Reasons to Re-think The Jamaican Political Motorcades
Well, Jamaica has all its satellites turned upwards for signals telling us the date Prime Minister Portia Simpson has chosen to call General Elections.
Motorcades speed along highways. In the horizon, more than 20 vehicles approach, green or orange flags waved through the window, creating a spectacular sight.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) warns participants to keep their bodies inside vehicles.
In the run-up to 2007 general election, a person died after falling from a vehicle in a motorcade.
Citizens pack vehicles and sometimes risk their lives.
The politicians they are travelling to support drive up by themselves in high-end, air-conditioned SUVs.
There is also the “gang warfare concept”. Two opposing sides in party colours in designated spaces in a town square, “cutting eyes” and listening to music selected to taunt.
There is no guarantee that verbal banter across the divide might not become dangerous.
What of “public monitoring”?. Are people formally identified and registered before they hop unto vehicles?
If there is crime along the way, how will the perpetrator be formally traced, apart from other participants recognizing him or her as living “under the big guango tree down the road”?
This leads to the obvious question.
Do we know who is jumping on the bandwagon? At every mass gathering, there is a presence with ulterior criminal motives.
Reducing the number of motorcades going across the country might even save someone’s life……
By Neo Makeba