By Don Robotham, Contributor 
Patterson, Simpson Miller and Phillips
AS THE violent crime situation gets worse and the economy continues to inch along, the Jamaican people are becoming more and more frustrated. The natural response is to turn to another political personality or party. But our problems will not be resolved by a change of personalities or parties alone.
New leadership must be one which has thought carefully about our problems. New leadership must analyse our past experiences and failures honestly and publicly. But greater policy coherence and realism will not be enough. Any new leadership must also practice a new and different ethic of leadership. Practice, not preach. It must relate in practice to the Jamaican people with a new frankness and modesty or it will fail.
Let us consider these issues as they affect the PNP.
NATIONALISM
What is the source of the crisis of the PNP? To many it appears as an organisational crisis. The party group structure has vanished. Its ability to turn out the vote is severely diminished. It has lost contact with the middle-class and has become a party of lumpen. The answer: strengthen the Party secretariat. Hence the recent entry of a group of very capable young professionals to the positions of Deputy General Secretary. The theory is that this will both rebuild the group structure and bring back that considerable part of the middle class which is incurably PNP.
But the organisational weakness of the PNP is only a symptom. The crisis of the PNP, as writers such as Ian Boyne have pointed out, is ideological. The problem is nationalism-the 'N' in PNP. Nobody knows what this 'N' stands for in a globalised world. What can nationalism deliver to a nation of 2.6 million people in a world in which even large and powerful states are under the most severe economic and political pressure? Are nations of such size even viable economically and politically? Can small-nation nationalism be re-thought and implemented in such a way that it really addresses the aspirations of the Jamaican people? Unpleasant questions, but they have to be asked, discussed and answered.
Up until now, neither the PNP nor the Jamaican people have taken the time to rethink and debate these issues seriously. The PNP under Mr. Patterson initially thought that what was needed was a simple black nationalism. The central problems of Jamaica were understood as due to the control of the economy by a light-skinned elite. The answer: use the state to replace them with a black capitalist elite. This, combined with cultural nationalism (Emancipation Park, CCJ, Republic), was and is the Patterson ideology and programme.
BLACK CAPITALISM
This policy of instituting black capitalism from above failed. The chief reason for the failure was the narrowness typical of all nationalisms. Too ignorant of the wider world. Too narrow-minded and parochial. Too internally divisive in a country with a history of colonial slavery and racial oppression. It sought to create by political means that which, in a globalised market economy, can only be created by economic forces. Either black business persons developed the most competitive business in Jamaica or they did not. In our case, for a variety of reasons, including anti-black prejudice, they clearly did not. This was simply a fact of economic life which one should lament. For the absence of a strong black bourgeoisie in Jamaica is a source of weakness for the entire bourgeoisie and the society as a whole. It fragments the private sector and undermines the legitimacy of its leadership. It fosters social demagogy, tribalism and stupid one-upmanship behaviour by the leadership of both political parties.
But such a lament does not change the reality. This economic and social reality, of course, had real political consequences. Attempts to use the state to force the issue could only have disastrous economic and, in the end, disastrous political results as well.
Politically, this programme ended up with the worst of all worlds. It did not understand globalisation and did not know how to make the economy more globally competitive, even as it deregulated, privatised and deflated. It could not get the economy to grow. Thus there has been little job creation. There has been even a reduction of the number of young males in the labour force. In order to live and support their families, many of these young males go into the ballooning informal sector and/or into a life of crime. In a stagnant economy, these are the real choices.
DEALING WITH GLOBALISATION
Thus what shows itself as an 'organisational' crisis has much deeper roots. In fact, defining such issues as 'organisational' is itself a sign of persistent narrow-mindedness. A much deeper rethink is required if the PNP is to recover its political vitality. Patterson-style black nationalism will not cut it. Those who yearn for some version of a return to a Norman Manley brown-man led PNP are even more absurd. What the PNP (and the Jamaican people as a whole) need is not nostalgia, neither for Norman Manley nor the colonial period. The real challenge is not one of abandoning nationalism but of remaking it in 21st century terms.
The overall goal clearly must always be that of meeting the historic aspirations of the Jamaican people. The thinking, policies and practices needed to meet those aspirations, including moral and cultural aspirations, are not the same as they were in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s or 1980s. Nationalism has to be adapted and modified to meet the economic and political realities of globalisation in the 21st century. Otherwise, it will disappear as a political force. This represents an enormous psychological challenge for the black middle class which provides the core support for the PNP and leads it. The historical experience and life conditions of this group tend to make some of them inward-looking and parochial.
HUGE GRANTS
Nevertheless they can rise to the challenge. It requires very broad consultation and discussion with other groups in society, black, brown, white. It is a task without precedent in the history of the PNP or Jamaica. The tasks facing Norman Manley, Nethersole and Glasspole pale in comparison. They gained political power in a world of protection. This was a world in which European countries, in our case Britain, were willing to give huge grants (not loans!) for the establishment of entire institutions such as the University of the West Indies. This, in the post-war period while they themselves were still experiencing rationing at home and still living amongst the ruins of the Nazi bombings. Then import substitution encouraged by tax concessions, combined with social re-distributions to transform education and health, had a certain logic to it, although even then it was problematic.
Moreover, in the world of Norman Manley the aspirations of the mass of the Jamaican people were a tiny fraction of what they are today. All this has changed for good. Nationalism today requires internationalism. It means being able to hold your own internationally. No nation, small or large, can hold its own politically or culturally, unless it can hold its own in the global economic arena. This takes us to the issue of leadership.
A NEW LEADERSHIP ETHIC
In the nature of our situation, impressive results cannot be delivered by our economy in the short run. Much sacrifice will still be necessary for quite a period. This is why a certain quality of leadership is so crucial.
The leadership approach of both the PNP and JLP differ in many ways but have this in common. They both follow what one might call the preacher principle. The chief rule of this principle is that austerity is for the congregation, never for the preacher. The duty of the congregation is to drop collection and to get in the spirit. The duty of the preacher is to preach and collect. Traditionally, Jamaican politicians preach sacrifice constantly, from the comfortable seats of their SUVs, trying (but today, rarely succeeding) to arouse their 'congregations' to a high pitch of political fervour. These SUVs are in many instances supplied by the Jamaican taxpayers. The same taxpayers on whom they are imposing more taxes and who they are asking for sacrifices. There is not the slightest sign that these politicians themselves have any intention of making any sacrifices of any kind.
SCANDALOUS
This approach to leadership was always scandalous. Today, given the serious challenges which we face as a nation, the old hypocritical leadership ethic is fatal. Even if it has the best policies in the world and the best organisation, the PNP will continue to fail if it does not adopt an entirely new approach to leadership. In this regard, one of the most disappointing features of the entry of a fresh group of young people into both the PNP and JLP, is their crass materialism - eager to feed at the public trough! Some seem even more grasping than their elders. The difference between the newcomers and the old heads seems to be a matter of words: the old heads call their gunmen 'area leaders'; the newcomers call them 'community liaison officers.' Talk of rethinking and re-organisation is a waste of time with such persons.
The analysis presented here leads to the conclusion that only political leadership of high principle will have the credibility to attract sustained public support. If the policies which are required are to be accepted by the Jamaican people, politicians and political parties must start the austerity and self-discipline with themselves. Rethinking the PNP requires a rethink not only of ideology but of the ethics of leadership as well.
Ian Robotham is an anthropologist who specialises in development issues in the Caribbean and West Africa.
