Mark Wignall | PNP and JLP seeking our hands in marriage

It is 100 per cent certain that we are fully into the political mating season again. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) are once again kicking up dust, their noses sniffing the air and trying to make themselves more attractive than usual. At this time, the musky odour borders on overpowering.

I am not so sure that the JLP deserves that third term that it is so hungrily aching for. But the PNP needs to step up its game and make a better case that it is deserving of winning the next elections. Making the better case means that the key individuals in the PNP, like the opposition leader and shadow spokesperson in finance, need to score high on their Budget presentations. Mark Golding was somewhat subpar. As expected.

I am not going to pretend that the ‘crowd’ I move in are mostly those crunching policy numbers via Budget debates. When Dr Nigel Clarke was at the bat in the finance ministry, the man at street level gave him high marks. I cannot say that they fully comprehended all of what he said, but even when he puzzled them with the jargon of money matters, they liked the way he did it.

The other matter that some in the electorate will be looking at is the extent to which the people making up the 63 constituencies in both parties will embrace the grass-roots delivery expected. And If you take a comical bet that some will fall on the sword of indecency and idiocy, you can be sure that Everald Warmington will want to pick at the start.

Inside the JLP, and especially in his South West St Catherine constituency, Warmington is godlike. In the wider population he is not well liked. He recently accused the PNP of being responsible for the high crime rate when the JLP is in power.

Is Mr Warmington that foolish? Surely he knows that both the PNP and the JLP should be extra careful how they dole out blame for fomenting violence and disrupting the vote, especially knowing their histories leading up to 1980. Mr Warmington may have been an angel at those times, but many of us lived through the violent political days and nights of the 1970s.

Former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson extolled the PNP. No surprise there. In response, Warmington stated that P. J. should go back to his nursing home. How utterly disgusting! And as usual, whenever Warmington spews, the prevailing response is silence. Quite telling.

SUPPORT FORTOUGH POLICING

Police killing citizens in ‘shoot-outs’ is as old as the hills. But something else is also happening. The homicide rate is trending down. Not sharply but significantly. The bugbear in this is that as the rate trends down, so will the people’s support for tougher policing grow. In any case, most of the people I speak to support the killing of gunmen just as long as they physically possess firearms. The more hardened supporter shares the view that as long as the policeman and his squaddies know the target is a killer, he should be despatched with finality.

There is no doubt that the murder rate will feature in the vote this year. And the party which is likely to suffer more is the JLP. With a caveat. Hardly anyone buys into the view that the opposition party has the power to turn on or off the rate of violent crime. They key is, will a 20 per cent cut in violent crime in socially crucial divisions, as exist now, translate into useful positives for the ruling JLP?

An ex-policeman emailed me recently: “Killing the wrong person scars the community badly and does not restore confidence in the JCF. It makes policing harder as communities will close themselves off from working with the police.

“We have been assured by Minister Chang that the shootings by police are intelligence driven. Maybe. But is it really a coincidence that the JCF are shooting at least one person per day since the start of the year with an election looming?”

PERIL UP NORTH

America’s democracy is undergoing a level of political stress never before seen in our lifetime. One man, seemingly with no rhyme or reason, is leading a legislature and Cabinet loyal only to him in dismantling the republic. Empathy is dead, In fact, its death is openly celebrated.

Does white supremacy reign supreme, or do the tenets of the US constitution, including all men are created equal, prevail? Does the 14th Amendment to the US constitution withstand the assault by the MAGA militia? Do the Federal courts hold fast, or do Trump’s relentless, many patently unconstitutional, executive orders carry the day?

Does the US constitution protect those unlawfully present and even those with Green Cards who are being removed for alleged anti-semitic behaviour, or do Department of Homeland Security Secretary ‘ICE Barbie’ Kristi Noemand and border czar Tom Homan administer street justice and remove everyone?

I know three Jamaicans with Green Cards visiting Jamaica who are afraid to travel back to their states because of fear of seizure, not of documents but of person. A - of the legality of documents does not indicate any blot of any kind, and yet, they are afraid of travelling. They know they must travel soon. What is the right thing to do and when? They are in a ball of confusion.

As I have said, with Trump term-limited, it is of little interest to him who he hurts or how much pain he can inflict on those who are not the WASPy type like him and his family. The added fear as the Trump term continues is the military heat being generated by Trump in many areas across the global landscape.

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