Representation by spectatorship
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I HAVE noted the statement published in the Jamaica Observer on Friday, September 21, 2018 from the member of parliament for Central Clarendon, Minister Mike Henry, regarding the persistent problem of flooding in the town of May Pen.
Mr Henry claims that the problem is a direct result of a decision made by previous governments and the National Works Agency (NWA) in the 1980s. Mr Henry needs to be reminded that he was the parliamentary representative for the people of May Pen then, and has been at all times since other purported “bad decisions” were made. Through it all, Mr Henry appears to have been a mere spectator and not an effective representative for the people of Central Clarendon in general and particularly the residents and business people of May Pen.
Throughout the many years of flooding, Mr Henry served as the member of parliament for almost 40 continuous years. He was a minister of government for 15 years, four of which was as the minister of works, with the authority to fix the claimed cause of the flooding. He is the only parliamentary representative that most of the people of Central Clarendon have ever known. Yet he has only now awoken from his slumber of complacency to discover that the flooding in May Pen is a problem.
It has taken a long time for Mr Henry to “shudder to think of the welfare of the people”. The mind boggles at this lame and pathetic misrepresentation of the people of May Pen and the wider constituency of Central Clarendon.
Mr Henry needs to be reminded that he is a part of the relevant authority that he is calling on to fix the problem. He is the representative (pro tem) and his political party forms the Government. If he was incapable of dealing with the problem while he was a minister of government with responsibility for works and is now unable to persuade his party colleagues to come to the rescue of his constituents, obviously, Mr Henry is not up to the task of representation. ZULEIKA JESS Attorney-at-Law and Member of Parliament for Central Clarendon