Heather Robinson

There are many different views on the role of the elected representative (the driver). Some electors, citizens or residents of Jamaica believe that it is the elected representative's responsibility to provide them with adequate roads, water and housing. Others see the need for free tertiary education as a priority, while others believe that the provision of health care is what must be provided by the Member of Parliament (MP) or councillor.

During last week, Jamaica has been presented with the news that there are persons suffering from malaria in some communities in the Corporate Area and St. Catherine. This news came as a surprise to many Jamaicans who have grown up not having a clue as to what malaria is. In fact, the senior medical officer for the May Pen Hospital, Dr. Winston Dawes, explained in a Radio Jamaica interview that there are two generations of doctors who have never been exposed to the illness known as malaria. The exposure these two generations of doctors have to the illness has been theoretical, not practical.

Representation

This realisation has raised several questions in the public domain. Normally, when constituents believe that their lives are in danger, they expect their elected representatives to speak on their behalf, in other words, to make representation to have the problem solved. Failure to provide effective representation can see the constituents demonstrating to have the problem corrected in their demand for 'justice'.

Desmond McKenzie is the Mayor of Kingston and Councillor for the Tivoli Gardens division in the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). It doesn't matter whether you are a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) or People's National Party (PNP) supporter, the majority of electors in the Corporate Area will agree that he has tried to be a very proactive mayor. He has actively campaigned against streetside garages, illegal advertising and building construction.

This 'hands-on' mayor is known for his intolerance of breaches of planning and building regulations, and once publicly stopped a development saying 'tek man fe fool'. But anyone who knows Desmond McKenzie knows that he is no fool, and that he is dedicated to the people who elected him as the councillor for the Tivoli Gardens division in Western Kingston.

Living conditions

The surprise, therefore, to many of his supporters and well-wishers came when local television stations showed the living conditions of some residents of his division, in the Leader of the Opposition's constituency, where a reported source of the malaria was detected. I cannot recall ever hearing representation being made by either the councillor or the MP to have immediate corrective action taken on behalf of these citizens of Jamaica. But then, perhaps, it happened on a day or a night when I did not read the newspapers, or listen or watch newscasts.

The mayor and the MP have a responsibility to ensure that they both utilise their unified voices to improve the conditions of the residents who occupy the old Public Works buildings. Perhaps it is time that the focus and attention of both men be shifted from national issues to some very local and parochial needs of their constituents.

Many new homes have been built in West Kingston by the National Housing Trust under the Inner City Housing Project. My wish for the children, who live under these unfortunate and inhuman conditions, is that they will one day soon be able to move into a clean, modern and healthy environment.

Desmond McKenzie and Bruce Golding need to be able to prove that they are first able to deal with their own backyards, before looking to Hope Road. And to paraphrase Buju Banton: "Driver, don't stop at all, straight pass Jamaica House, down Hope Road".

Heather Robinson is a life underwriter and former Member of Parliament.