Dawn RitchTHE PRIVATE Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and the media are falling over each other trying to carve out some kind of relevance for themselves in the People's National Party's (PNP) leadership race. They have none.
The people who matter in this race are the candidates and the 4,000 PNP delegates. Some commentators and politicians masquerading as journalists, unable to swallow the bitter pill of their own irrelevance, are complaining that 4,000 people should not have the right to choose the next prime minister of Jamaica.
They say it is bad for the country's democracy, as though the trade they ply and the agendas they advance are good for it.
DEADLY BORING PROSPECT
I was astonished the other night to see Michael Sharpe on TVJ saying that he is going to "insist" on a debate between the four candidates chaired by the PSOJ and media. What a deadly boring prospect that holds out.
Quite apart from the fact that neither Michael Sharpe nor anybody in the PSOJ is in a position to insist on anything besides paying their utility bills, any format for four instead of two candidates is bound to be as slow as molasses.
Above all, PNP delegates are highly unlikely to use those debates as the basis for their decision making. They are entitled to see the candidates in person, and need no intermediary.
But the media and the PSOJ are not concerned about that. They want to sell advertising space on the one hand, and puff themselves up with self-importance on the other. An internal political leadership race is not about advertising revenue for media, nor should it be a dog and pony show of national policies for the gratification of big business.
Most of these presentations were just so much rosy baloney anyway, but none of the organisations seem to mind as long as it's over breakfast and the cameras are rolling.
NOT QUESTIONING FINANCE
Dr. Omar Davies, Finance Minister, has already admitted that his budget did not balance. Not one of these self-appointed guardians of the country's democracy, nor even Her Majesty's loyal Opposition, has asked what is happening to the national budget.
Another is soon to be tabled in the House of Parliament. Instead they want to talk about 'vision' and 'inner-city interventions', as though these 'what ifs' affect the price of rice.
The media and the PSOJ accuse the Government of being on auto pilot and distracted by its leadership race. But none of them has asked for either the first or second supplementary estimates, neither of which has been tabled for the current budget where everything was overrun.
Could it be that media and the PSOJ are really in Dr. Davies' corner as presidential candidate, and do not want to distract him from his campaigning?
The heads of virtually every major company in the country have invited the candidates to various fora, and to have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Indeed, these have been very much command performances for the candidates, despite the fact that none of the organisations has a single vote at the special PNP conference to choose the new PNP president and prime minister.
I heard of no handsome cheques from anybody to the candidates as a consequence of their dutiful attendance. Yet, time spent with the private sector is time spent away from the field.
If all the private sector wants is ideas from the presidential aspirants on what they would do in office, then it means that the sector has none of their own to offer. At least none of their own that they're prepared to have see the light of day, and in the company of their peers.
What, therefore, was the purpose of this exercise? It would have been far better if they'd just quietly sent the candidate they support a cheque, and saved themselves the embarrassment of having nothing to say.
This wrong approach may yet backfire. No candidate, least of all a future prime minister of Jamaica, is likely to forget how fundamentally useless meeting with them truly was on virtually every occasion.
The people with the relevance are 4,000 largely unemployed and, perhaps, bribable delegates of the PNP. They will choose the next prime minister. They have the great virtue of being genuinely interested in the process, unlike the minority of Jamaicans who are registered on the voters' roll.
How many people on the voters' roll actually bother to vote in a national election? No more than half. And, of those who vote what percentage of them pay attention to, or are even vaguely interested in the so-called national issues? Yet another minority of a minority.
The delegates of the PNP may be unemployed, but at least they're paying attention and intend to use their franchise. So instead of heaping scorn upon them, pundits and business moguls should at least admit that they envy them for the role only they will play in creating history.
In Barbados, uptown people and white people do not go into politics, only black people. The former are expected to go and make money and pay taxes.
The latter don't envy them. They just go into politics and set the rules. Barbados by all accounts is an extremely well-run, peaceful and prosperous country. Even the Opposition Leader wants to join the ruling party.
Here in Jamaica, uptown people want to learn dialect and go into politics, instead of minding their own business.
Then when we get the genuine article in politics, everybody rushes around trying to get that individual to speak in some contorted fashion which appeals to the private sector and media, many of whom, when all is said and done, have only their accents to recommend them.
NOT PERSONS IN BOARD ROOMS
People in board rooms should not run politics, and people in politics should ignore them.
The role of a prime minister is to create an economic environment where private business can flourish, jobs abound, and the tax haul increases from a rising tide of productivity and prosperity.
Some people in the private sector are so busy keeping two sets of books that they look like a corkscrew in a three-piece suit.
They are hardly the ones who should be throwing stones at unemployed delegates out for a lunch or a night out in Kingston.
The delegates will doubtlessly not only be voting for the person who can guarantee the PNP a fifth term, but the one who understands their joblessness and will do something about it.
As far as I'm concerned, that's a legitimate basis on which to vote for a new prime minister.
