only seem to squabble about who can management the country better however they bring nothing new to the table and commit the same mismanaged and corrupt mistakes they accuse each other of making.  In most countries political parties are separated by an ideology, in the United States the Democrats and Republican are two parties separated by social and economic ideology. In Great Britain the Labour Party is defined as a Center-Left Democratic Socialist Party (New Labour was a different animal) and the Conservative Party as the Center-Right that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism, we however have no such luck, our parties are afraid to take any stand or to adhere to any Nation Building Ideology.

JLP=PNP

The real purpose of the Jamaican politician is to line his or her already overflowing pockets and the pockets of their friends and relatives with the assets of my country. Nepotism rules and it starts with the political leaders, who filled the Government Sectors and providing government contracts to their friends and relatives.  Patriotic, Nationalistic Jamaicans they are not they do not care about this country, only about their own personal well being. Our politicians are weak because we the Jamaican people are weak, our politicians fail because we fail to hold them accountable, we fail to stand up and demand that they do the job they were elected to do, the job they promised to do.  Our political process fails because we the people believe that voting every 5 years in the beginning and end of the process. We equate this little 5 year ritual we call an election with democracy and freedom, what a joke. Voting every 5 years is just the beginning, not the end, as a society we need to continuously engage the process and as a society we need to step in and perform regular appraisals and course correction of these people we employ to work on our behalf.

In fact, there is no difference between the JLP, PNP and the NDM. These political parties are made up of the same old, tired, recycled, thieving, lying, get rich quick, pre-colonial type individuals that have lied to us, turned Jamaicans against Jamaicans, stolen from us, deceived us and led us down the wrong path time and time again. Yet we continue to behave like zombies on election day, marching down to the Polling Station, risking life and limb to put our tired mark on a piece of paper that will give these culprits the mandate to keep doing what they have done to us since Independence Day 1962.

We will not get a different result using the same formula!

The Die-hard Firebrand Political Party Supporters:

The second type of people who disgust me in the world of politics is the Diehard Firebrand Political Party Supporters. I am talking about the type of people who supports a politician or a party for a simplistic one dimensional reason because they lack objectivity, commonsense and an open mind. For some, they support a political party because of family tradition, for others it’s due to peer pressure or just because they live in a certain community, a political party controlled zone. 

Guinea Pigs, The Grand Experiment, like hamsters on a wheel, Rats in a cage happy for some cheese

In all cases it’s due to laziness and pure ignorance, lacking the intelligence to analyze or even understand the information before them, unable to formulate a political, economical and sociological ideology of their own but they are willing to die for the party. They get no real benefits for their support except for the free chicken back, pig tail and the occasional dancehall events that happens every election period and normally after the election their Members of Parliament don’t even remember they exist, they are minions, voting fodder.

This type of supporter reaps no other benefit for supporting their political party, for the most part they still live and die in the same tired ghetto with little or no change, generation after generation , trapped in time, having to relive the same election-to-election events and promises, shouting “JLP”, “PNP”, “Socialist”, “Labourite”, reciting stupid party slogans, “Stand Firm”, “Money gwaan gingle”, “Deliverance!” and my favorite “More man have gal, cell phone and cars” (not jobs, education, health care and a way to properly support one’s family).

Then there are those diehard supporters who support a party because they have a personal stake and interest, their lives are better if a particular politician or party is in power and as a reward for their support they intern gets power and money, they now have contacts, these are normally the more educated and a leech like of the bunch who are worse than the uneducated bunch. Their support for the party however has nothing to do with the process of Nation Building. They are selfish to the core, greedy with no real interest in the development of the country, so long as they are able to live the high life at the country’s expense.

The Jamaican electorate reminds me of guinea pigs in a lab experiment, given the choice between two colors, orange and green, he touches one and gets an electric shock as a negative reinforcer and if he touches the other he is rewarded with small scraps of food. When this experiment is conducted over a period of several decades the subjects mind becomes putty and ready to do whatever the politicians wants them to do.

The Swing Voters

Out of all the different type of voters, it is the swing voter who bears the burden of the democratic process and who are the true potential nation builders. It is the swing voter who is forced to re-evaluate life under the party who forms the government. It is the swing voters who compares promises made to actual promises delivered. It is the swing voters who follows a list of economic and social indicators under a Government and evaluate the before and after position of these indicators. Trying to figure if the country is on the road to progress or declining. It is the swing voters who must make the bold decisions for change because it is the swing voters who demand results and forces politicians to engage them on a higher level.

However waiting every 5 years to perform these tasks is not enough, the swing voter must be proactive and become advocates for the greater good of the country, they must become social, political, economical and environment activist for the Greater Good.

To tell the truth I cannot relate to diehard supports, I do not engage them in conversion, it is a total waste of time to have a conversion about nation building and civic responsibility with people who have lost all political objectivity. I talk above, around, between and under diehards, they are too stupid to talk to and treated like an equal. I try to avoid them like the plague that they are because they are the problem.

My only hope is that there numbers will dwindle over time and that they will be a thing of the past, I blame diehard supporters for the state of Jamaica today. I am a firm supporter of the independent swing voters, people who are not afraid to make choices base on facts, evidence, hopes, dreams and aspirations, people who are open and objective, people who understand their role within society and the part they must play in the nation building process, people who are not afraid to ask the hard questions and hold everyone accountable. I only wish that their numbers will continue to grow and their influence strong over the state of affairs, so they may over shadow and drown out the negative influence of the pathetic, brain dead, dysfunctional diehard party supporters whom I have not one ounce of respect for.

When the JLP is in power their supporter’s perception is that all is right with the world and the PNP party supporter’s perception is that all is wrong with the world. When the PNP is in power their supporter’s perception is that all is right with the world and the JLP party supporters perception is that all is wrong with the world and in reality their world is falling apart not because of the party but because they are idiots.

I am not asking anyone to vote in or vote out any one political party because under current conditions nothing will change, in a sense we are executing the same equation with the same values and continue to expect a different result.

What I am asking, is for the people to change their attitude towards political parties, politics and politician, I am asking for us to put Jamaica first, to hold both the politician and ourselves accountable, to take a more pro-active role in the nation building process. We have had 12 General Elections (1962, 1967, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1983, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2007and 2011) since gaining independence and we are still singing the same tired song, still only blowing smoke. Take for example the issue of crime, many Jamaicans often express outrage at the levels of crime, we see that the Government and the Police Force are unable or unwilling for whatever reason to come to grips with it but what have we done to show our displeasure, what have we done to communicate to the Government that this is not an issue with which we are willing to compromise on, NOTHING! We have done nothing but pay lip service to crime.  If solving crime was so important then people from all walks of life would organize and take to the streets, rich, poor and middle class regardless of political party to send a clear message to our elected officials that we demand a solution.

Die-hard supporters have labeled the swing voters as sellouts, back stabbers of the party while all along it is the die-hard supporters who have sold out this country and the future of this country time and time again. We need more swing voters in Jamaica because it implies we have a section of the population who are able to think outside the box, who are objective, capable of putting their foot down, drawing a line in the sand and shouting enough is enough, do the job you were hired to do or else!

 

1989 ITN Jamaica Election Report 

I listened to the Prime Minister’s speech, like all other Prime Ministers before him, same lyrics different DJ, same sound system. He stated his intentions, made his promises and declared that things will be different under his leadership.  I listened to the leader of the opposition as she spouts the same lyrics, this from the same DJ and same sound system and in both cases I have seen the diehard trolls jump up and down like patrons at a dancehall event, as they shout praises and encouragement to the DJ, their lord and savior, the maximum leader and overlord. 

After you have elected one of these muppets what will you do? How will you ensure that they keep their promises? What part will the Jamaican people play after putting their tired, dead beat X beside the idiotic Head and equally stupid Bell and after you have jumped around singing praises to these people who live so well at your expense?  What organization/advocacy groups are you going to create/join that is not affiliated with any political party but with the single task of Nation Building? What timeline are you going to give them to deliver on their promises or are you going to continue to come up with useless excuses for their continued failures, its hurricane, its recession, its drought.  

As Jamaicans we bring nothing, not a damn thing to the table but blind religious like faith in people who have screwed us time and time again, but the only thing the Diehard care about is that their party is in power, nothing more and nothing less. The number one reason why we are in this mess is because of Diehard supporters, these one dimensional trolls who are unable to think or act outside of the box, selfish to the core, blind to reality, jumping around in there orange or green shirts screaming stupid slogan, making gang signs, raising their fist or holding up V fingers, these Diehards will never allow Jamaica to move forward.       

I have been listening to PNP supporters listing JLP corruptions and I have listened to JLP supporters list PNP corruption, I have listened to them trying to convince the general public that the other side’s corruption was worst than their corruption, like kids in a school yard, proven that they are both equally corrupt, If your defense to corruption by your party is to point out corruption by the other party then I think you have all lost the plot.