The 'gangs' label fits - poll - Majority of Jamaicans agree with branding of JLP, PNP

There is widespread public support for the classification of the island's two major political parties as the "gangs of Gordon House".

Nine in every 10 Jamaicans agree that the two major political parties, the People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) behave more like rival gangs in Parliament rather than working for the good of the entire country.

A Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll found that 54 per cent of Jamaicans strongly agree with the gangster label, while 37 per cent said they agreed.

The poll, which was conducted from May 28 to 29 and June 4 to 5 with a sample of 1,008 and a margin of error of plus or minus four per cent, found that six per cent of Jamaicans disagreed with the gangster title. Three per cent of the respondents said they did not know if the title was appropriate.

The Gleaner stirred up a firestorm with a series of editorials referring to the political parties as gangs.

"We refer to gangs in the sense of a group of people associating and acting together in a common cause; in this case, a grab for state power and the promotion of narrowly partisan interests," one editorial declared

"The parties, of course, have substantial help from gangs of another kind: those of violence and criminality, but aligned to a political cause, and which corral communities in support of either of the parties. It is a political model that has ill-served Jamaica for most of the seven decades of existence of the primary gangs," the editorial added.

While there seemed to be general agreement with the label as indicated by public comments and the Johnson poll, some powerful voices disagreed.

Among them was university lecturer and head of the Broadcasting Commission, Professor Hopeton Dunn, who argued that journalists should spend less time placing labels on political representatives and, instead, investigate the ills being done by some politicians.

Despicable label

Former PNP Member of Parliament John Junor described the label as "despicable", while Court of Appeal President, Justice Seymour Panton, said it was disrespectful and derogatory to place such a label on politicians.

According to Panton, The Gleaner should investigate and bring the wrongdoings of MPs who have erred to the forefront.

"I'm kindly suggesting that to secure any change that may be desired in the habits or attitudes of our parliamentarians, the approach that is necessary is one of education and persuasion. Change will not come about by abusing them; (it) will instead result in resentment and will divert decent persons from the parliamentary process," Panton said.

But Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller argued that the label was the fault of her fellow parliamentarians.

"We are the ones who allow ourselves to be called gangs because of how we treat each other," Simpson Miller said in Parliament.

"The disrespect for each other ... . What we say on the platforms, and we only say good things about each other when the person cannot hear one word that we are saying," the veteran parliamentarian added.