In a Jamaica Observer news report published on Thursday, November 5, 2020, entitled ‘Portmore not ready for parish status, say mayor and MP’, the current mayor of Portmore and Member of Parliament for St Catherine Southern, Leon Thomas and Fitz Jackson, respectively, made several assertions which can be deemed false, as they go counter to the nature of the argument suggestive by the minority of the elected representative.

The arguments of both men seem to lack coherence and coordination.

They say, on one hand, that: “There is nothing now that any parish is getting that we are not getting.” However, in the same breath, they noted that Portmore lacked a lot of amenities that a developed parish should have. The aim should be to have those put in place — or at least looking to have those in place. What are “those” that are missing? It begs the question.

One of the assertions made is that the idea of making Portmore a parish is premature at this time, as the municipality has far too many issues that must be addressed before putting that proposal on the table. The conflicting and counterproductive statement is a contributing factor of stagnant minds that lack the vision of forward-thinking and future development.

A progressive approach that was utilised by Member of Parliament for St Catherine Eastern Central Alando Terrelonge was used as the constructive rebuttal in the same article, stating that parish status will be the impetus for infrastructural and institutional development, which means formalising the missing governance and administrative infrastructure that are currently lacking.

The next misconception highlighted in that article is that Portmore being the fifteenth parish would bring no benefit to area, and that the Government should focus on making the council autonomous from central Government so that it can run its affairs. There are numerous benefits for making Portmore a parish. That status gives rise to things such as budgetary allocation and dedicated government agencies and departments. These are all critical to the long-term development of the community.

An article packed with flawed and unthoughtful criticism raised another carefully analysed perspective — that there is no clamour from residents for parish status since the town became a municipality in 2003. This political vulgarity, without reasoning, triggers another thoughtful and forward-thinking conclusion. If the reason is not for taking action, hence the “clamour”, it shows very vividly that these elected officials have no vision or foresight for the development of Portmore. These individuals seem clearly to just be filling roles while they have no long-term plans.

The people of the city of Portmore seek aggressive, thoughtful, and visionary leaders with the insight of the futurist approach for the residents of the city.

The fact is, Portmore in many ways is already a parish, and the Government’s move is just the legislative recognition of a reality that many residents already acknowledge. It is unfortunate that the mayor himself does not recognise this, or even supports these actions. It makes us question his ability to lead and hold the office.

So in the words of a famous Comrade I’ll advise that the Government “run wid it”, full speed ahead. Establish the parliamentary committees and carry out the community consultations for the establishment of Portmore the 15th parish of Jamaica.

Jason Wynter is chairman of G2K Portmore. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or g2kportmorechapter@gmail.com.