REPORT #115 Oct. 1999
JAMAICANS TIRED OF PARTIES IN AND OUT OF POWER!


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

In an article in the Miami Herald of Friday, October 1st, 1999 by Don Bohning, he says in the article that the people of Jamaica are fed up with the government, as quoted by businessmen.

THE PROBLEM IS THAT THERE ARE NO ALTERNATIVES!

Seaga sees the JLP party as his home, his route to power and his bread and butter, it infers. Seaga is one of those long term Jamaican politicians who have failed so miserably over the decades, that it would be embarrassing to go into detail. Due to the inherited British party political structure, you only have to know the dirty tricks of maneuvering within a small political party and getting elected and you are secured for life.

Routinely you will become Prime Minister and ultimate dictatorial GODFATHER of Jamaica in one turn, or another. The position is not based on any kind of competence.

Patterson of the PNP is described as an indecisive person and incompetent in any kind of economic development. Another person describes Patterson otherwise as a wily politician within the structure as it is practised in Jamaica. Patterson, despite the lack of any leadership capability, vows to remain the party leader so long as he can manipulate the party membership.

Another party, the NDM run by Golding is a third party and has had a dismal showing. Better the devils you know than a new one is the common refrain. Golding is offering nothing new, no restructuring of the Constitution, or letting people govern. Anthony Abrahams, a former Labor party Cabinet minister and currently co-host of a popular radio talk show, says the country cannot continue as it is. People have no respect for the government, or the way we govern.

Jamaicans bemoan the lack of government and political alternatives. Dr. Trevor Munroe and professor of government at the University of the West Indies, says that discontent with the party in power cannot be channeled into support for the opposition this term around. The Jamaican people know the system currently used does not work.

Drawing parallels with Belize, the complaints are relatively similar. The only difference is that in Belize, solutions and Constitutional changes have been offered; but ignored and blocked by the two major entrenched political parties. How do you change the rules, when the problem are the parties and they control the rules?

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