From the Increase To Cabinet Members and Members Of Parliament, authorised by the Prime Minister, was made known, it was clear that it would be one of the many agenda items, that the next General elections, would be fought.
What many onlookers, political observers and Commentators assumed, was that it would be the Opposition PNP, who would have been dragging the Government and JLP, over the coals, with the immoral hike in the salaries of Politicians. Nobody, but nobody Figured that the Prime Minister, who, in reaction to public outcry and outrage, supposedly refused the Multimillion dollar raise, he had authorized to himself, would then turn around and use the salary increases that he authorized, as a campaign talking-point, to score political point to try and tarnish the Opposition Leader?
The recent release of a news clip, of the Prime Minister, addressing party-faithful at a regional meeting of the JLP, during which he accused the Opposition Leader of being the “Highest Paid” Politician in Jamaica, stating that the Opposition Leader earns 3-times as much as he, the Prime Minister does; and that people were lying on him about his own take-home pay, has many wondering if indeed, the Prime Minister has lost touch with reality; is showing signs of the onset of early dementia; or is it a case that the Prime Minister has just gone fully Trumpian, and now believes in the concept of “Alternative Facts”, and all that goes with that, such as creating an alternative narrative, to suit your own ‘facts’
Many in the Prime Minister’s inner circle, have been expressing their concern about what they see as the Prime Minister’s disconnect from reality, as evidenced by his more recent utterances. Describing the Prime Minister as sounding and becoming more shrill and desperate, in his public utterances, one Senior Party member, says this new campaign strategy is alarming, as it confirms that the Prime Minister is prepared to lie and further demean the office he holds, in his quest to maintain his hold on power.
Another party member confided that her fear was the institutional damage, being done not just to the prestige of the Office of The Prime Minister, in this instance, but the body of work, the Prime Minister has created that has undermined faith and or caused the population to question the independence and integrity of Institutions and or bodies, charged as custodes and arbiters of Good Governance; Protectors of the realm and Ushers of decency in public life and spaces.
Citing the recent ‘choreographed attacks on the Integrity Commission, the many incidents when the Prime Minister has acted in contravention of the Constitution, and the embrace and promotion of the culture of gangsterism with the embrace of the underworld moniker of “Brogad”; The Prime Minister’s growing intemperance to criticism; some say they fear this latest act of attempting to cast Mark Golding as the true beneficiary of the Government’s action to raise Parliamentary salaries based on a flawed report, provides a spotlight into the Prime Minister’s darker side, and what his continued leadership could hold for the future of Jamaica, as a stable state, where the traditional values and attitudes are revered, promoted and embraced, rather than the wholesale embrace of the culture of anancyism.
We fool ourselves if we fail to think critically and analytically, about the Prime Minister’s years in Office and the whittling away effect it has had on standards of governance, we took for granted; or if we continue to ignore the correlation to the spike in crime and criminal activity across the board, after the Prime Minister adopted the Brogad mantra.
The only thing that could be possibly worse than us as a party and or a society failing to acknowledge the nexus between the level of criminal activity sweeping the nation, and the elevation of Clarkes and the Title of Brogad, – two elements associated and or identified with the criminal underworld; is that we continue to give support and succour to a Leader who uses these as ops to maintain power, at the expense of further degrading the society.
The worry for some is the question of is the Prime Minister consciously pursuing a path that deliberately destabilizes the Country and Government by ushering in a new era, where truth, honesty, and industry, are no longer of any import, as these are replaced by ‘Alternative Facts’; Corruption and rule of law is substituted for political might; and or street clout.
The concern being expressed is that of one of concern for the sanity of the PM, in a time when the ascendancy of Trumpian traits such as Projection, Conflation, Hyperbolic verbiage, and the God-complex, seem to have replaced decency, whenever he uses the bully-pulpit these days. There is now a real fear, being expressed by those close to his daily activities and behaviour, that he is indeed displaying early signs of dementia, as they say, this can be the only explanation for his inconsistent utterances and questionable, public verbal dissertations…
