Letter of the Day | Scrutinise the Opposition, but keep power in view

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Michael Abrahams is right that Jamaica needs an effective Opposition. But his argument risks setting an impossible standard: that an Opposition must answer publicly for every ill-advised opinion expressed privately by anyone associated with it, while the far greater power of the State recedes from view.

I am neither PNP nor JLP, but I find that troubling.

The leaked NaRRA exchanges did not originate from an official PNP forum, and were not statements of party policy. That distinction matters. If two members of a private citizens’ association exchange controversial opinions among themselves while others in the same discussion disagree, it would be unreasonable to attribute those remarks to the association itself, simply because selected portions later became public.

Political parties are no different. Their official positions, public actions and decisions should be scrutinised vigorously. But membership cannot mean that every private opinion automatically becomes institutional policy, nor should a party leader be expected to stage a public denunciation whenever a member’s private conversation is leaked.

The more substantive question is whether the Opposition’s concerns about NaRRA, namely, transparency, accountability and parliamentary oversight, have merit. Those are precisely the questions an Opposition is supposed to ask of an institution exercising significant state authority and controlling substantial public resources.

Likewise, Isat Buchanan’s remark about ‘chopping the line’ was plainly inappropriate. But it should not become the principal lens through which Coopers Pen is examined.

The much larger issue is what happened when the power of the State confronted citizens with little power of their own. Homes were demolished and families displaced. Whether those residents possessed legal title does not absolve the State of the responsibility to act humanely, nor does it remove legitimate questions about regularisation, negotiation and relocation.

That is where an Opposition is most necessary. Not because it is always right, but because governments are enormously powerful and democracies require institutions prepared to challenge that power. Everyone has a role in resisting excess and demanding accountability from whoever governs.

By all means, scrutinise the PNP. Question its leadership, judgement, policies and readiness to govern. But we should be careful not to become so preoccupied with whether the Opposition is a sufficiently perfect watchdog that we lose sight of the institution it exists principally to watch.

Jamaica deserves a better Opposition. It also deserves a public discourse that never forgets where the greatest power resides.

TANYA BLAKE

blaketanya01@gmail.com