Junior Rose, ContributorThe campaign for the presidency of the People's National Party will climax in February, when the party will introduce its new president and Prime Minister to the country. Prime Minister P.J. Patterson indicated that whoever it is, they will be riding on a caravan across the country. An evaluation of the support for candidates indicates that Dr. Peter Phillips is poised to win this election.
Phillips has highlighted his vision of a new Jamaica, dubbed 'Project Jamaica'. This vision will materialise through unity, education, business development, self-reliance, community development, and social renewal, law and order and youth development.
ACADEMICS aND
POLITICAL CAREER
What qualifies him to be ultimate steward? Dr. Phillips has distinguished himself with a history of academic performance, as a student at the University of the West Indies, Princeton University, State University of New York, and the University of Florida. This has led to him being an illustrious lecturer at the University of the West Indies and author of Caribbean Development and Caribbean Political Economy.
Subsequently, Dr. Phillips has had a strong political career, where he has served in the capacity of member of Parliament for East Central, St. Andrew for over 11 years, vice-president of the PNP for over six years and a member of the party executive for over 20 years.
Phillips has been Minister of National Security, a very challenging portfolio. However, under his leadership there has been a dent in the illicit drug trade, through Operation Kingfish; the number of men and women entering the police force was expanded; human rights was introduced in police training; and crime-fighting technology was expanded, including the new ballistic machine, which will aid in the process of prosecuting criminals.
In addition, he has made inroads as Security Minister. His performance in the portfolio Ministry of Transport and Works is unquestionable, with the modernisation of the transportation system. This has been a tremendous upgrade from the well-known 'patty pan buses', as well as the introduction of modern development of Jamaica's highways, including the planning for highway 2000.
Under his stewardship as Minister of Health, the health sector reform programme was introduced, and a number of hospitals were upgraded. Furthermore Dr. Phillips has distinguished himself as an astute negotiator where he has led Caricom/U.S. negotiations and has led a Caricom team which negotiated the One Way Free Trade Agreement with Venezuela.
HIGH POWER BACKING
As a result of his successes and astounding performances of his ministerial duties, Phillips has managed to attract and hold together one of the most successful campaign teams in the history of the People's National Party. High ranking members of his campaign team have led the People's National Party to four consecutive victories. Both under the Michael Manley and the P.J. Patterson administrations, these individuals have shown the ability to get into the deep recesses of the electorate to guarantee these victories. It is a craft that has been perfected by this campaign core.
This highly strategic and well-organised team has been doing a surgical detailing of the delegates and potential delegates. The fact is, in some instances there are delegate votes that are already etched in stone, because they have delegate status independent of group, as opposed to those nominated by a group to vote on its behalf. The Phillips camp has already convinced blocks of delegates that he has the vision and intellect to move Jamaica forward. However, there are those delegates that the groups have not selected. In this case, candidates are guided by the level of control that the candidate or supporters have over these groups.
It is established that Phillips has attracted the support from Members of Parliament. Recently, other high-ranking MPs and Cabinet ministers have explicitly joined the Phillips team. One explanation given is the level of confidence that these parliamentarians have in this candidate as a Prime Minister. This could have been developed as a result of Phillips dexterity, leadership and diplomacy as leader of Government Business in the House of Representative inter alia.
youth support
Furthermore, Phillips has the support of the youth which is one of the unquestionable indicators of how this cohort of individuals will vote. Some of these youths control blocks of delegate votes. The top brass of the PNP's youth group and its affiliate have been consistently inclined to support Phillips. This is attributed to good strategy in facilitating this cohort of delegate votes. These youth are confident in Phillips as the ultimate steward of this country. In fact, some have made it quite unequivocal that the support for Phillips can be accredited to an interaction with the candidate, where he has solicited their vision and shared his vision for Jamaica in general and youth development in particular. They have therefore been encouraged to be an active part of executing this vision under a Phillips administration.
Phillips has also won the hearts of those in the women's movement. This has placed a dent in Portia Simpson Miller's bid for presidency. Many found this very ironic because Simpson Miller should have secured this block. However, members of this group would have carefully evaluated the candidates and would have supported Phillips because of the inroads that could be made under a Phillips administration as it concerns the progress of the Party and the country. This block of votes will be favouring Phillips although Simpson Miller will get a few votes.
The campaign launch today will speed up the momentum of the campaign and re-energise supporters for Phillips in anticipation of an election between February 15 and 26. The priority areas for the launch are: the transformation of education; law and order; and job creation. The candidates are now doing a more detailed evaluation of their
support base. In the final
analysis Phillips will be given the mandate, so the issue is therefore uniting factions post presidential election.
