IT is highly unlikely that the younger daughter of Prime Minister Bruce Golding will enter any form of politics, at least not anytime soon.
"I've never given politics great thought, but I highly doubt it. He (father) would probably kill me. I don't think that I am cut out for politics," Ann-Merita Golding told the Sunday Observer in a recent interview.
 GOLDING... I gather when you are in politics anywhere, but specifically in this country, you cannot be emotional
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The Howard University graduate, who is reading for her doctoral degree in Audiology at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, USA, said that giving support to her father anytime that she could was the satisfying element for her.
"I have been close to politics from I was involved in school government, from prep school to college," she revealed. "I was deputy head girl at Hydel Prep, and in two years of being at St Hilda's I ran for student council president and daddy was my campaign manager. He drove down to St Ann with all my pamphlets printed out. I took pictures and he got prints, proofed out my slogans and gave them out. I wrote my speech and he edited it for me and I won by a landslide. So I have always tried to be a leader wherever I am in my life.
"Would I ever get into active politics in Jamaica? I have never really given it great thought, because even in university I was vice-president of the Caribbean Students Association at Howard and I remember having a falling out with my other executive body and I was so upset and wrote this long two-page letter to members of the organisation telling them why it is that my name was being tainted, and e-mailed it to daddy to proof it," she said.
"When daddy sent it back to me it was two paragraphs. It was diplomatic, to the point, it stung without being nasty and it was at that point that I realised that I was not cut out for politics, because as daddy put things, I am too emotional, and I also get too passionate.
"I gather when you are in politics anywhere, but specifically in this country, you cannot be emotional," Ann-Merita said.
While not as close to the 'nitty gritty' of politics as some relatives of those entrenched are often inclined to become, Ann-Merita maintains close relationships with the children of those on the other side of the political divide.
She shares a birthday (December 12) with Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who called her last year to wish her happy 26th.
Apart from that, she moves closely with Kari Douglas, the daughter of former housing and the environment minister Easton Douglas, and the son of slain former member of parliament Dr Neil McGill.
She also grew up with the children of former information minister Colin Campbell.
"At the end of the day I have respect for everyone. I don't allow anyone's political persuasion to affect my relationship with that person in any way," she said.
"What's funny, though, is when I am surrounded by people who don't know me well, who don't like my father's politics and proceed to either jeer or start up some political conversation and tell me why they don't like my father. When I am faced with those situations I smile and listen more than I talk," she said.