SOUTH FLORIDA – A woman politician in Barbados earlier this week claimed that if women were in charge of things, the great recession of recent vintage would not have happened.
If that is a stretch, then one needs to contemplate the achievement of another woman, in Jamaica, this time.
The political ombudsman, in office for only a matter of months has already created history. Not only has she held talks with a member of parliament about comments he made on a political platform, she called the meeting only days after some amount of outrage was expressed, in part because the MP’s comments included violent lyrics originated by a DJ who is serving prison time.
There is no similar case of any political ombudsman taking this quick and decisive action and going further she has received an agreement that even though the Member of Parliament has now offered a written apology, he is going to have to make a public one at yet another political meeting of the governing party.
This has to have some significance if only because this is a new course of action to take, and timed perfectly ahead of general elections coming in a matter of months. Even if politicians continue to bad talk, the precedent has been set and they will have to also apologize. This young Member of Parliament might have done Jamaica a certain amount of good when he let to go mouth last week. And this woman might have turned Jamaican politics in a needed direction.
Voice your opinion on the “Open Line” with Winston Barnes daily on WAVS 1170AM or listen on-line http://wavs1170.com/
Photo Credit: Leroy “Dreamy” Riley
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