It was par for the course

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Friday | August 10, 2007

Kevin O'Brien Chang, Contributor

AS IN so much in life, the idea of political debates is generally far more exciting than the actuality. We conjure up images of omniscient political titans hurling intellectual thunderbolts at each other. The reality is usually nervous human beings anxious not to make foolish mistakes. The first national debate between Dr. Peter Phillips and Dr. Ken Baugh, though very professionally organised, was par for this course.

Dr. Phillips was more articulate and confident. But his answers mostly consisted of "we plan to, we are in the process of, we need to", leading me to keep mentally responding, "But you have had 18 years to implement all these great sounding plans!"

When he said that, if given a fifth straight term, his party would make improving conditions in the inner city its highest priority, well you almost had to laugh.

Watching Dr. Phillips try to dodge between raindrops made it painfully obvious again how poorly the People's National Party (PNP) has governed since 1989. Yet, the sometimes hesitant Dr. Baugh never managed to convince that his party would be any great improvement. Despite seeming to read his answers by rote from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Manifesto, he was woefully short on specifics. He pointed out that there were 429 murders in 1989 when the PNP took office and 1,650 in 2005. But he never articulated any solutions to the problem, despite the JLP Manifesto containing ideas like fingerprint ID cards andmore powers for the Police Commissioner.

Every poll shows crime to be the country's number one social problem. Yet, both parties keep ignoring the topic. I've not seen one television ad that even mentions the word. And it inexplicably got short shrift again from both sides on Wednesday night. No wonder many voters keep saying the parties are ignoring the issues that really concern them.