Delroy Chuck
A friend of mine tells me, repeatedly, the poor can take a lot more suffering and invokes the biblical prophecy that the poor will always be with us. As far as he is concerned, simply tell poor people how much you love and care for them, give them handouts every now and then, and promise that a little more will soon come. Even though I find his recommendations contemptuous, I oftentimes wonder if he is not right.
Poor people, it seems, are easily satisfied, easily misled and endure their misery and hardship well. Poor people have been trampled on, kicked around, used and abused and yet, across the world, they still foolishly support populist leaders. Just think of any populist leader over the past 50 or more years - China's Mao, Zambia's Kaunda, Tanzania's Nyerere, Zaire's Mobutu, Zim-babwe's Mugabe, India's Nehru, North Korea's Kim, Cuba's Castro, Guyana's Jagan and Burnham, Jamaica's Michael Manley, and so many others - have they made any worthwhile and lasting contribution to their country? Yet, during their tenure, the people perceived them as leaders who love and care for them, even as they suffer.
Intent on trapping us
What the poor need is not so much love, but liberation. Monsignor Richard Albert who is legendary for his assistance to the poor, in his letter to The Gleaner editor, Thursday, August 31, puts it well: "Liberating our people from the extensive poverty they endure is true independence - the best way to alleviate poverty is through a strong economy." Bruce Golding, in his party address on Sunday declared: "What poor people are longing for is not love, if you can love them that is fine. What they want is liberation." Surely, we do not help poor people by keeping them poor. Yet, what the present Government has failed to do is to liberate the poor, and seems more intent on trapping us into even more debt and, hence, more poverty.
The next general election will be critical for Jamaica. A win for the People's National Party (PNP) could well see Jamaica emerging into a one-party state, as more poor people will be created and, generally, they tend to vote for the ruling party. For example, the governing PNP has held the three parliamentary seats in St. Mary for the past 18 years and, as the avid PNP supporter Garnet Roper points out, the parish has been abandoned, forgotten and sunk into deeper poverty. Will the people of this parish continue to vote for a party that has so ignored and neglected them? Will the handouts at election time make a difference this time? The same applies to the constituencies in Kingston and St. Andrew with the poorest of the poor.
The election campaign must resolve around the merits of pragmatic versus popular leadership. History demonstrates that the pragmatic leaders get things done and liberate the people from their miseries and hardships, while popular leaders merely glorify themselves even as their people suffer. Our people must be urged to look beyond the 'smooth talk and flattery' which according to Romans 16:18 "deceive the minds of naive people."
Standing on the threshold
Poor people can only be liberated if they have the means to do so and there is no better way than the provision of jobs, better paying jobs, and of the opportunities to move up in life. More jobs can only come from a strong economy, from an economic environment that can attract big and productive invest-ments and from a government that understands business and how the productive businesses of the country must be allowed to succeed so the people, too, can succeed.
Jamaica stands on the threshold of either sinking into deeper poverty, more debt and hopelessness or turning the corner to start liberating our people from their daily hardships. Our people will soon have the choice between popular or pragmatic leadership, which choice will determine our destiny for many decades.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at delchuck@hotmail.com.
