Dear Andrew and Mark,
It is no mistake that you both have Bible names and are engaged in a fierce battle to lead the nation at such a crucial time of its development.
Your namesakes of Biblical fame, Andrew and Mark, were part of the initial group of fishermen Jesus chose as His disciples. Andrew (the brother of Simon Peter) was one of the first to answer Jesus’s call, while Mark, the Gospel writer, recorded this event, highlighting Jesus’s power to call people from ordinary walks of life to follow Him and do His will.
God is strategic and He continues to signal to Jamaica that it is a Goshen, a righteous diadem in His hand. Regardless of who wins and who loses the election, the plan of God for Jamaica is alright and will not be derailed.
You both come to the fight for power with baggage. Neither of you has declared that you have accepted the precious and generous gift of Salvation. Even so, this does not mean that God cannot use you for His purpose. He is God; He can use anything or anyone. A donkey’s jawbone was used to defeat 1,000 Philistines with Samson.
Andrew, as a declared member of the Seventh-day Adventist church, when you entered politics on the coat-tail of former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, we saw you as a young man, from humble beginnings, impressionable, but rightly armed with Christian upbringing and packing great promise.
When you were ushered into the highest office of the nation’s executive, we figured that from your learned and mature pronouncements, you understood the assignment, and were committed to the mission and mores of a proud and resilient people who have overcome some of the hardest seasons of human existence.
Today, the majority of opinion polls indicate that you have ruled over the highest perception of corruption this nation has ever seen. Whatever good you may have done seems to be lost under the weight of hardships the people are enduring under your stewardship.
We cringe at every mention of your statutory submissions to the Integrity Commission. Their non-certification is only worsened by your legal challenge of your own laws. This is not only an embarrassment for us as a people; it is a national disgrace, which suggests that we have fallen far beneath the mark on the integrity yardstick.
Mark, you come from a family that has a strong and admirable legacy of selfless service and compassion for the Jamaican people. But for years, you remained in the shadows. Although we knew your father, the late professor Sir John Golding well, we knew very little about you, his son.
We would want to assume that you carry some of his finer qualities, but we are still waiting to see this fully manifest in you.
As a commercial attorney and investment banker, you have acquired great wealth and accolades, but we wondered why you sat for years in the Upper and Lower House and not sought to resolve the needling issue of your dual citizenship. While the matter is now fully resolved, it did not sit well with us.
Mark, you were a member of the Senate of Jamaica from 2007 to 2017 and served as Minister of Justice from 2012 to 2016 in the government of Portia Simpson-Miller. You performed admirably in both roles. Some welcomed your push, as Justice Minister, to decriminalise the possession of small amounts of marijuana. We understood your desire to reduce the backbreaking burden on the courts by ridding the system of the huge number of drug cases that crippled it daily. However, we were rightly concerned about the impact of this on the health of our young people.
You have called for Jamaica to immediately adopt the Caribbean Court of Justice as our final appellate court. This is of major concern for us, as we have watched that body advocate and even capitulate to the LGBTQI efforts to overturn the buggery law.
As you both seek to occupy the position of leadership in Jamaica, you are asking us to trust you to set laws, rule over our people, assets, resources, families, communities, and future. This is a tough ask.
Andrew, under your watch, our hospitals have often been without adequate bed space, critical medicines, and other technical services. The majority of our people have no option but to rely on the pop-down responses to their health needs.
Our school system remains under-resourced, our teachers are over-worked and terribly underpaid, and too many of our people, especially our security forces and civil servants, eke out an existence below the poverty line.
Jamaica continues to sink beneath the weight of a heavy import bill. Our agriculture sector continues to struggle and any hope of self-sufficiency seems to be almost lost. Too many Jamaicans see migration as their only way out, as only a chosen few are able to thrive against the overwhelming hardships.
You both are planning to do better next time, but that is left to be seen. Many promises have been made and from past experience, few are likely to be kept.
Know this, Andrew, your namesake, the Apostle, had his fair share of popularity too. He converted multitudes to Christianity throughout the Mediterranean, including the wife of a Roman provincial governor in southern Greece. The same governor immediately ordered for him to be scourged and then crucified.
Mark, his fellow Apostle, went home to be with the Lord after being dragged by horses through the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, until he was dead.
The woes of the people are many and their patience is running thin. Their prayers have risen up to the ears of their Lord and Saviour. Through the voices of God’s appointed prophets, He has made it known that Jamaica must declare three consecutive days of repentance, fasting, prayer, and mourning. This is the only way to achieve healing and true prosperity for our nation.
It is well-understood that when the righteous rule, the people rejoice, and when the wicked rule the people mourn. Our people are mourning. We pray that you both will give your hearts to the Lord and be numbered among the righteous. If not for the people of Jamaica, for your own sake, do it!
