Horace Peterkin, Contributor

Peterkin

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has been a breath of fresh air so far. On the night of the elections, he took the initiative away from former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

Instead of being confrontational when he addressed the nation, he gave what has to be one of the most brilliant 'acceptance' speeches. It was kind, conciliatory, moving and thought-provoking. It gave us hope and inspiration. It made us feel confident in the future. It was simply brilliant.

Changed the mood

It helped to calm the nation, too. That night, 'Labourites; were ready to revel in their victory (even if marginal). They were ready to paint the town green because they had not tasted victory in over 24 years. After the tone set by 'Sista P', any largescale revelling that night would surely have resulted in the towns being painted red, with blood! People's National Party (PNP) supporters were in no mood to yield power. Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters were bursting with euphoria, ready to gloat and to 'sock it to them'.

There were bound to have been clashes between PNP and JLP zealots. Big JLP bashments were planned all over the place, but supporters went home instead. The new leader had changed the mood into one of thoughtful reflection.

Now, unlike all opinions that I have heard, I do not believe the electorate were trying to send any subtle message to the nation's leaders. I am convinced that the close result was due to three things: laziness, a lack of sense of responsibility (especially on the part of the upper/middle classes) and ignorance on the part of a large number of electorates.

Let me start with the middle class. They are an absolutely most irresponsible group! I am sure that at least 75 per cent of them were in support of a change of government. But no more than 20 per cent of them voted in the election, which means that the JLP lost tens of thousands of votes.

Why didn't they vote one might ask? They were too busy with their important lives to ensure that they were enumerated. While they would go to great pains to attend a social event on the other side of the island, most could not spare the time to get themselves on the voters list. It was just too inconvenient!

Personally, I know of many middle class JLP supporters who had big opinions and vigorous verandah chat, but no vote. I watched the vote count at a house in my neighbourhood with 40 Labourites, of which only six voted. This included myself - a disaffected PNP. The rest simply had no vote.

When I asked them why, you should hear the frivolous reasons they gave. I can assure you that I gave these big shots a good piece of my mind. And, since I have the floor, I would like to appeal to these irresponsible Jamaicans to ensure that this never happens again. Not if they are really concerned about the nation's future. We cannot be too busy or should not be too lazy or unconcerned that we give up our right to vote in our national elections.

When it comes to the masses, a significant number of them are too ignorant to reason for themselves.

If it were a population of Barbadians voting here, the issues would be clear to them. They would have found it totally unacceptable that nearly 70 per cent of our national earnings is devoted to paying down the one trillion dollar debt created by the past government. They would have voted against the poor level of literacy, the barefaced corruption, the mismanagement of the economy, the widespread injustice and arrogance on the part of some government officials.

Crossroads

Now, in my lifetime, Jamaica has had three major crossroads that, had we played our cards right, we could have made quantum leaps in the development of our economy and our society.

The first crossroad was in 1972 when Michael Manley led the PNP to victory over the JLP with a promise 'better must come' for Jamaicans. The second was in 1980 when Edward Seaga ousted Manley and rescued Jamaica from total disaster. And the third was when the 'Fresh Prince' P.J. Patterson was given his mandate in 1993. In different ways, they all blew it!

Mr. Patterson had the longest run to correct our problems. But, corruption grew like a cancer under his watch and huge portions of our wealth wasted in a litany of cost overruns. P.J. punished no one. He fired no one. Crime grew like a monster and murder at a record pace. The education system continued to turn out more and more illiterates, all of this while P.J. appeared to be watching from the comfort of Jamaica House, unperturbed by the degradation taking place in the society.

Yes, Mr. Patterson brought a calming, gentlemanly style to Jamaican politics and he did accomplish some good things including the large scale investment projects (namely roads and hotels) taking place at the moment. But the overall standard of living continued to fall well behind all other countries in our hemisphere (except Haiti).

Jamaica has many great things going for it, both in the land and the people. We have much more than all the other Caribbean islands, yet we continue to be poorer and less educated than the people of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Cayman etc. I have to travel to these islands from time to time, and it really irks me that they treat Jamaicans with such disdain, contempt and even scorn, because they see us as the poor, lower-class ill-tempered citizens of the Caribbean.

We can become the kings of the Caribbean once again. We can again have the strongest economy in the region. We can become a very educated population in a few generations. We can reduce murder and crime to acceptable levels. We can cut out corruption and minimise waste. We can provide a decent standard of living for all our people in a few years. We can have a just society where the rights of everyone are protected.

I do believe that Bruce Golding is sincere about his commitment to move Jamaica in this direction. Jamaica has given the PNP many chances.

I, personally, have given the PNP four such chances. Let us now give Prime Minister Golding the support he and his team will need to really move Jamaica forward. I do believe that with the goodwill that he has sown thus far he will get a lot of support.

Horace Peterkin is general manager of Sandals Montego Bay and Immediate past president of the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association.