Stop Behaving like Hitler and You won’t be Likened to Him
Recently the PNP saw it fit to release a statement condemning a photograph that is circulating on social media of a swastika imposed on the PNP emblem.
The condemnation that the PNP gave to the matter is by all means stupid. While it continues to dodge questions on matters of tremendous importance to this country, like the wasting of public funds by the NHT to buy a failing entity and the lies that were and are being told to justify the purchase, it found time to condemn what cannot be considered as more than a stupid matter. It goes to show what is of importance to this hapless group of people.
It is not by any means surprising however, as we see time and again members of the PNP especially the incompetent Prime Minister, taking issue with political satire in the official media, very personally as if she is above being laughed at. And the way how she goes about hitting out at any form of criticism is tantamount to how the Nazi dealt with dissenting views, with one exception, the critics aren’t shot dead. And at the rate they are going it may be just a matter of time before that starts happening.
The picture that has caused so much problems for the PNP shows Minister Faulkner in a Nazi uniform. We must bare in mind that the photo came out after the media briefing where the Minister sought to bully journalists in toeing the party line, to the extent that a journalist’s microphone was physically taken away from him and one was turned off, to the threatening of Head of Nationwide News Network Cliff Hughes by the media Director in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to pull the station off air. In a democratic and free society such behavior is intolerable and have to be condemned in the most forceful manner. When the PNP seeks to do things reminiscent of how the Nazi`s behaved in the 1930`s, and then gets ridiculed for it they should not be complaining one bit. While many persons associate Nazism with the Holocaust, we must remember that the Holocaust came later in the Reign of Hitler-not at first. What they started out in the early days doing was controlling the media through the feared SS and intimidating and jailing their opponents. Not to mention the night of the long knives. The pattern of the PNP since taking office has been confrontational, dictatorial and disrespectful to Jamaicans in general. Look at how they treat with scant regard the Office of the Opposition leader, and the how the JLP Senators are bullied by the Senate President, the arrogant, pompous and out of order Floyd Morrison, to the point where recently, Senator Tom Tavares Finson had to angrily complain about the treatment meted out to them by the President.
Yet those instances pale in comparison to how the Prime Minister and her information spokesperson deals with sensitive issues of National importance. The Prime Minister comes to Parliament and refuses to answer questions about NHT, mislead the Parliament and the Jamaican people and has not apologized for it. Time and time again the Prime Minister has acted in ways contrary to the Democratic principles that underpin a Democratic State and has behaved in a dictatorial manner reminiscent of Adolf Hitler. The PNP needs to understand, that it is not what they think people will think about their actions, but actually what people think about what they do. Ministers in this government have behaved on many occasion just like how the Ministers in the Third Reich behaved then. Take for instance the Richard Azan matter and how he behaved and how the Councilors in his constituency behaved, one even made the point that it was nothing more than a nine day wonder. What we have witnessed is a pattern of behavior that is anti-democratic and dictatorial in nature. Furthermore we have in the past seen what the PNP is capable of when it puts the machinery of the state to fulfill an ideology; we saw it in the 1970`s.
What the PNP must understand is that Democratic principles are the foundation on what all free states are built. All truly democratic societies are built on the freedom of the press, freedom of speech and sound governance. While we may not have officially sanctioned press censorship, the manner in which the PNP is behaving towards the Press will send a chilling effect on the few unbiased media houses in this country. The recent attack on those of us on social media is designed to have the same effect. What the PNP wants, is to cause social media proponents of good Governance like myself to go into hiding behind fake profiles or to stop criticizing the Government. While official media have to respect the PNP or some archaic law that protects certain people from close scrutiny, social media carries no such restriction. That’s what the PNP is afraid of. They can’t control social media. Recently another photo about vote buying in the last election in Central Westmoreland that was published by a known social media activist, drew from Minister Hanna a thinly veiled threat of court action against the lady. These are all designed to create the feeling of unease and fear. But we must fight back, and fight back in a strong, determined, and forceful way, criticizing even more the policies of the PNP that are ruinous to this country. Criticizing the social media group SYMJ over the picture of Faulkner, and trying to tie it to the Jamaica Labour Party, smacks of how Hitler tried to pin everything bad on the Communist Party at that time in Germany.
The Group SYMJ while it’s loaded with supporters of the JLP, it doesn’t mean that the group is affiliated with the JLP. They do have high ranking members of the PNP that are members of the group. Should we then assume that that they are supporters of the JLP? One must understand that in this day and age, social media is a critical part of the democratic process and groups will be set up that contain people of like political persuasions. That doesn’t mean that these groups are directly linked or supported by the JLP. The PNP should be very careful it doesn’t open a Pandora`s box, and cause a social media fight back that can bring the party to its knees. Persons on social media do have ways of getting information that can really hurt people.
I had NO idea they actually LISTEN to or even CARE what the articuakte minority says on social media…
Warn them! A word to the wise is enough. The must get used to the new paradigm. And their days of controlling and manipulating the message are over!
I cannot believe that PNP responded to that picture. If the government officials behave appropriately and stop to be rude to the media and the Jamaican ppl then nobody will label then as Hitler and so fort. If they really responded they as well respond to every cartoon everyday. I these people are under estimating the Jamaican ppl. No democracy without free media. No government can win election without media, unless they are going to steal election or behave like Hitler.