The Gleaner Editors' Forum recently hosted People's National Party general secretary Senator Burchell Whiteman and his deputies Maureen Webber, Collin Campbell, and Linton Walters, as well as Region One chairman Dr. Michael Whittingham.
ON THE PEOPLE'S
ELECTION MESSAGE
MAUREEN WEBBER: One of the things that you will see is a reduction in the number of persons going to the polls. It's not that the PNP has lost support to someone else. They are staying away in part because of the fact that they are not as clear and we are not communicating with them. We have not lost their support, they are saying we need to make some changes and in fact we have listened to that over the last two elections and we say, what are some of those changes we now need to make and we are responding to that message they have sent to us which is time for some changes and we have done that.
I don't think we have lost the connection, they have sent us a message and we have heard that message and we are actually reformulating ourselves to respond to that.
If, in effect, you have a situation where you look at the numbers and you saw what people still are going to the polls but they went to the JLP, it would have meant that we have now lost those persons. We don't have that. We have persons who are saying, 'I support the principles of the People's National Party but I am not hearing you, and you not listening to me, come on, come back into my communities, walk in my communities, talk with me some more'.
Even our very workers are saying, 'You don't have to come and sit down and buy me something or give me money, come and sit down in the lane with me, sit down and talk with me'.
I went down to Morgan's Lane and I sit down and talk to people then. And we are glad for that message now at the beginning of the particular term and not at an end, so we have the time to say, Well, then, now let's rewind and come again and let us do what we do best, which is spending time with our supporters'.
ON TRANSFORMATION
AND RETOOLING COLLIN CAMPBELL: Since September 20 or 29 when we were electing and starting to go into this transformation process, we really couldn't condemn any strategy in that short period of time.
BURCHELL WHITEMAN: One of the things that came out of the retreat is that, yes, we need to be in touch with people more as Maureen has been saying. But also in this very challenging environment where people really have disengaged from the political process, even including people in a sense who grew up in political families.
You have to do a much more clinical analysis of what it is that the people are saying to you, what is it that they are demanding of you, get into your focus groups. We have certainly not turned away from that commitment to re-engage or to engage the middle class, the professional classes.
In fact, the party is returning to its roots of being a party of a class alliance and that's why I deliberately referred to what was said by Norman Manley in 1938, but we are a party of all the classes, and there are certainly more people on the ground.
As Linton said, you have to begin with your people in your own ranks already, make sure that you keep them, you hold them, you engage them, you give them a new focus on their own roads and this is again what our political education programme is about, personal development, skills in communication, understanding issues, confidence in communicating issues, confidence in listening to people.
DR. WHITTINGHAM: We intend to put science into the approach in the way we deal with people, obviously targeting specific groupings of people and dealing with them at that level. For example, recently we have been trying to get the Patriots up and ready in the north-western part of the island. There are Patriots in the west that are functioning, they have now been infected with the Patriot virus which is a friendly virus. We had a meeting with some young professionals from Trelawny and St. Ann and we are just basically reminding them of their history and the fact that despite the fact they are affluent, as has happened in other countries, the better off the people are the more they feel that politics is no longer for them.
Because we want this country to go forward, we intend to be involved and we have to be involved and what I do I am urging young professionals and younger people and people who have a contribution to make that their engagement is necessary. So I am inviting them and I am challenging young people of similar disposition to get involved and have their voice heard and be part of the process, part of the process of building a nation and by their involvement they will clearly see the benefits of this, because it can only augur well for development of the country.
So there is really no specific, there are some plans but there is no specific formula. But, of course, the more people of this type that get involved in the politics, the more that will spur interest and encourage others to get involved. By getting involved it will raise the level of discussion, it will raise the level of debate and we will find it easier to solve many of the problems and challenges the country faces, and that in itself will be a positive thing.
MS. WEBBER: There was a programme on BBC about a week or two ago, and it is interesting they were talking to young persons at a university in, I believe, India, and it sounded as if you were talking to somebody here in Jamaica, about why not enter politics. They were saying, why should I bother, it's not important to me, and what came home to me really, is that this is not a phenomena that is Jamaica only, and therefore we need to stop beating upon ourselves and thinking that it's something the PNP has done wrong.
It's just because in effect we have actually moved the standard of living, the quality of life, opened up our society and our economy, people have choices or perceive that the choices are what they make themselves and not the State set for them. Our challenge actually is, as Michael has said, to excite persons, to engage them in dialogue, but even more importantly I hear people saying to me, 'I want to know what you want me to do. How can I help?
So the challenge for the new secretariat is to truly engage and give people political work to do and national work to do, so they feel they are contributing to a process.
ON SEAGA'S REQUEST FOR A
MEETING ON CAMPAIGN FINANCING
SEN. WHITEMAN: I think the response indicated that the general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party and the general secretary of the People's National Party come together and prepare an agenda, a format for the resumption. Well, I have heard nothing from the general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party. The Prime Minister and the head of the PNP put that out but I have not heard anything.
I understood now that the ball was in Mr. Seaga's court. We have no difficulty in meeting, but we must know on what basis they agree to meet. We certainly are prepared to go ahead without any other further consultation if need be, but since Mr. Seaga raised it and the Prime Minister responded, we feel that we should hear from them how they want to proceed. If they wish to proceed on a bi-partisan basis, joint talks and so forth, as was happening when the Vale Royal meetings were on. We are happy, that's what the Prime Minister requested.
LINTON WALTERS: He made the request, the PNP responded and made a proposal, I think it is up to them to say we accept or not. There has to be a wider discussion, because the matter has even been raised at the EAC and there has to be a wider discussion to get consultation at every level.
Asking the public to put up funds for political parties without consulting them could be a very difficult thing for whichever party.
ON EDUCATION
SEN. WHITEMAN: The PNP is the party which has made education its flagship programme in the 1950s, in the 1970s. There were elements within the party who were not comfortable with the fact that we had introduced a fee regime at certain levels in the 1990s, and I think they were behind this process to get back to where we used to be, and obviously it was a bit of gradualism, but we felt it was manageable and we still do.
You know, we paid the CXC fees as we promised, last year, and again this year. We have frozen the fees and we intend to continue on the process of rolling back to zero, but at least that's how we have started. Now, there is a little groundswell beginning. The principals of high schools, the bursars of high schools and others in the society are saying, hey, we are not sure this is the best thing and, therefore, we are prepared at this stage to enter into a discussion, a dialogue with the broader public as to how we go.
Again, given the agreement based on that resolution that came to Parliament to increase the budget to 15 per cent, education budget to 15 per cent of our budget over a set period, I think that national dialogue is absolutely necessary at this time and we have I think put the structures in place to start that dialogue, so the party will have its own views on it.
As I understand it, that national dialogue is about the implementation of the commitments made after this last bipartisan debate, to get to the 15 per cent. It's about how you ensure that the early childhood and primary levels are strengthened, and all of that. Now in the mix there is bound to be discussion on the rollback of fees at the secondary level, and I don't think it would be unreasonable to say that should there be a national consensus around the roll back, that the Government would take that off the table.
I think that they would want to consider all the factors, all the points to which they have committed and look at what is coming from the people and, therefore, take a decision based on that.
THE PNP AND THE MEDIA
SEN. WHITEMAN: I certainly don't think there has been any malice in terms of how the media treats the People's National Party. I think that in the media, and it's not limited to the media, there are individuals who are perhaps not on top of their job as they ought to be, and from time to time all of us in the nation, not just in the party, have suffered as a result. I would never seek to condemn the media as being hostile towards the PNP, malicious in their treatment of the PNP. I think in terms of how we deal with the national interest and the future of the nation I would wish to see a more enlightened approach, a more mature approach.
COLLIN CAMPBELL: I think to judge the media's treatment of the PNP, you have to look at it over a period, not just really about the last headline. In Jamaica over the last 10 years has seen a virtual explosion of media. We are now at somewhere in the region of 20 national and community radio and channels as opposed to four in the period preceding that, and generally the media has had at least a reputation of being liberal in Jamaica.
I think with the growth of the media the performance has tended to be a little bit more uneven. The discussions I don't think are not sufficiently broad and, therefore, you have for the first time perhaps media houses being now being characterised as PNP or JLP, which I think is so very unfortunate.
I think if there should be any criticism of media coverage, really it's a failure of media to open issues rather than just to have someone sitting behind microphone and hammering position after position and in most cases their own permission, rather than to elucidate issues so that Jamaica can also move into this global environment in media.
So I would say if there is anything, it's in recent times it's a bit uneven. There are times when even in the print media there have been good times and there have been bad times, so I think that we can have a general thing, but I want to emphasise that the PNP has been very supportive of the media, not only in terms of politics but in terms of their dollars. The function of media is to expose and you can't expose without transparency. We are to report and we are to talk everything, that is the purpose of media.
ACCESS TO INFORMATON ACT
SEN. WHITEMAN: The Access to Information Act, what my colleague piloted, took to Parliament, had passed, has had amendments since, regulations passed since, is likely to become into effect very early in the new year. It's now passed virtually all the legislative hurdles. It will be interesting to see how the media use it. I detect that there is a changing culture within the bureaucracy, the Government bureaucracy in respect of information, but again it depends on how people seek to access it.
When you call up somewhere like the Ministry of Finance and you want an answer to about a million things now because it needs to hit the airwaves in the next 45 minutes or whatever, you can't expect to get the warmth and ready response that you would normally like.
So I think a lot depends on how we treat each other in this area. I happen to believe that we should be communicating more and be more proactive in the communication as a Government and I think that some of this is beginning to happen. I also believe that the way in which the media seek to do their work also impacts on the way people respond to it.
