Ian BoyneIan Boyne
IS THE Jamaican working class in 2005 ready to govern itself? Can it throw up from its bowels of oppression and marginalisation a representative from its own class to lead Jamaica over the next few years? Or must it content itself with leadership from outside, albeit a progressive petit bourgeois vanguard?
Students of political science, particularly those acquainted with the Marxist variety, would recognise these as potent questions which are directly relevant to the race for succession in the People's National Party (PNP). It is not in vogue to discuss Jamaican political issues in those terms and categories anymore, but many working class persons inside the PNP who favour Portia Simpson Miller for party president have those thoughts somewhere in their minds as they hear arguments
about the unfitness of their candidate for the prime ministership of Jamaica.
To many, both schooled and unschooled in political science and the dynamics of class relations, the succession race between front-line contenders Dr. Peter Phillips, Dr. Omar Davies and Portia Simpson Miller turns on issues of class much more than even gender. It is not that Peter Phillips and Omar Davies have come from the ruling class. But they do not share Portia's unmistakable grassroots identity and persona.
Yesterday's vice-presidential contest, and the Burke Big Bang which created it, has been given much play in the media which are accustomed to high drama and theatrics from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), whose titillating 'play' has closed for the time being. So the media hounds, who are drama devotees, are glued to the only play in town.
PERSONALITY CONTEST
The succession issues in the PNP are serious ones and should not be trivialised as a mere
personality contest.
Because I hold a senior position in the state-information agency and have to work with all the contenders, it would be entirely improper of me to endorse any one, which is the right of every columnist.While I will not endorse any contender for the PNP top job, I will try as best as possible to enumerate the issues and ask for critical reflection.
As in all types of wars, truth is usually the first casualty. This is where our role as journalists and commentators come in and where our exercise of impartiality,
balance and fair play will be decisively needed. There will be attempts to use demagoguery, prejudice, blindsiding and shadow boxing to divert attention from some significant issues.
It will not be enough, for example, for the anti-Portia faction to be typecast as just prejudiced middle class people who have contempt for the working class and women, and who feel 'they are the only ones who have the right to rule Jamaica'. Dismissing them as just 'the UWI mafia', as Mark Wignall has done, or the Drumblair Set, as Perkins has done, is not enough. One must at least engage their arguments and destroy those arguments, rather than trying to read minds and hearts.
The pro-Peter and pro-Omar factions (actually a better description than anti-Portia) might
genuinely believe that Portia is not intellectually competent to deal with the gargantuan task of steering 21st century Jamaica through the rough, turbulent seas of globalisation. Show that they are wrong and that she is up to the task or would have the battery of technical experts to guide her, but don't intimidate people by engaging in name-calling and demagoguery.
One of the obstacles the pro-Peter, pro-Omar factions face is that it is not politically correct and deemed in good taste to raise the issue of intellectual competence. The pro-Portia supporters can be quite effective in using a form of emotional blackmail to forestall discussion on the intellectual and technical qualifications of their candidate.
My advice to them would be to face the issue squarely and develop an appropriate and convincing response. Don't capitulate to those pushing intellect and technical competence, but don't just 'trace' them for raising the issue. What bothers me is that even some journalists think it is apparently in poor taste to raise the issue when worldwide the issue of the intellectual and technical competence of contending leaders is a major factor in the equation.
What the pro-Portia faction can point out is that scientific research 'an abundance of it' has shown compellingly that emotional competencies are critically important. Indeed, the research shows they are, at certain levels of the leadership ladder, more important than cognitive competencies. Research done by people like Howard Gardner and Daniel Goleman, formerly of Harvard, have shown that emotional intelligence is more decisive in influencing leadership success than intellectual ability. The most effective leaders in the world are those who can combine their intellectual gifts with emotional competencies.
And in the Jamaican context, with the grave social crisis which we face not the least of which is the lack of trust in and respect for political leadership having a leader who can inspire confidence and loyalty is not an insignificant matter. The Portia camp needs to spend more of its time strategising an appropriate set of responses to issues which it should not fool itself are of concern only to class-prejudiced, sexist and bad-minded Comrades: A number of Jamaicans have these same concerns. Trying to intimidate
people into not even mentioning these concerns and misgivings about Portia's ability to lead is not to way to go. (Not charging this is being done).
It is obvious that Portia has very strong support among
delegates, if not among her parliamentary colleagues and the top brass of the party. Paul Burke's throwing of his not-insignificant weight behind her is noteworthy. Paul is a seasoned warrior on behalf of the working class, well-loved among many in the urban grassroots, and is a symbol of the PNP's revolutionary past. Paul has matured a great deal over the years. The more I hear him talk the more I am impressed. The more I read his ideas for reform, the more I am galvanised and feel that he is in touch with the pulse of the Jamaican people and the times.
The PNP needs Paul Burke more than Paul Burke needs the PNP. And Paul is sufficiently broad-minded and anti-tribalist to work with any contender who succeeds P.J. Patterson. Paul is a major asset, especially at a time when the PNP will need its grassroots support. (His asset has revalued after the Law Lords' ruling on Thursday!) Portia has scored a sizeable victory with his declared support which has solidified her image as a symbol of working class aspirations.
But this is not the 1970s, and the PNP's having spent so many years trying to exorcise the ghost of what was seen by critics as revolutionary socialism, there might be clash of visions in the PNP.
SOCIALISM THREAT
There are people within the PNP who are yearning after the glory days of socialism when labour was crowned king, when 'the small man' felt that his interests were being actively promoted and when consumer rights were put ahead of profits. There are people who feel that the PNP has lost its way; that it has been derailed; that it is no longer the party of Michael Manley but that it has been hijacked by Big Money interests and that a vote for Peter Phillips and especially Omar Davies would only consolidate that. "It's time to take back the party," some feel and Portia is seen as the biblical Miriam leading the children of Israel to the Promised Land.
The social scientists, no doubt, are taking out their notebooks again, for it is exciting times once again in Jamaican politics. Ideas are going to be debated again and the once cavalier and comfortable PNP is to erupt again in ideological ferment. In the view of some, the succession race is over which class will rule and in whose interests.
IN DEFENCE OF THE POOR
Karl Blythe, remember, though not prominent in the media now, sees himself as having been wounded because of his advocacy for the working and peasant classes. He suffered for the poor and marginalised, as he tells. His only sin, in his view, was to move too fast in getting housing for poor people.
Peter Phillips and Omar Davies will have to show that merely having poor people's interest at heart is not enough to be able to help them. Michael Manley and the rest of us learned that most painfully. As Seaga once said, it takes cash to care. It will be the burden of the Phillips-Davies camps to show that populist policies will only retard the poor and that in a global economy dominated by powerful supranational organisations like the World Trade Organisation, the IMF and World Bank, there is very little space left for populist experimentation.
The challenge facing the PNP contenders and their handlers is to be able to have a serious intellectual discourse without it degenerating into a vulgar personality clashes. It does not have to be. Let the ideas contend. Show why your candidate is the best person and why Jamaica needs your candidate. That will highlight what the other candidates lack.
The PNP delegates must also remember that whoever is chosen to succeed Patterson must be able to beat the formidable Bruce Golding-led JLP. It makes no sense electing the person you like the most and the person who smiles the most if that person cannot beat the JLP. The PNP will be asking for a fifth term. An extraordinary request under the best of times, let alone at a time of growing social crisis, evidenced by crime and high unemployment.
The PNP has a grand opportunity to demonstrate to us that it can conduct its internal affairs with dignity, decorum and intellectual rigour. It should not blow it.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. You can send your comments to ianboyne1@yahoo.com
