Shalman Scott, Contributor 
People's National Party (PNP) presidential candidate and Member of Parliament for Central Westmoreland, Dr. Karl Blythe (centre,) and his supporters, raise their fists in support of what they claim is his defiance against attempts to bribe delegates in his Central Westmoreland constituency following allegations he was withholding delegate cards to influence votes. - Monique Hepburn Photo
WITH ALLEGATIONS flying about bribing and the intimidation of delegates in the upcoming Peoples National Party (PNP) presidential race, strange things seem to be happening in and to that party.
What the public is really witnessing is nothing more than age-old political tactics turned inside on a party instead of on the opposition.
Indeed, nothing that is said by way of accusation of vote-buying and intimidation is unfamiliar territory within the landscape of political electioneering.
What is different is that we are unaccustomed to seeing the PNP washing its dirty linen real or contrived in public.
So, the problem is more one of what we have to come to expect from the PNP as opposed to the Jamaica Labour Party (which was seen for a long time as a mutinous war boat).
Accordingly, it is too early to take the current happenings within the PNP and equate it with the JLP.
MANIPULATE VOTERS
That position, I suggest, will simply be premature. For each campaign team wants everybody else to take their pronouncements seriously and, therefore, gain political advantage over the competition.
The campaign teams already know, deep down, that most of the accusation is nothing more than exaggerated gamesmanship.
In any case that is exactly what campaigns are for to plan misinformation, policies and stratagems to manipulate the emotions of voters to ensure that their candidate becomes or remains the preferred choice.
The strategising will also include sometimes an exit or an excuse tactic where the election process itself is to be discredited if their candidate loses.
So in that scenario, expect to hear the familiar bleating about a flawed voters' or in this case delegates' list, delegates' intimidation and bribery.
Interestingly though, even if some of these things turn out to be true, the campaign that squeals is the campaign that is not benefiting from these alleged wrong-doings. Most times the bawling from a particular campaign gets louder when the other side proves better at the same game!
CREATE COHESION
The political brinksmanship currently under way within the PNP will prove with the passage of a short time to be like a mirage that disappears as a by- election or general election approaches. Additionally, as the JLP through political sharp shooters such as Audley Shaw who jumps anxiously to capitalise on what is seen as PNP internal problems, the unleashing of JLP's external pressures will create and foster a quicker process of PNP internal cohesion.
This was amply demonstrated a few days ago when the country witnessed a chorus of denials led by Team Portia gadfly Paul Burke accusing Shaw of stupidity because of Shaw's call for the auditor-general to investigate allega-tions of the use of public funds in the PNP presidential campaign.
Shaw's call came as a result of a written complaint from Team Portia to the general secretary of that party.
Of course, Dr. Peter Phillips was quick to request an audit of his Ministry of National Security in response. Now the PNP initial complainants have closed ranks against the politically intrepid Shaw.
The PNP complainants are now emphasising that the accusation about the misuse of public funds was nothing more than a mere allegation!
And so the games continue in a manner and with the character of all the previous politically competitive engagements witnessed in this country.
Take the story about one side letting off ton loads of cash to bribe delegates. This has not only created a firestorm but has raised the level of expectation of most delegates to be given some inducements and this includes the expectations of those delegates supporting the side which started the rumour.
But even worse, the delegates themselves are using the arguments of inducements to increase their bargaining power in respect of the level of inducements expected and, therefore, have the various campaigns compete to out-bribe the delegates. The delegates have never had it so good!
Do not listen to any politician from whatever political persua-sion who wants to convey the impression that this, perhaps unfortunate practice, is not part of their tactical political arsenal.
If that were true, then such a politician would have been facing an almost impossible situation in which he or she has no access to money or other forms of resources.
THE CAMPAIGNING
As the political jostling continues, there is Dr. Karl Blythe who claims he is running a quiet campaign which is different from the others but who makes himself available on almost every radio programme broadcasting how he is running his quiet campaign.
Portia Simpson Miller moves across the country calling for peace and respect for the other contenders. But, she tells her supporters that the reason that the other contenders do not support her is because she is from a lower economic class and that it is people with PhDs that have contributed to the problems in the world.
Dr. Peter Phillips is promising to resuscitate rural life through agro and other light industrial activities. I must confess it is one of the best ideas I have heard coming out of the campaigns.
As a matter of fact, the manufacturing sector as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined from roughly 16 per cent in 1989 when the PNP took office to under five per cent of GDP presently.
Dr. Omar Davies is smarting from the economic and fiscal confusion in which the country has been plunged. Economic growth of two per cent for the calendar year 2005 is anaemic at best and the value of the Jamaican dollar continues to deteriorate in face of this 'growth'. Double-digit inflation is on the rise and there is no hope again of balancing the budget neither in 2005 nor 2006.
Dr. Davies shares a conditional patriotism as he told me recently on a radio programme I host that he has no problem working with the ideas of the other PNP presidential contenders, only if he is in charge. Talk about world- class vision?
COMIC RELIEF
Clearly, we cannot afford to lose hope, but neither can we afford to lose the opportunity of the revelations that this present PNP presidential campaign affords.
Even more, the comic relief is both riveting and hilarious but it is the con-artistry of the delegates that takes the cake!
Every contender, after interacting with the delegates and looking at crowd response, is left with the feeling that he
or she is the winner!
