Respect, please!

Recently, the JLP has taken plenty of flak from this column. It's deserved. Take, for instance, the Manatt saga wherein Driva's subterfuge made the party such an easy target and so shamelessly invited critical barbs that 'twas folly to resist. Worse followed, as with the dexterity of a pregnant whale, the JLP persisted in shoving both political feet so far into its political mouth as to effectively stifle any residual common sense. Farcical material capable of filling several issues of Mad Magazine has been fed to the electorate faster than Vybz Kartel can empty bottles of skin-bleaching agent. For example:

Dorothy Lightbourne hasn't dealt with Keith Knight for 31 years allegedly because she heard him say "All Labourite fi dead" while trying to kick a chair upon which she was firmly ensconced. Apart from the elephantine (not to mention infantile) behaviour, at which no married man can feign surprise, who can believe that someone with such a puerile reaction to a political slight, however grave or inconsequential, imagined or real, could end up a senior Cabinet minister entrusted with being the Government's legal adviser? No wonder she seems unnerved by the cut and thrust of international diplomacy.

The PM has himself confessed to being the driver of a deliberate strategy to contravene Jamaica's constitutional provisions regarding dual citizenship. So, the relentless critique of Shahine, for one, including by your humble scribe, could equally have been directed at Driva, who sanctioned the initiative. Now we understand what he meant by saying constitutional rights don't begin at Liguanea. Between Driva and Dorothy, they appear not to exist at all or, if they do, as mere trappings of expediency.

What can I say about the boorish, brutish, bellicose Everald Warmington? When it was suggested to him that knowingly sitting in Parliament illegally was "unethical" conduct, he took offence to the word 'unethical'. When politely asked which word he would prefer, he told the admirably unflappable Kerlyn Brown to "go to hell" and abruptly terminated the interview. Now everybody knows that one oughtn't to recommend a destination one hasn't oneself visited (or intends to visit) since that would be false advertising. So, philosophers like yours truly can only conclude that Warmongerton knows or plans to know of that location's attractions. Next, Women in Media asked Driva to disqualify Everald the Unready from nomination. Ladies, don't hold your breath. Warmongerton can disrespect citizens with impunity because his illegal parliamentary occupation was sanctioned by his leader. How on God's green (oops) earth could Driva disqualify the belligerent one now?

So the JLP begged for public abuse. But, I hope readers aren't extrapolating from this persistent critique any endorsement of the PNP. Far from it.

The JLP does occupy one sliver of moral high ground vis-à-vis the PNP. It's elected. At that same time, voters rejected the PNP, its leader and key officers. How did the PNP react? It spat in the electorate's face. Portia refused to resign. Senior members of the rejected Cabinet like Omar Davies and Phillip Paulwell cling to high office within the Opposition and seem set to ask voters to reverse themselves at the next poll.

Step aside now, as Beres says

As with my JLP critique, this isn't a personal matter for me. Personally, for example, I've a lot of time, respect and admiration for Omar Davies, and he knows it. Despite his monumental cock-up of the financial crisis, when he was still inexperienced, I believe he was, overall, a good finance minister. But, we live in a democracy and my opinion, a minority one, doesn't count. The majority specifically rejected him and others. Like Everald, they oughtn't to be renominated. The PNP's offence, deliberately ignoring the people's will, is more egregious than Everald's impertinence.

I hope voters don't consider returning the PNP to Government until it proves it respects the electorate. Respect means giving the electorate a real leadership choice and a proposed Cabinet cleansed of key former ministers recently rejected by voters. A return to future Cabinet by any of these rejects via garrison is disrespect. Disrespect is treating us as fools by forcing us to choose between the failed and the rejected. Until the PNP gives us this respect, I hope voters keep the evil they elected. Respect's also due from the elected. If the JLP respects us, it'll retire the discredited Driva. Aretha would say:

What you want

baby, I got.

What you need

you know I got it?

All I'm askin'

is for a little respect ...

Peace and love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.