Put rowdy political motorcades under manners, Mr Ellington

Friday, November 18, 2011

PRIME Minister Andrew Holness has done the right thing by announcing that he intends to await the availability of the new voters' list, due on November 30, before seeking his own mandate from the electorate.

Indeed, had Mr Holness done the opposite, he would have done irreparable harm to the message being pushed by his ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of the importance of giving youth a say in our governance process. For as it turns out, the November 30 voters' list has some 40,000 mostly young people registered, who, no doubt, will want to exercise their right to vote.

That, of course, is good for the country, as it will send a positive signal of the value of the electoral process to the disaffected among us.

Ultimately, our leaders have a responsibility to do the best they possibly can, which hopefully will be the right thing at all times. There can be no doubt that in this case Mr Holness has done that.

In recent days there has been another positive development on the political landscape which we believe is worthy of commendation. We refer to the decision by Police Commissioner Owen Ellington to decline gifts from political party sources until a month after the next general elections.

It's for good reason that periods of political campaigns in Jamaica are referred to as silly season. It's a time when aspiring political representatives and their supporters suspect sinister motive behind every action by their opponents. And also, perception becomes much the same as reality.

Readers will recall that Mr Danville Walker, the newly installed JLP candidate for central Manchester, was the one through whom the donation of vehicles -- intended for the Manchester police -- was to be made by a private auto dealer.

Mr Walker is on record as saying that his intention was not to gain political mileage but to help find solutions to the well- known resource constraints affecting the police force.

Mr Walker is new to competitive politics as a candidate but as a former acclaimed director of elections, we know he is not naive. So he would hardly be surprised were he to discover that very few of his colleagues and their support staff took him at his word.

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating when Mr Walker, a month after the elections, win or lose, resumes what we hope will be a sustained effort to raise assistance for the resource-starved anti-crime fight.

We would urge Mr Ellington, who from this distance seems hardly to have put a foot wrong since he took over leadership of the constabulary, to also take decisive action regarding another disturbing aspect of the current political environment.

We refer to the frightening disregard for law and order on the roads by some supporters of the two political parties as they go about their business. There have been tragedies in the past as a result of such behaviour and down the years we have heard many promises from political leaders in response to pleas to bring control. Consistently, such promises have turned out to be empty.

This newspaper would suggest, however, that ultimately it is the police who must ensure that law and order on the roads, and everywhere else, is maintained. Mr Ellington, who has rightly gained considerable public respect for his work since being appointed commissioner in April last year, will have gained even greater public esteem should the police force fully assert itself and bring order on the roads in this silly season.

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Put rowdy political motorcades under manners, Mr Ellington