Earl M. BartleyMY LEAST favoured among the great Russian writers is Fyodor Dostoevsky whose dark works such as, Notes from Underground, The Brothers Karamazov, and Crime and Punishment, are said to be a precursor to the development of psychology and to have inspired Sigmund Freud. Dostoevsky focused on the dark, weak side of human personality and character, finely dissecting and laying bare human frailties causing one to squirm uncomfortably.
Yet, looking on the dark side is not all bad. At the very least, it helps one to understand their weaknesses, laying the basis for you to overcome them. It is for this reason that I sometimes write about our dark side or my perception of it.
GINNALSHIP AND SYCOPHANCY
'Ginnalship' is something we perfected in slavery as a form of resistance and as a survival mechanism. Loafing while we pretended to be working hard, and cheating Massa while smiling in his face. Most times we seem not to remember that slavery ended 150 years ago and continue to engage in big and small ginnalship against each other to the detriment of our whole country. Sycophancy is a relationship between two or more persons characterised by fawning obsequiousness by the subordinate person and patronising command and control by the strong party. The ruthlessly domineering master/servant relationship imposed during and after slavery encouraged widespread ginnalship and sycophancy among Jamaicans. It is easy to see someone smilingly beating "The Man" choosing the less risky path of obsequiously serving him, for basically the same purpose securing personal benefits.
Modern Jamaican political parties and trade unions though coming into being as a result of resistance, were from the very outset dominated by sycophancy, and since the 1960s, overtaken by ginnalship and outright racketeering. In 1938 many of the workers and peasants simply pledged to "follow Bustamante until they died". Norman Manley and the PNP generally tried to pursue a politics of principle and purpose, but so strong was the sycophantic relationships encouraged by Bustamante, that the PNP felt compelled to market N.W Manley in a counter-cultic way as "The Man With The Plan."
SYCOPHANTIC RELATIONSHIP
Since Independence sycophantic relationships have continued to be influential in Jamaican politics at all levels, but have tended to be more pronounced in the JLP. It is a truism that many Jamaicans have problems in deciding the proper mix of respect and principled self-assertion to demonstrate in relation to authority.
The Jamaican political leader that has encouraged the least sycophantic behaviour is P. J. Patterson, despite his noted consensual style of leadership. Though having his many "friends of P. J." these individuals have tended to behave more like co-equals, or as some have charged, as co-conspirators.
BABSY AND ED BARTLETT
Babsy Grange and Edmund Bartlett are persons who as I noted in my March 17, 2003 article 'The Right Stuff' appear not to have learned that "the age of sucking-up to authority" ended in 1980, going by Tom Peters whimsical take on leadership characteristics. Grange was reputed to be a hatchet person for Seaga, cutting down his opponents within the JLP hierarchy and lining-up his ducks on the ground. Ed Bartlett for his part, after his brief flirtation with self-assertion, seems to have endeavoured to make over himself into a clone of Seaga to the point of adopting Seaga's sea-saw cadence and tone of voice.
Needless to say, I am glad to see both of them gone. Sycophancy not only undermines principles and constituted process, it elevates and rewards spinelessness and servility, which is the antithesis of the characteristics of principled self-assertion required to build a nation.
The victory of Dr. Horace Chang and James Robertson is generally felt to signal the long urged walk into the sunset for Edward Seaga and the rise of front-runner Bruce Golding to the leadership of the JLP, and many are hoping, of the nation. To the extent that Mr. Golding had anything to do with the design and implementation of the vice-presidential changes, he has shown surprising strategic sophistication executed with the deftness and explosive power of a Michael McCallum left right to the ribs after which the victim's knees must buckle.
Before Mr. Golding can become the next occupant of Jamaica House, however, there are several issues and challenges he will have to deal with. Foremost among these will be to arrange an early exit for Mr. Seaga as leader of the JLP. As he has demonstrated over the years Mr. Seaga is manifestly not the retiring type. Despite the obvious message sent to him last Saturday, Mr. Seaga is pretending not to see, hear or understand what the delegates were saying to him, as he has ignored the broader Jamaican electorate over the years. I heard Mr. Seaga's sister Mrs. Fay Tortello complaining on Perkins on line that potential opponents were stripping away Seaga's loyalists in order to undermine him, as if he was born with the right to lead the JLP until he died. Several other persons, including many JLP supporters, have mentioned that they do not want to seem ungrateful for Mr. Seaga's contribution, or to humiliate him by seeming to push him out of the party ungraciously. Fellow columnist Ian Boyne, explains Mr. Seaga hanging on to the JLP presidency as due to him being an "ideologue" who sincerely believes his "mission is not yet accomplished."
I believe all three positions are mostly sentimentalist pap. Despite his many positive contributions, Mr. Seaga is an unrepentant pioneer of the garrison politics that has disfigured this society and undermined national security. And the same motives that underpinned his establishment of Tivoli garrison as a life-time safe seat for himself, is what explains his hanging on to the JLP presidency today. Namely, his Napoleonic complex, what Nietzche called "will to power", his seemingly unquenchable desire to run things and dominate others. Added to that, the desperate state of his personal finances might also explain his desire to get another turn at the helm of the State to better secure his retirement.
What is more ludicrous, we now have Mr. Seaga complaining of "tainted money" in last Saturday's election and parading as a paragon of law and proper process. I think that the 'Most Honourable' Leader of the Opposition would do better providing the police with a list of the innumerable gunmen who are reputed to be "running" Tivoli garrison, I won't say to whose benefit.
Equally facile is the apologia echoed by Boyne that Seaga is still capable of making a quality contribution. So can Bill Clinton, and recently retired President of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, as well as several other retired world leaders who are younger than Seaga. Like them, he can make his contribution from the sidelines. But that is not what he wants to do. He wants to run things and set up himself. Mr. Seaga is a walking 'poster grandfather' for term limits. We cannot continue to pander to his ego or self-interest.
What is clear is that Mr. Seaga is not about to go gently into the night. Those in the JLP who aspire to be 'The Man' might have to beat 'The Man' electorally. The JLP delegates have given a pretty unambiguous message that they want a change of leadership. Unless they are prepared to wait until 2012, the reformist elements in that party will have to get to work organising the youths, the middle-class and other progressive folks in the constituencies, in order to put themselves in a position to challenge and replace Seaga as party leader at the JLP Conference in 2004. Many people have often wondered if Bruce Golding has the mettle to be Prime Minister. Now with Seaga on the ropes, they are watching to see if Golding will go for the jugular or if he is going to 'soff' it out.
An equally complex challenge for Golding will be dealing with the leadership ambitions of Pearnel Charles, Audley Shaw and Mike Henry, among others. To the extent that Shaw is perceived as a firm ally of Seaga his leadership ambitions will rise, but more likely fall with Seaga. Last Saturday's results show that the trade union wing of the party that would tend to support Charles can be beaten. The leadership ambitions of persons like Mike Henry and Smith and even Charles are likely to be energised, only to the extent that Bruce Golding appears weak and wavering, making them feel that they have a chance.
THE 'BIG MO'
What may be salutary for many of these contenders is to bear in mind the recent national polls and remember who has got the "big mo" (momentum), as George Bush Sr. once gloated after winning a big primary race. The September Don Anderson Poll shows Golding preferred over Patterson and Seaga to lead the country and by a very wide margin over contenders in his party.
It would also be helpful to the JLP if they were to select their next leader by consensus, as was done recently by the Conservative Party in Britain. In that way they could avoid a disuniting and fractious electoral contest over the party presidency and position themselves to demand early elections in 18 months. Indeed, if a consensus emerges among the vice-presidents and other leaders within the JLP they might even be able to persuade Mr. Seaga to relinquish the presidency, and save him the indignity which everyone seems more worried about than himself, of being the first leader of a major political party to be voted out of position.
A Golding faction in the leadership of the JLP would also need to be mindful of the PNP playing the "race card" on them. It should therefore try to structure the party's leadersip to manifest sexual and ethnic
diversity.
The JLP delegates, I believe, mainly voted for a change of leadership, not necessarily for the constitutional and institutional changes favoured by Mr. Bruce Golding, and the "Young Turks" represented by Dr. Horace Chang and James Robertson. Yet one cannot help but feel heartened by the resolute maturity of the delegates as they went about their voting last Saturday. Maybe the Jamaican masses are finally coming of age in overcoming sycophancy in the political institution that has most nurtured it in modern Jamaican history.
Earl M. Bartley is an economist and businessman. You can send your comments to him at adapapa@cwjamaica.com
