Gov't must be responsive to the people
Published:Friday | February 26, 2016 | 12:00 AMWarren Hall
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Jamaicans have spoken at the polls, and I feel that it is a new day for politics in Jamaica.
It is the dawn of the 'articulate minority' that have got up off the fence and made their collective voices heard.
Social media was the vehicle used to convince some of the undecided and young people voters to exercise their franchise.
The parties used to depend on the diehard supporters to take them across the finishing line, but now that the undecided and young voters have seen that they do have a say in deciding what party manage our affairs, they should use this medium to send a clear message that they are a force to be reckoned with.
No disrespect to the analogue generation, but in today's digital world, information from the past, present and future is right at the fingertips of the technologically savvy young people who will use it where they see fit.
Politicians, beware, because a new generation of voters has awakened, and the scary thing is that they did not even come out in full force and already the rest is history.
Now what I would like to see is an interactive government that is easily accessible to the people and readily available upon short request to talk or meet via social media, press conferences or even public debates.
The government should be transparent, and every appointment to whatever board should be in the public domain,so that we, the people, can decide if it is partisan politics.
There should be a fixed date, set possibly for August, after our Independence Day for both the general and local government elections to be held on the same day.
This would greatly minimise the cost of having these elections on separate days and also not have too great an impact on the school curriculum.
Any programmes that seem feasible and were started by the previous administration should be continued and not stopped in the name of politics.
Vale Royal, Outameni and Caymanas Park and a few other entities should be taken off the government books and handed over to the private sector.
Make the minimum wage fixed to the inflation rate with an upward addition of about four per cent per annum.
Open the National Housing Trust doors so that a contributor who has reached 10 years without getting a house be placed on a priority list for the next available scheme.
At least that applicant, whether successful or not, in obtaining a home, would feel that their contribution to the Housing Trust was worth it.
WARREN HALL