Beware of words and concepts

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Persons who place themselves on an intellectual pedestal and create mottled phrases or concepts, intended to stimulate followers (and their votes) who sadly lack vision (and in some cases literacy) and are only concerned with today and the coating of their palms, BEWARE!

There's no worse pain than a thankless child who will not bat an eyelid before biting the hand that feeds him/her.

'People Power' is the latest of these phrases. What does it really mean? Have its underlying nuances got real substance, so that the putting into practice will guide the Jamaican people on the path to social maturity, or is it just flirtatious rhetoric that serves rather to confuse than educate?

Ultimately, 'People Power', because of a healthy dose of misunderstanding of what it really means, could lead to a social upheaval, and a backlash that would take a tsunami-hurricane-earthquake combination to overpower, leaving in its wake a flattened nation with mountains of scattered debris of faith and hope, and pyres of sacrificial lambs.

Further, alongside the debris is an ill-fitting girdle of promises blowing in the storm, borne from a natural disaster better known as political verbiage.

Now that the election and its unpalatable bedfellow, campaigning, are over, and vote-catching by whatever means is no longer the focal point of the politicians, it is time to buckle down, stop toying with the minds of a fickle electorate, and start to plan the work, and work the plan.

Part of working the plan is ensuring that the populace gets a good handle on the truth, and really understands that with power comes the mandatory requirement of responsibility and accountability by those who hold the power.

It is not a matter of 'we rule things'. As a consequence to do exactly as we please, there must be civility, law and order.

Mr Rhetoric may be at the front of the line as the marathon gun is fired, but don't expect to see him at the finishing line at the head of pack, if indeed at all. Times have changed. The electorate is changing, and deference is no longer the default.

DENISE TAIT

Knockpatrick, Manchester