Rose-Marie Shaw, People’s National Party (PNP) constituency chairman for Eastern St Thomas, is condemning Facebook comments made by JLP Member of Parliament Dr Michelle Charles as political incitement and fearmongering.

According to Shaw, residents staged a demonstration and roadblock along the Morant Bay to Dumfries Main Road on August 24 and, instead of respecting and responding appropriately to the people’s right to express their disapproval peacefully, Charles used the Facebook platform to berate them.

“Without evidence, MP Charles ascribed political motive to the demonstration, ostensibly shirking her responsibility to deliver quality representation to the residents of Eastern St Thomas,” said Shaw said in a statement from the PNP.

In what Shaw argued was a continuation of her old style of politics, she said Charles posted on Facebook: “Birdie say, true dem have conference dis weekend and them nuh get no money from the contractor dem block de road.”

In cautioning political officials not to use social media to cause mischief, Shaw said: “The statement made by the member of parliament was reckless, malicious and a cheap political jab.”

She added that’ “whilst this is the usual tribal conduct of the member of parliament regarding local governance, such statements are beneath the high office she holds, and should not be tolerated”.

‘MISSING IN ACTION MP’

Shaw stated that Charles was “a missing in action MP” who is never available to represent the local issues of the people the constituency. As a result, the constituency chairman said the MP was now blaming the PNP for the unrest with motorists and scores of other civic groupings “who have registered their disgust with the state of the roadways in the parish by staging a peaceful demonstration”.

Shaw said she was appealing to the leadership of the governing Jamaica Labour Party to demand a retraction of the Facebook post by Charles as it was “an insult to the people of Eastern St Thomas, who have taken matters into their own hands due to a lack of representation from an absent member of parliament”.