JLP's problem not just Seaga

Seaga

Ian Boyne, Contributor

"Ashes cold dog sleep inna it". There was a time not too long ago when the name Edward Seaga would drive consternation, dread or awe in the hearts of people. He was alternately respected or feared, occasionally - though rarely - loved. But always a force to be reckoned with; never one to be underestimated.

The "blood for blood, fire for fire" man who shook the status quo by talking in the 1960s about "the haves and the have-nots"; the man who with fire in his eyes led demonstrations against the socialist PNP Government in the 1970s, finally delivering one of the most crushing defeats to the PNP in 1980, is now the bane of ridicule.

Subordinates openly defy him and speak disrespectfully of him. Attempts are made to oust him as Opposition Leader, from right inside his small Parliamentary band of colleagues and the calls are mounting for him to step aside before further scorn, even disgrace, is heaped on him.

How art the mighty fallen, some would remark gleefully. Leading talk-show hosts speak contemptuously of him and regularly lash him. Newspaper columns scream at him to go - for the sake of his party and country.

It has become fashionable to attack Mr. Seaga. Not even fear of the Tivoli goons strike terror in the hearts of people anymore. Mr. Seaga's political requiem is being written - it seems.

Misrepresentation?

And yet, as with other issues that the media take up and speak incessantly about, there is much room for distortion, half-truths and misrepresentation. Even "craftily misleading statements". The fact of the matter is that while Mr. Seaga shares a huge part of the blame for the sorry state of the Opposition JLP today, the view that he is solely responsible is false. There is a tendency in the media to trivialise and personalise serious issues. Once certain opinion leaders launch a campaign, usually against politicians, who don't have the money power to affect their sponsorships or outside broadcasts, there is little intellectual depth brought to the issues.

It has now become a mantra that "Seaga is unelectable". Columnist Mark Wignall does not tire to tell us that and the dissents in the party are faithful in their chanting. All the electoral failures are due to one man, Edward Phillip George Seaga. If we get rid of him the party will become immediately attractive to the Jamaican people, vigour will be restored to democracy and we can get rid of the corrupt PNP.

No one has seriously considered that the JLP has been a Cold War party and now that the Cold War is ended the JLP has become obsolete and is in need of a metamorphosis. Now that the Russian ships have no oil to set sail, now that the communist bogey has been interred and the United States is not particularly interested in right-wing parties, the JLP has been adrift. To use Mr. Seaga as the scapegoat and to believe that the party would have been eminently electable without him is wishful thinking and a refusal to face reality on the part of dissidents in the party.

The PNP has co-opted the conservative economic agenda of the JLP. The PNP has taken the wind out of the JLP's sail by pursuing neo-liberal economic policies, which have really gained universality since the end of the Cold War. The JLP can only offer a variation on the free market theme. Mr. Seaga's own financial woes would have done much to erase the former myth that he was a financial genius. Hence the suspicion that he would be a better capitalist manager is not as strong.

Though the man on the street is bawling and there is a great deal of alienation, frustration and even hopelessness, the chronic shortages and degree of economic desperation of the 1970s is not present. This will be disputed by many persons even while they drive their deportees to their homes in Portmore.

The JLP has never been a party with a defined ideology like the PNP and pragmatism is never enough to build a great movement. When there are no great, central ideas pulling an organisation or group together, things degenerate into personality conflicts and popularity contests.

Sure, the JLP is affected by the fact that its leader, in the classical psychological typecasting, is a narcissistic leader.

An excellent article on the pros and cons of narcissistic leaders appears in the January-February issue of Harvard Business Review, written by the well-known anthropologist-psychoanalyst Michael Maccoby, the article points out that in crises narcissistic leaders do well for they have great vision and the ability to pull people along with their vision. But, says Maccoby, "even productive narcissists are extremely sensitive to criticism or slights, which feel to them like knives threatening their self-image and their confidence in their visions. Narcissists are almost unimaginably thick-skinned. They cannot tolerate dissent. As the more independent-minded players leave or are pushed out (of the organisation) succession becomes a particular problem".

Weakness

It is clear that Mr. Seaga shares the major weakness of narcissistic leaders. But in a party without an ideological heritage from which one can draw, it can easily degenerate into a personality cult.

Getting rid of Mr. Seaga would worsen, rather than ameliorate, the disunity problem within the JLP, Mr. Seaga, as a strong, authoritarian leader, respected by the majority of the rank and file, can hold the party together, the media-friendly dissents notwithstanding can Audley Shaw, Mike Henry or Pearnel Charles command the kind of loyalty and devotion that Mr. Seaga now commands among the rank and file.

When all these ambitious men are left without Mr. Seaga to referee and with no firm ideological base or tradition, how will party unity be preserved? Of course, the media have little interest in these questions. They are content in pressuring Mr. Seaga to resign, with some of the talk-show hosts, no doubt, hoping that their man, Bruce Golding, will step in.

It is clear that the NDM on its own has little chance of electoral victory so the plan seems to be to pressure Mr. Seaga to resign to make way for the new Messiah. Mr. Golding is, of course, an eminently qualified man to lead the country and he has the knack for touching the pulse of the people. But fairness would demand that we do not sacrifice truth in the process of scapegoating Mr. Seaga.

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