(Jamaica Gleaner) Ever since she has been eligible to vote, Rose Watkin of Landlease in Clarendon has only marked her ‘X’ for the People’s National Party (PNP). Come Thursday, September 3, this will change as she said her loyalty has not been paying off.
When she informed Samuel Bennett, her partner of many years and a PNP supporter, of her decision, he was supportive.
“Yeah, man, everything good because wi nah quarrel over dat. We haffi live like how wi fi live, but at the end of the day, mi tell him seh, ‘Watch yah, a deh side deh mi a go guh’,” Watkin told The Gleaner.
She added that she made it clear to Bennett that it wouldn’t have done him any good to try and sway her mind.
“Mi tell him whey mi a seh enuh, so mi nuh business whey him waan do ‘cause mi a do my ting ‘cause my ting a my ting,” she said as she aired her frustrations about the issues that changed her mind.
Living in the Hayes division in Clarendon South Eastern, Watkin bemoaned a lack of opportunities in Landlease, citing a lack of progress on matters regarding their lease with the SCJ Holdings, which manages former sugar lands on behalf of the Government, despite several meetings.
“Right as it is yah now, wi nuh have nuh water and we nuh ha nuh light. Anything can come afta dat, but dat a di main source and di land weh wi deh pon, a lease wi pay, and at the end a di day, a over five or six years now dem nuh teck nuh lease and dem can’t tell wi wa ’cause dem fi nuh teck nuh lease and wi have a issue with the land,” she said.
Like others on the property who want to build, Watkin is caught in a bind with no papers to show. Without electricity and water, they are on acres of barren land.
She added her voice to the many others in the community who are crying out for jobs without success.
“There is nutten. Mi nuh see nutten a gwaan fi mi, so mi haffi switch from dat deh side fi go over di odda side,” she said.
“My husband is PNP, but at the end of the day, mi affi switch now ‘cause mi nuh see nutten a gwaan fi mi from deh side deh. Cause anyway di benefit come from, a deh mi affi head,” she said bluntly.
And by ‘benefits’, Watkin makes it plain that she is not seeking a handout – just the basic necessities to survive.
Although she has three refrigerators, Watkin lamented, she still has to be buying ice.
“Mi husband just siddung and a easy himself. Him just a mek mi do mi ting and di two a wi solid same way,” she added.
The JLP’s Pearnel Charles Jr will face off with the PNP’s Patricia Duncan Sutherland next month.