LETTER: Time comes for Jamaicans to work in nation building

Dear Editor,

While I have not done any formal research on the issue, it appears that we have a vast untapped resource, namely human, which continues to go to waste.

We continue to use the same people over and over without expanding the expertise, knowledge base and competencies of our human capital. The truth is, we continue to allow party politics to influence most of our decisions at the expense of including all Jamaicans in the process of nation building and sustainable development.

Our politicians somehow have forgotten that Jamaica belongs to all of us, not only an exclusive group. We need to rid ourselves of this rather backward ideological policy and bring a new and renewed sense of urgency and commitment to move our society to that place of inclusiveness in order to build on our achievements within the last 50 years.

There is a perception in the society that if one is not schooled in any of the major political parties your worth and value are not considered useful. Both political parties are guilty of sowing and entrenching this division of spirit and division of the people.

One can identify many instances to give credence to this hypothesis. Appointments to state boards appear to be all political.

We need to ensure that the most capable and qualified person gets the job. We need to move away from advertising jobs only as mere formality when the powers that be have already identified a candidate.

You who are guilty are no better than the lotto scammers who fleece hard-working individuals of their money. We need to shift the society from one that is based on who knows who, to one based on meritocracy. Each person should be given the chance to prove his or her worth.

A great way of commemorating our 50th year of political Independence and achieving this cultural change all at once would be to invest in the education of the youth. I also believe that one lasting legacy would be for the Government to match Food For the Poor’s plan to build 50 early childhood education centres throughout Jamaica, focussing on rural and inner-city areas.

A national programme to improve basic schools should also be implemented immediately. Should we embark on this humble project, then it’s highly possible that within the next 50 years we will see our society becoming more inclusive.

Wayne Campbell

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