Dear Editor,
Since the People's National Party (PNP) has only two chances of ever again achieving a two-thirds majority in a general election in our lifetime, the governing party is in danger of frittering away its last, best chance of having Jamaica fully join the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). All thanks to a brilliant own-goal scored by Senate leader of Government business A J Nicholson on his hapless goalkeeper Senate President Floyd Morris.
Here's how the play looks to this spectator. The object is to move the CCJ ball forward, through a stubborn Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) JLP defence. To get the ball in the opponent's goal the PNP needs the 'mistake' of at least one JLP defender. A hard but not impossible task. The best chance of doing that is through a calm, rational, reasoned debate, shorn of personal attacks and a minimum of partisanship.
So what does the PNP star player, A J, do? He makes a powerful back pass to his inattentive goalkeeper Floyd Morris. The ball lodges firmly in his own team's net, to wild cheering from his own bench and much flag waving from his fans.
Whether or not the suspension of the JLP Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte is legally justified or not is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The contents of this letter are hardly dispositive of the main arguments the PNP advances. Now, thanks to this bull-in-a-china-shop approach of A J, the JLP has apparently decided to boycott the CCJ debate unless he and the Senate President swallow their tongues, get down on their knees, apologise, and withdraw the suspension. Brilliant! Without that, we are then left to wonder how the PNP proposes to get the one JLP vote it needs. The drama and high dudgeon have poisoned the atmosphere. Whether normalcy can return is anyone's guess.
What can PM Portia Simpson Miller do if her CCJ game is to be rescued? She may have to swap her prime minister's hat for her minister of sports hat. That may lead her to conclude what any good football coach needs to do with with a player who has just scored a brilliant own goal, gratuitously abused the referee (The Observer) and is one reckless tackle away from yet another red card.
Errol W A Townshend
Ontario, Canada
ewat@rogers.com
AJ's brilliant own goal
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Since the People's National Party (PNP) has only two chances of ever again achieving a two-thirds majority in a general election in our lifetime, the governing party is in danger of frittering away its last, best chance of having Jamaica fully join the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). All thanks to a brilliant own-goal scored by Senate leader of Government business A J Nicholson on his hapless goalkeeper Senate President Floyd Morris.
Here's how the play looks to this spectator. The object is to move the CCJ ball forward, through a stubborn Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) JLP defence. To get the ball in the opponent's goal the PNP needs the 'mistake' of at least one JLP defender. A hard but not impossible task. The best chance of doing that is through a calm, rational, reasoned debate, shorn of personal attacks and a minimum of partisanship.
So what does the PNP star player, A J, do? He makes a powerful back pass to his inattentive goalkeeper Floyd Morris. The ball lodges firmly in his own team's net, to wild cheering from his own bench and much flag waving from his fans.
Whether or not the suspension of the JLP Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte is legally justified or not is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The contents of this letter are hardly dispositive of the main arguments the PNP advances. Now, thanks to this bull-in-a-china-shop approach of A J, the JLP has apparently decided to boycott the CCJ debate unless he and the Senate President swallow their tongues, get down on their knees, apologise, and withdraw the suspension. Brilliant! Without that, we are then left to wonder how the PNP proposes to get the one JLP vote it needs. The drama and high dudgeon have poisoned the atmosphere. Whether normalcy can return is anyone's guess.
What can PM Portia Simpson Miller do if her CCJ game is to be rescued? She may have to swap her prime minister's hat for her minister of sports hat. That may lead her to conclude what any good football coach needs to do with with a player who has just scored a brilliant own goal, gratuitously abused the referee (The Observer) and is one reckless tackle away from yet another red card.
Errol W A Townshend
Ontario, Canada
ewat@rogers.com
AJ's brilliant own goal
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