Mark Wignall | Cockroaches, cream and politicians

Whenever I think of the great Jamaicans who used to walk among us and those who are still with us, never tiring of adding to the chain of values in making Jamaica a better place, I fully buy into a new appreciation of the term ‘cream rises to the top’.

In American politics, the Republican Party is aching to rise to the top in the midterms and in the presidential race in 2024. A caveat exists, though. Political arrival or revisit at the top must be predicated on the basis that a radical rightward shift to autocratic tendencies is what white, nationalistic Americans want.

At this time, they are making more than a slow creep through the door marked democracy. Once through, they are going to turn around and destroy that very door so that the people think less, say little, while the leaders become strongmen and capture the minds of the vast horde of gullible people.

Gene Simmons is the outspoken singer in the rock group Kiss. In speaking to spin.com recently about Trump, he said:“Look what that gentleman did to this country and the polarisation. Got all the cockroaches to rise to the top.” Spoken like a philosopher at the top of his game.

In Jamaica, we have added reason to be proud of ourselves. As much as we love America, we must now cling to that vicarious thrill as American democratic ideals head to the slime at the bottom of the swamp. If we properly assimilate what is happening in the dangerous shift of Republican politics, we will learn how to cherish the democracy we have more strongly.

DICTATORIAL

Many of us make the wrong vote at some elections while in others we strike the lucky stone and vote for the party that can best handle power while it is crafting policies. But as is being placed into US election day shenanigans, where the local government politics favours the Republicans, voter suppression is being baked into the system.

The political purists among us will point to a few tendencies of Prime Minister Andrew Holness to be dictatorial. The more pragmatic politics watcher in Jamaica will declare that it will always be problematic to determine where the first tendency is simply him demonstrating his strength and authority, a position that Jamaicans prefer.

A big part of protecting the democratic ideal in Jamaican politics is opening up a more welcoming door for Leader of the Opposition, Mark Golding. Political commentary has not been kind to him. At times I have been quite caustic, and, in person, not so long ago, he expressed it, tightly shook my hand and maintained his smile.

Our politics can be likened to the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) cast in the role of perennial champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. In this connection, Golding is at the level where he is repairing his spikes before he begins weight training.

Mark Golding needs to be seen if not immediately ready for podium rights, then certainly huffing and puffing at the stadium gates. In my political commentary over many years, I have always been tough on those politicians who have fumbled the ball and danced around the cookie jar. During that time, I have never found reason to describe either the JLP or the People’s National Party as stupid.

After Barack Obama secured his second term in 2012, in the political autopsy scripted by the Republican Party, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal told his colleagues to “stop being the stupid party”. That political sentiment was supposed to drive the party’s push towards adopting policies that were more people-centric while still adhering to basic conservative values

Looking back at it now, the GOP could not adopt a new platform because its heart just did not go that way. Now the cockroaches fly by night and crawl by day and the once great American experiment may be devoured at any moment.

President Biden may bow to the political moment presented to him even if he may feel personal disgust with it. He may need to escalate the Russia-Ukraine war in the hope that a ‘tough guy’ image can successfully compete with his politically Milquetoast approach to the aggressive push to the dangerous right by the GOP.

In Jamaica’s modern politics, we have only had one political leader that was truly loved while also being tremendously respected for his forthrightness. That was Michael Manley. Eddie Seaga invited strong emotion in both directions. He was more respected for his pragmatic approach to politics and statist attitude to governance. In the larger population, love and admiration eluded him.

In Cold War days when NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries engaged in the politics of paranoia, small countries like Jamaica were used as pawns simply because we had votes in the UN. So America could unduly lean on us when it suited that powerhouse.

At this time, the Biden administration has not given the impression that it has a need for any undue focus on Jamaica. Its new ambassador to Jamaica, Nick Perry, himself Jamaica-born, has not been here long enough to enumerate and give an outline of the Biden policy in Jamaica.

GUILTY OR INNOCENT

The law and the language of the courtroom will never be fully understood by the majority of us who can be classified as mere mortals.

If a man is taken before the courts on, say, three murder charges and during the trial it was fully established that three bodies were indeed associated with violent death and then that man is freed in the courts, a number of concerns must come up in our minds.

Question: If the judge rules that the prosecution has not proved its case and the man walks, could we conclude that the real murderer has not been held? Or that the main factor in making the man walk is merely a technicality of the law?

On what basis does the delivery of justice holds its trump card?

Or is there a much bigger factor at work? Could that factor be mainly the completion of the case in court and the ability of those who administer and design the law to say, “Justice, whether or not reason showed up liberally in the advocacy, was delivered.” What do you think?

- Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.