Jamaica, becoming Boris Johnson’s Pawn

I strongly opposed Kamina Johnson Smith’s candidacy for the role as Johnson Smith was Boris Johnson’s pawn.

Yet, tellingly, more than half the heads of governments attending the Kigali meeting – all who voted for Scotland – put aside corruption charges against her to keep her in place. That the majority voted for Scotland despite the UK’s vigorous and sustained corruption accusations matters to me more than the closeness of the outcome that some people herald. 

The close result only shows how much sway the UK still has among black and influential, formerly colonised stakeholders.

I’m ashamed – humiliated – as are other thoughtful Jamaicans that our government and Minister Johnson Smith so readily brought our country so low by becoming Boris Johnson’s pawn and proxy, knowingly serving the interest of our long-time abusers against our interests. 

They must know the brutality and unfairness that characterise our history with the UK and that the UK’s interests have nearly never been ours. I am humiliated to bear witness to the government’s and Johnson Smith’s public antics to try and secure the Commonwealth Secretary-General position, acting as they did on behalf of our generational tormentors in full view of the thoughtful world. 

I asked myself constantly, how could this be? How could Jamaica’s leaders humiliate themselves and Jamaicans everywhere at so many levels? Why the desperate public cavorting poppy show on bucky-massa’s behalf given Jamaica’s political history since ‘62, especially the Michael Manley era that opened fastened-shut eyes to our painful history of UK-inflicted harm