Commentator worried political clashes could turn violent

By Nakinskie Robinson   

 

Amid the intense verbal clashes between Jamaica's two major political parties, the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People's National Party (PNP), public commentators fear that there could be serious negative consequences.

 

Political commentator Lloyd B. Smith says, while verbal sparring is not foreign to local politics, social media has significantly heightened the impact.

 

In light of this, he argues that there must be a regulator in place to intervene when necessary. 

 

"There doesn't seem to be any arbiter, which is why the role of the Office of the Political Ombudsman needs to be revisited ASAP, and there has to be some sort of way in which both parties can establish rules of engagement. Because if the current trend continues, I worry that the verbal clashes may eventually end up into physical clashes because there are those party hacks who take their party so seriously that they will go to any lengths to defend it and this could lead to political violence," he contended. 

 

Mr. Smith was a guest on the Morning Agenda on Power 106FM. 

 

Meanwhile, social commentator Kenyatta Powell, who was also a guest on the programme, believes the back and forth adds no value to local politics.

 

He said he does not expect an improvement in the behaviour of either party.

 

According to Mr. Powell, that the space for genuine dialogue is shrinking as the main parties try to sway the public politically. 

 

"So that a discussion about whether we have actual capacity in our public healthcare system, we can have that discussion because it gets bogged down into the government trying to do PR and trying to spin it in the best way possible and then the opposition trying to attack and trying to score political points," he argued.