MONTEGO BAY, August 18, 2025 – For more than two decades, Dr. Horace Chang has ruled St. James North Western like a political fortress. General Secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party. Deputy Prime Minister. Minister of National Security.
Four-time Member of Parliament. His resume glitters with titles. Yet for the people he represents, those titles have produced little more than blood, broken promises, and borrowed time.Dr. Chang has been the Member of Parliament for North West St. James since 2002, serving as Opposition Spokesman on Housing and Inner-city Development as well as Water and Housing.
Between 1980 – 1986 he was Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health and was appointed Minister of Water & Housing between 2007 – 2010 and Minister of Housing, Environment, Water and Local Government from 2010 – 2011.
He served as Minister without Portfolio with responsibility for Water, Works and Housing in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation from February 2016 – March 2018 and is currently the Minister of National Security.
He has been there for so long, but so very little development in North West for his years as MP, we now see the cracks in Babylon’s walls. When the Prime Minister had to rush into Norwood under cover of ZOSO soldiers—handing out land titles for houses Chang did not build—your kingdom was already shaking.
When Chang was forced to mount post in the manicured lawns of Half Moon, chasing down votes in the plush enclave of Spring Farm, the foundations were already crumbling.
And when his campaign resorted to handing out gifts in Maggie Top, Salt Spring, it was the surest sign that the empire is falling.
Soldiers Cannot Build a Legacy
After more than twenty years, the constituency is still under military occupation. Soldiers in Norwood keep a fragile peace, not because Chang has delivered stability, but because he has failed to do so.
No school. No health facility. Only one housing scheme. This is not leadership; it is abandonment. The people are asking: where is your legacy, Dr. Chang?
Allan Bernard has shown another way. A lecturer, community specialist, and devout Rastafarian, Bernard builds institutions where Chang deploys soldiers.
He empowers communities where Chang imposes curfews. He believes in crime prevention through opportunity, not crime suppression through force. Bernard’s leadership is about planting roots of peace, not patching wounds of violence.
Blood and Fire
When Chang inherited this constituency, homicides numbered 66. Today, they stand at 370. His states of emergency and ZOSO operations are expensive monuments to failure—symbols of a kingdom crumbling from within.
The 76 promised houses in Canterbury never rose. The $550 million allocated has vanished into the ether. Vendors in the Shoe Market still shelter under tarpaulins after 23 years.
Hurricane Charlie’s victims are still squatting, waiting for homes priced out of their reach.
Now rises Allan Bernard—armed not with the machinery of political office, but with something Babylon can never command: hope. Hope that empowers people.
Hope that prevents crime at its roots. Hope that restores dignity and stability where soldiers cannot.
Bernard is the sound of change rumbling in the hills. He is the cry of a people weary of suppression, ready for empowerment. He is blood and fire, and his message is clear:
Dr. Horace Chang: Babylon, your kingdom is falling.
O. Dave Allen is a writer, researcher, and advocate for justice and self-determination. He writes on Caribbean liberation, theology, and geopolitics.
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