By Lloyd Williams, Senior Associate Editor 
Williams
CONCOMITANTLY, THE JLP has decided that "it will no longer offer its hand of co-operation to a government which has proven to be and continues to prove that it is the most corrupt administration in our history and one of the very worst in this region".
Edward Seaga, the Opposition Leader, fired a Scud missile of sorts Tuesday night when he announced that his Jamaica Labour Party "will now pursue a course to oppose, oppose and oppose this regime until we bring it down."
These two declarations came just four months after the general election of October 16, 2002, which was more lost by Mr. Seaga and the JLP, than it was won by Mr. Patterson and the People's National Party.
Just what form will this "oppose, oppose, oppose" strategy take? Will it be tied to constitutional reforms the JLP has been crusading for for years? Will JLP MPs and Senators boycott Parliament? Will the JLP boycott the upcoming Local Government Elections? Hadn't the JLP been performing its role of Loyal Opposition since it lost its fourth general election in a row on February 9, 1989?
With Local Government Elections coming up in just six weeks, why didn't Mr. Seaga and the JLP, presumably having learned from their mistakes in the general election campaign, work instead to wrest local government leadership from the PNP and, thus empowered, make life so uncomfortable for the Government that it would be forced to go back to the electorate for a mandate, well before 2007 when the next national parliamentary elections are due?
And something seems to be awry with Mr. Seaga's timing. So he wants to put pressure on the Government; but why not peg his uninterrupted opposition, whatever form it is to take, on imaginative and sustained efforts to win the Local government elections, seeing that the JLP still has pretty much intact, the organisational skills which enabled it to grab 26 of the 60 seats it won in the general election, and focus even more on building "the vibes" which are so vital to getting people to vote for a party?
By all accounts, it seems that some hefty taxes are going to fall on the backs of citizens come Budget Day this April, so why not harness the opposition Mr. Seaga is seeking to energise to the disgruntlement that will inevitably arise from this?
Instead, Mr. Seaga announces in a statement that the JLP's Standing Committee had taken the decision to withdraw its co-operation from the Government and "oppose, oppose, oppose", without any guidelines to his supporters as to how they are to proceed, except for the stricture to "act within the law."
Mr. Seaga's announcement will certainly scuttle the upcoming Vale Royal Summit. The summit, it will be recalled, was initiated by Mr. Seaga to discuss with Mr. Patterson, ways of reducing political tension and arriving at a stable bipartisan relationship for the good of the nation. It has had two sessions so far; the third is now dead in the water.
Is this "oppose, oppose, oppose" strategy, decided on by Mr. Seaga (and, we are told, the JLP's Standing Committee) to "seek relief from mismanagement and corruption which is wrecking all hopes for Jamaica's future", his way of asserting his leadership over the party one last time, in the face of the conventional wisdom that the populace is never again going to elect a Government headed by him?
Mr. Seaga's cause might be better served by doing his part, with the assistance of people of integrity, in helping to accumulate as much evidence of the corruption (which undoubtedly exists), as he can, and so keeping it before the eyes of the public, that the authorities, reluctant though they may be, are forced to prosecute.
Should the Government be brought down on April 11, does Mr. Seaga think the JLP would be more electable then than it was on October 16, 2002, nothing having changed since? Mr. Seaga will have the opportunity to test this theory in six weeks time when the Local Government Elections come up, most likely in the last week of March.
Right now Mr. Seaga has nothing to lose by choosing to "oppose, oppose, oppose". Maybe the vision he has in mind is that if his call to bring down the Government resonates with the electorate, he could very well find himself winning a general election one more time and going out in triumph like Michael Manley did back in 1992. But that is highly unlikely. If he wasn't able to pull it off on October 16 his chances of doing so now are going to be much less likely.
Could it be that, panicked by the feeling that time is running out, he believes that the way to again be Prime Minister is to be a reincarnation of the firebrand Leader of the Opposition he was back in the late 1970s leading operations from the frontlines a general of the streets as it were, "chawing fire".
Maybe Mr. Seaga's chances of bringing the Government down would be better if he were to have a meeting with his eight Senators and 25 Members of Parliament, the 35 candidates who lost in the general election and the 227 Local Government Elections candidates and have them, voting according to conscience, decide whether they all want him to continue being their glorious leader, into the next general election.
Mr. Seaga is a shrewd politician and street-wise to boot. He has contributed too much to the development of this country over the years, to now, in seeming desperation, be beguiled into risking his good name in situations that, though not of his choosing, could adversely affect the reputation of himself and of his party.
While it may be true that the phrase "oppose, oppose, oppose" did not originate with him, it must be Mr. Seaga's urgent duty to explain to the nation just how he proposes to bring the down the Government.
And then what?
