'MOSES' Golding, you promised to raise the bar of political discourse, but your contribution to the 2009-2010 Budget Debate in Parliament on Tuesday makes us wonder whether you believe a single word you say.

We need not waste time telling you how distasteful your actions were, when, as prime minister, you addressed an orderly at Gordon House by calling him "yow".

Respect begets respect, prime minister.

It is not as if you were on the stump at a political rally when you have greater freedom to say what you want. Let us remind you that you are the prime minister of this country and there is a certain level of decorum that must be maintained in the people's Parliament.

Notwithstanding the fact that the orderly was slow to acknowledge your signal for assistance, we believe it was in poor taste that you sought to get his attention by shouting "yow" - and you were not even joking.

We hope that you are man enough to publicly apologise to that young man for the manner in which you addressed him last Tuesday.

Discontent with Jamaican politics

It is one thing to speak about raising the bar, but every time you go under the bar and pretend you have cleared it, you cheat not only yourself but the entire country.

We submit that it is high time that our elected officials strive to look beyond sound bytes and the joy of pulverising the opponent.

When 'Moses' spoke on Tuesday, he found the most choice words to express his discontent with Jamaican politics.

"For too long we have trivialised, not just our politics, but the nation's business. Too often we have sought political advantage at the expense of the country's advancement. Being opponents does not mean that we have to be enemies," the prime minister said.

And if that was not enough, 'Moses' said that "there is a virus in our politics that corrodes our minds and clouds our vision. We must rise above it."

We endorse those sentiments. In fact, if we were in a particular period of dancehall history we would say 'full hundred' because this is certainly what we want to hear from our politicians.

However, we worry when we get mis-signals. Just the slightest inclination of someone speaking from both sides of their mouth is an unnecessary barrier to public confidence, unity and cooperation.

That is why we are disappointed in Prime Minister Golding. While he either embraced or rejected some proposals made by the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) in the debate, the prime minister was a scorpion on a toad's back crossing the Red Sea.

His insatiable appetite to pulverise, pummel and floor the Opposition had to be quenched during his presentation and though he called for consensus and cooperation he demonstrated that he was just a politician.

We are happy that the prime minister found ways to put money into the development of small businesses. His Youth Empowerment Programme must be commended and given all the opportunity to succeed. His decision to draw on the Tourism Enhancement Funds to provide proper housing for squatters in Ocho Rios and Montego Bay is a demonstration of bi-partisanship as it was a proposal that came from Opposition spokesman Dr Omar Davies.

But the prime minister seems unaccustomed to high bars.

No one can deny that Golding used his presentation as an attempt to floor Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller - the self professed champion of the poor.

"We politicians who patronise the poor and caress their intelligence instead of offering leadership and guidance," Golding said while selling his idea of a national conversation.

Later, the prime minister repeated his dream that Jamaica can one day become a prosperous country. But again, like the scorpion, he had to sting.

"That dream has not died. It may have been interrupted intermittently by the nightmares, but that dream is very much alive," Golding said.

We all recall that Simpson Miller had promised to be the government's worst nightmare, but we think that riding that horse so often serves only to break its back. Again, the country cannot claim victory out of this verbal tussle.

We recognise that word throwing is an important part of body politic.

Those who are involved will tell you that politics is not a Sunday school. However, there comes a time when our leaders, despite the opportunity of a knockout beckoning, must decide, in the country's interest, to resist the temptation of political point scoring.

Look beyond the narrow prism

What Jamaica requires now, more than ever, are leaders who can look beyond the narrow prism of partisan, political and personal interests.

Too many of our people still remain without a proper education; too many remain without hope to own a house or go to a good job; too many are in fear because crime has crippled their lives; too many persons still cannot get venture capital for businesses and those who are in businesses find the odds of surviving stacked against them.

Truth be told, successive governments have failed Jamaica. But we cannot afford to romanticise and revisit the past for our own ends.

Indeed, blame must be placed and responsibility must be accepted for bad policies. However, until we get to the stage where we have that national conversation, of which the prime minister speaks, Jamaica will continue to be nothing but an island of massive potential.

Now is not the time for any lessons in leadership; it is the time for a demonstration of same.

For Jamaica's sake, we plead, lead us Moses lead us; prosperity beckons and if we waste time having fisticuffs, Pharaoh's army of social decay and economic dislocation may just catch us.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding speaks at the Budget Debate last Tuesday.
-Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer