A tale of two prime ministerial aspirants

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I WOULD like to tell you a story of a young man who had a dream to become the prime minister of Jamaica. The young man grew up surrounded by politics, with his parents being heavily involved in the politics of the day.

He almost saw it as a right of his to become involved in politics and his destiny to someday become the prime minister. He got involved in politics at an early age, fought a lot of adversities and what we called ‘bad mind’. The young man learned all he could about politicking, taking notes from those who had gone on before, and being diligent in his craft despite the criticism.

The young man did what no one expected him to do – he won a seat in national election. However, after ongoing disputes with his party the young man left, but still the political fire burned within him. The desire to become prime minister was too great for him to ignore, so after securing his wealth he came back to politics.

The young man would go on to take up the leadership of his party and realise his dream to become prime minister. Then, he went on to fail Jamaica in the most spectacular way, giving us the grandfather of all scandals – Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, the West Kingston incursion, damaging the country’s reputation, regionally and internationally. That young man, whose only dream was to become prime minister, had to resign the position in shame.

Now, there is another man in politics at this time whose political life mirrors that young man to a point. I am confident that the delegates of the People’s National Party would never allow the party to go down that road to elect someone whose sole ambition is to become a prime minister without a plan for the development of the country.