"YOU DON'T need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," Bob Dylan sang in Subterranean Homesick Blues in 1965.
The elevation of James Robertson and Horace Chang to the position of deputy leaders of the Jamaica Labour Party has given local political weathermen over the past two weeks an opportunity to issue advisories 24 hours of the day, seven days a week on the prospects of the JLP for future leadership. Not unlike the real meteorologists, many seem not to be able to distinguish between a "breeze-blow" and a tropical storm.
Among the more common phrases articulated in the past week was that the election of Messrs Chang and Robertson represents the beginning of reform and change in the JLP. This, of course, is a bit simplistic.
Sure there has been a change in personnel and the defying of the party leader's clearly expressed wishes could be seen as a move away from the fear and acquiescence that have marked JLP internal politics over many years. But change in the Labour Party or any other party has to be more than a change in personnel.
For one thing, where is the evidence that since Bruce Golding's return to the JLP, rank and file Labourites have entertained let alone embraced the vision he articulated when he was in the National Democratic Movement? Do JLP people - within the leadership core or in the trenches - care about such notions as constitutional reform including a separation of powers? Do they understand them? What efforts are being made to educate people about policy change?
Secondly, the idea that the removal of Eddie Seaga will ipso facto make the JLP winnable or a better party is one that should be treated with detached scepticism. The change which the JLP should address must focus on more than the cosmetics. It must involve more than wresting power from the governing People's National Party just to emerge from the long years in the political wilderness.
With Eddie Seaga apparently politically wounded, some of those who have been battered and bruised by him - figuratively speaking - now smell blood and their pronouncements in the media have made it clear that anyone linked to him is in the firing line. Their strategy seems to involve more than removing his allies and loyalists from positions of influence.
All of this suggests that the JLP wrangling will continue for sometime yet. When a hurricane has passed, the debris must be cleared. This time there are vital matters to resolve which concern both major parties, among them the thorny question of funding their operations without the taint of corruption.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
