Letter of the Day|Does our political class still remembers its primary objective?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

There is an old management principle: when an organisation loses sight of its objective, every activity begins to look like progress.

The current political storm over the alleged leaked voice note, together with the predictable responses from both the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), is a reminder that Jamaica’s politics is suffering from precisely that condition. We have become experts at debating the moment while neglecting the mission.

The issue is not whether one party gains a temporary advantage over the other, nor is it whether today’s headlines favour the Government or the Opposition. The larger question is whether our political class still remembers its primary objective.

Surely that objective is to make Jamaica safer, more affordable, more productive, and more competitive. It is to improve schools, strengthen healthcare, modernise public services, and create opportunities that persuade our young people to build their futures here rather than elsewhere.

Instead, controversy after controversy consumes the national conversation. The public is invited to choose sides, television panels dissect political tactics, social media erupts, and the country’s most urgent challenges quietly slip from the front page. We mistake political activity for national progress.

This is not a criticism of one party alone. It is an indictment of a political culture that too often rewards performance over purpose. Governments defend, oppositions attack, supporters cheer, and citizens are left wondering when governing will once again become the main event.

If the alleged leaked recording raises legal or ethical questions, then the appropriate institutions should investigate them fairly and independently. That is how a mature democracy should function.

Jamaica, however, cannot afford to allow every political controversy to become another detour from the country’s real priorities.

Political parties exist to serve the national interest, not to make the national interest serve politics.

History rarely remembers who won a week’s political argument. It remembers who solved a country’s problems.

Perhaps that is the objective we should recover.

Chelly-Ann Jones-Segree