Letter of the Day | The more things change …

THE EDITOR, Madam:

There is a saying that the further we explore the past permits us to see farther beyond the present. There is so much about the history of this country that has remained unexplored in a setting of an abundance of evidence. I share some interesting views from the post-1944 period, from letters to the editor to critical commentaries from the newspaper columnists.

The call for building a new Jamaica by way of diverse industrial development in 1944; in the 1950s there were charges of corruption and that the politicians were selling out the country for mere pottage and that a new thinking and movement was needed; and in the 1962 period there were criticisms of the colours of the flag and the nature of the inclusion of private property rights in the Constitution. There are well-thinking people across this country with good ideas and it is time for those people to begin to organise themselves in their communities and also within the political parties.

It is critical that the new political development is rooted in the idea “from the ground up”. It is time the well-thinking people of this country rebuild the community by defeating political tribalism and pave the way for a strong and united Jamaica to move forward. I am not calling for the end of political parties, I am just saying that the people must become more active in asserting their ideas and organisation in a new age of community building and leading change.

The first election in the era of Universal Adult Suffrage was set for December 1944. In August of the same year a resident of Fairbourne Road, Kingston, called for diverse industrial development in Jamaica to displace the plantation tradition and in an age when sugar was declining. The writer in ‘Prosperity above politics’ (The Gleaner, August, 1944) cited the weaknesses in political leadership and that the Sir Robert Peel leadership and administration in English history offers them very important lessons in industrial development.

In fact, C.L.R. James (1962) in Party Politics in the West Indies made a similar critique that political leaders in the region were grounded in the plantation and commercial experience but had no knowledge about industrial development. There is this controversial view from a newspaper columnist in the article ‘Two of a kind’ ( The Gleaner, February, 1950) said that both the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) were the same and that they should be swept aside. The columnist said, “In other words, most of the makeup of these two parties consists of self-seeking and materialistic individuals who are wholly interested in their own welfare and care little or nothing for the well-being of Jamaica.” Many people in contemporary Jamaica will agree with the writer of ‘Two of a kind’.

During the January to July 1962 period, a solicitor from Fairbourne Avenue, Kingston, charged that the national flag was comprised of Rastafari colours. There was a most insightful letter from a writer from Bygrave Avenue, Kingston, critical of the inclusion of private property rights in the Constitution in the context of the history of the acquisition of property in Jamaica. This was serious thinking.

One of the most strident newspaper political commentators of the 1940s and 1950s was Vere Johns. He offered a stinging critique on his observations of the quality of the leadership of government in Jamaica since 1944 in ‘Clean house and build new political order’ ( The Gleaner, April, 1951). He argued that Jamaica “has reached a crisis in her affairs in all places, politically, economically, socially and morally; (and) will need the most drastic remedies to cure her ever worsening ill.”

Morally, he argued that the greed for the possession of wealth (and to maintain political power) undermined the decent principles of some political leaders and public servants. This moral pollution, he argued, continues at the detriment of the citizens of the country. Most importantly, Vere John wrote that the Jamaican politicians have sold out “the people’s birthright for a mess of pottage” as the country’s bankruptcy deepened. On the issue of political behaviour, he argued that “social respectability and character” have been pushed aside while “political hooliganism is exalted into a position of prominence”.

The well-thinking people of this country must begin to give themselves a chance and to seize the present opportunity to unite this country, to do more than voting and become thinkers and activists to rebuild community and offer creative positions to political parties as active participants in the national policy making. There is liberal democracy and also participative democracy, the people must make a choice.

LOUIS MOYSTON

Kingston