Kevin O'Brien Chang ONCE UPON a time there was an opposition political party that lost consecutive elections. The party members began wondering if they would ever win an election again.
'Maybe the problem is our leader' some of them said. So they asked the people who the party leader should be and the people cried 'the new man'. But some party members did not like 'the new man' and so he was not chosen to lead them.
Now the Prime Minister and his Government had become very unpopular. But the people were even more upset with the opposition party and cried 'Why should we vote for a party which will not choose the leader we want?'
So despite being so unpopular the governing party was poised to win the next election again.
GIVE THE PEOPLE
WHAT THEY WANT
This opposition party is of course the British Conservative Party. In its leadership race last year between Ken Clarke and Ian Duncan Smith, polls showed Clarke to be the public's overwhelming choice. Yet the Conservative Party members chose Smith.
Now the Iraq war controversy and health care worries have made Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labour Party very unpopular. But, despite this, the Conservative Party remains behind in the polls and Labour is an overwhelming favourite to win the next election.
Indeed Conservatives were so fed up with their inability to capitalise on Labour's vulnerability that they recently dumped Smith.
Yet despite polls showing that with Ken Clarke as leader the Conservatives had a good chance of winning the next election, party insiders chose Michael Howard as new leader.
And though an improvement on the dismal Smith, few feel he can lead the party to victory.
To outsiders politics seems a simple game give the people what they want and you will win. But if even the oldest and most successful political party ever known can so willfully act against its own self-interest well it shows that politics is often more about blind selfish emotion than logical clear-sighted reason.
Only from this perspective does the JLP's current squabbling not seem utterly incomprehensible. For this is a party which, despite 14 years in the wilderness, still has a large segment which adamantly refuses to do what the people are demanding.
It is obvious to anyone with eyes and ears that if Bruce Golding became the new JLP leader or was even positioned as heir apparent while Eddie Seaga promised to step down soon the PNP would be crushed in the next general election.
This Government is very unpopular, and its support has dropped considerably since losing the June local elections. But the PNP is odds on to lose the next vote if it faces a reasonable opposition primarily because young Jamaicans are frankly 'tired fi see dem face'.
As a young lady recently said to me 'I want a change. From I know myself is the same PNP every time. I just want to experience living under a different government from this one.'
But the JLP seems to be doing everything it can to make itself unelectable. Babsy Grange's "This election was corrupt" comment and Edward Seaga's "The money used to finance James Robertson's campaign was illegal" remark must have PNP strategists rubbing their eyes and ears in gleeful disbelief.
DAMNING WORDS
The Prime Minister's 'bridge wash way' and Omar Davies's 'We gway deal wid it' ads were big factors in the PNP's local election loss, because nothing is so damning as a man's own words.
And just playing back Ms. Grange's and Mr. Seaga's comments if they remain in senior positions would be probably be worth 10 per cent for the comrades. Why should the public have any confidence at all in a party whose own former deputy leader and the current leader condemn its own processes and executives?
Now I frankly feel slightly embarrassed when I criticise Eddie Seaga harshly, for he has probably contributed more to this nation in more areas than any other Jamaican.
But his recent out of control behaviour gives the strong impression of someone trying to remain leader at any cost. This is not a man who is putting his party first or thinking about his country's future but one who in his mind has said 'Apres moi le deluge'.
If an election had been held last month, I think that even with Eddie Seaga as JLP leader, the PNP would have been lucky to win 20 seats. But nothing is so bitter as an electorate who are not given what they have demanded long and hard.
And polls have consistently shown for the last year that Bruce Golding is the person people want to see lead the JLP, if not now then in the near future. And if the JLP self-destructs by not making Mr. Golding chairman a vengeful backlash from voters is very likely.
Right now with a possible fiscal crisis looming it seems impossible that the PNP could be again returned to power. Yet stringent financial discipline coupled with continued tourism growth and a remittance boost from a recovering United States job market could put the Jamaican economy in a relatively healthy position in a year or so. Who knows, Jamaica may indeed prove a slow but steady tortoise that reaches its objectives while former zooming 'economic miracle' hares like Argentina and the Dominican Republic have fallen into chaos.
So maybe this is all for the best. For facing a unified JLP with a lot of new faces and Bruce Golding as leader, the PNP would probably struggle to win 10 seats. But I feel that unbalanced parliaments are unhealthy and that oppositions with over half of the seats of the Government are good for a country. So perhaps this self-inflicted JLP mess will benefit Jamaica in the long run. 'Vive le balance!"
* E-mails may be sent to changkob@hotmail.com
