- IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
PNP delegates at the party's conference earlier this year.Garnett Roper, Contributor
ARNOLD 'SCREE' Bertram, master spin doctor from the 'Solid as a Rock' Peter Phillips campaign, has written a piece unwittingly recommending Dr. Omar Davies as the candidate whose success in the race to succeed P.J. Patterson will do more for party and country.
Captioned 'Facing the finish line' the article, in describing what it says are the weaknesses of Dr. Davies' campaign for prosperity and the strengths, pays a compliment to the integrity and capacity of Dr. Omar Davies.
Describing the weakness of the campaign for prosperity, Mr. Bertram writes "Of all the candidates, he (Dr. Davies) enters the race with by far the lowest level of constituency delegate support. His 69 delegates from South St. Andrew contrast sharply with over 200 constituency delegates that each of the other three contenders begin with. His dilemma is compounded by the fact that he cannot rely on the support of all 69 and there is no other constituency in which he can gain majority of all delegates votes."
Let us grant that this may even be an accurate analysis. It betrays the fact of the integrity with which Dr. Davies conducts his affairs in political representation in the following ways:
PAPER GROUPS
First, Dr. Davies is the candidate least likely to be guilty of the charge that Team Portia's Paul Burke famously calls
creating 'paper groups.'
There are 60 political constituencies in Jamaica out of which 3,400 PNP constituency delegates will cast a ballot on February 25. The remaining 500 votes come from members of the PNP National Eexecutive Committee. This means that the 69 delegates in South St. Andrew represented by Dr. Omar Davies are slightly above the national average per constituency.
Dr. Peter Phillips has four times the national average, Dr. Karl Blythe slightly above three times the national average, and Mrs. Simpson Miller has five times the national average in her political constituency. Dr. Davies clearly did not spend his time padding the delegates count in his constit-uency, while the other candidates have opened themselves to the charge that they have.
Second, it is clear that the internal democracy in South St. Andrew is alive and well. Mr. Bertram has implied that the other contenders can rely on 100 per cent of the delegate support while Dr. Davies cannot. If this is so that the constituencies of Phillips, Simpson Miller and Blythe speak as one man about the representative it would be a terrible indictment on these candidates.
Democratic organisations necessarily include dissent and minority opinion. Indeed, the scourge of Jamaican politics is the cynical spread of garrison politics which does not allow minority political opinion. Mr. Bertram's analysis has told us that Dr. Davies is exempt from that pattern conduct that leaves little room for minority opinion within his constituency. Even in his quest for political power Dr. Davies has been unprepared to manipulate the delegates. It is to Dr. Davies' enormous credit that even a staunch critic like Arnold pays this tribute to him without setting out to do so.
It is a numbers game. Mr. Bertram has said that Dr. Davies does not command the majority of delegates in a single constituency. One is not clear how Mr. Bertram knows that when at the time of his writing the identity let alone the opinion, of all the delegates was not yet known.
Even if it is the case, the Davies campaign has been directed at the minority of serious-minded people within the party. He can command only 30 per cent of the vote and still win on February 25. However, the fact is that the Campaign for Prosperity does command 30 per cent of the vote. It is not the noise of the market, it is the sale of the fish.
Even Arnold 'Scree' Bertram cannot deny the fact that Davies has sought to educate the delegates. Mr. Bertram writes: "Throughout the campaign he has certainly contributed to creating a more informed electorate by providing the delegate with useful information and by clarifying critical economic issues." What Mr. Bertram has not said is that Dr. Davies is the only candidate to have done so.
NERVOUSNESS
He has also failed to mention, what, by contrast, the other candidates are in fact doing and how they have conducted their campaigns. Both the Phillips and Simpson Miller campaigns have hurled insults and abuse at each other. In the absence of a clearly articulated message by Portia and Peter that seeks to nuance their policy framework, jitters have been sent throughout the economy. The nervousness of local investor community has been reflected both in the stock and foreign exchange markets.
The stock market has been in a slump and declining, the exchange rate is under pressure. None of the other campaigns, aside from the Davies campaign, has bothered to engage the wider public with a nuanced policy framework.
The harm is even more dramatic when one considers the impact of their manner of campaigning on PNP unity. Portia and Peter have been conducting a long-distance war by their proxies. This past week K.D. Knight of the Phillips campaign indicated that Portia needs questions three hours before hand in order to be able to answer. Insiders have it that the Portia team has shot back, that KD and others will have three hours to clear out of the Cabinet if Portia wins. PNP conduct has never sunk to the low level it has in this campaign. The Davies campaign has deliberately maintained the high ground and has articulated a message, informed the delegates and clarified issues. This makes Davies the party unity candidate. Importantly, it also indicates the he is the kind of leader Jamaica needs at this time.
Another strength that Mr. Bertram has identified in his column is the fact that Davies has brought new people into the party. He writes: "What cannot be denied is that he has brought persons, who have traditionally remained in the sidelines, into political activism which can only mean well for the future of the Jamaican political process."
We must therefore thank Arnold Bertram for recommending Dr. Omar Davies as the best of those on offer to succeed P.J. Patterson. Mr. Bertram has told us that in his political constituency Dr. Omar Davies has not sought to pad the list of eligible delegates by creating paper groups; he has also allowed democracy with dissent and minority opinion to flourish. He is the man most likely to be able to bring together the warring Simpson Miller and Phillips factions in the PNP.
Perhaps the finest compliment of all paid to Dr. Davies by Arnold 'Scree' Bertram is in the opening comment, that there are other reasons for running than winning. Dr. Davies is not seeking to win for the sake of winning, but because he wants Jamaica to win. Listen to Arnold 'Scree' Bertram from the Peter Phillips' campaign; he has made it clear that a vote for Omar Davies is a vote for the best of the PNP to win and for the best of what makes us Jamaicans to win.
Garnett Roper is a minister of religion and current affairs commentator.
