Ian Boyne
THE JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) seems to be jinxed. Or the People's National Party (PNP) supremely blessed. Every time the JLP seems to be assuaging people's doubts about its capacity to unify itself, another row erupts.
Just when everyone's attention was focused on the PNP and what has been interpreted as its recent divisive and nasty internal political campaign, with Mark Wignall writing a glowing article about the unified, re-energised and forward-looking JLP, the high-profile JLP MP Abe Dabdoub walked out noisily and furiously, giving the PNP a break from the negative searchlight.
Portia Simpson Miller could continue to get her encomiums and ecstatic congratulatory messages without the addendum about the wounds which must have been inflicted on the PNP as a result of the recent muscular campaign for the party presidency.
And if some were thinking that the JLP was a better alternative, after all, and that it had finally banished the ghost of division, well, some are having second thoughts. But, the media have a responsibility to guide public discourse and not to sensationalise or mislead the public. How we frame issues has a great deal to do with how the public reacts.
The first point to note is that someone's resignation from a party is no sure sign of 'division'. Even if, as some have been saying, others will follow Dabdoub, that does not mean that the JLP is divided. Indeed, increased unity in an institution could well force certain malcontents and mischief-makers to leave, knowing that the climate is no longer favourable to their divisive activities. (I am making a general statement). When we look at the particular instance of Abe Dabdoub's departure, we should be left in no doubt that it has absolutely nothing to do with any division within the JLP.
SMELT THE RAT
Even the politically naïve can see that Abe smelt the rat and realised that he would not survive the constituency challenge of Gregory Mair. Abe's own party supporters had organised a demonstration against him in the constituency recently and Mair has clearly been making inroads. In a democratic institution where seniority, connections with the top brass, etc., are not the decisive factors, Abe was clearly in trouble. Besides, in his recent incarnation he has been a Seaga loyalist. Not the best recommendation for any special favours within the JLP at this time.
There is a connection between what has befallen Abe Dabdoub and the recent presidential election in the PNP: Old loyalties and hierarchical control and influence have waned in Jamaican politics. The top brass of the PNP and the most influential PNP MPs could not convince their delegates to vote as the PNP elite desired. The grass roots people are developing a long-overdue independence from party central, and that is true not only of the PNP. Something is happening in the political culture.
As a keen observer of philosophical and cultural trends in the western world generally, I can say that the same phenomenon is taking place outside of Jamaica: A variety of institutions religious, political and civic are experiencing a revolt of the masses. Loyalty and acquiescence can no longer be guaranteed from followers. Dissent and independent thinking fostered, too, by technological changes have been
legitimised and, indeed, routinised in western culture. What is happening in the Jamaican political parties is a
microcosm of that.
SPURIOUS, FACILE ARGUMENTS
When one looks at the arguments Dabdoub has advanced for leaving, it becomes clear that they are at best spurious and at worst facile. His acrimonious charges against the Golding leadership are not credible, and his view that the party has somehow become undemocratic is absurd. Indeed, Abe is a victim of the democratic processes in the JLP and he would want Golding to subvert the democratic processes to impose him on the people.
Abe's view is that the party leadership should give him a certain level of support, and he said on the Breakfast Club that it was because he did not sense that support why he himself felt it was futile to put more of his resources into constituency efforts. He should have done his best and left the rest to the will of the people, if he truly believed in the democratic process.
Fortunately for the JLP and
unfortunately for Abe, his charges
have found absolutely no resonance with the people. The reactions to him on the talk-shows have been overwhelmingly negative. (And I am only being cautious when I write 'overwhelmingly' rather than 'uniformly'.) People have seen through Abe's sour-grapes charges, and the fact that he is not perceived as having an amiable personality does not help. (Again, some high-brow people try to de-emphasise such non-cognitive factors as a friendly demeanour, an endearing personality and even an attractive voice, but new research has shown that they are very important in popular leadership.)
Besides, and this is not insignificant, the response of the JLP hierarchy to Abe's resignation and irrational charges has been very commendable. JLP General Secretary Karl Samuda has been impressing me more and more with his measured and civil public responses to contentious issues in his party. His emotional intelligence skills are not lacking. In the face of bitter charges, Samuda in his Breakfast Club interview was calm, respectful of Abe, rational and did not fight fire with fire. I am sure there was much dirt that he could unearth, but he did not do that. Anybody who believes that the JLP has learnt nothing from its factious past has not been observing.
GENTLEMANLY GENERAL SECRETARY
Samuda has been a gentlemanly general secretary. He has also been very forthcoming, accessible to the media (he was on the Breakfast Club two days consecutively) and level-headed.
He was similarly conciliatory in his public utterances on the party's dispute with Pearnel Charles in the leadership race. This is how leaders must behave.
Golding, also to his credit, has refused to join any kass-kass and he looked into the Breakfast Club on Tuesday morning but refused to utter a word, despite the attacks against him by Abe. The response of the JLP on this issue will put it to bed early, not giving any fuel for the media to fan the flames of their old hobby horse of the JLP being irredeemably divided.
But, the most serious issue that Abe has put on the table, and which deserves national dialogue, is what he calls the NDM-isation of the JLP. He is disturbed that there is much internal discussion on constitutional issues and 'the NDM agenda'. Now this where I have the strongest disagreement with Abe, for I believe that the NDM-isation is exactly what the JLP needs to go up against this formidable PNP led by its charismatic and deeply-loved leader.
It was the NDM agenda which really catapulted Bruce Golding into national consciousness and which gave him his appeal. It is my view that it was the traction that he found during his NDM presidency which subsequently made him attractive to the moneyed classes. Golding showed that he was a man of ideas and substance who could think outside the box.
Bruce Golding captured the imagination of important sections of civil society by putting on the national agenda some of the most critical issues to have been placed there since Michael Manley. Bruce Golding brought a freshness of ideas and perspective; a fundamental challenge to the political system and status quo. He made the right strategic move to go back into the JLP, for with our weariness with third parties there was no way he was going to win on an NDM platform.
CRUDE PRAGMATISTS
It would be a tragic mistake if Bruce Golding sacrifices his constitutional reform proposals in the interest of crude pragmatism. The JLP has never been an ideological party. They are basically crude pragmatists. Right now they are primarily interested in breaking their 17-year political drought. They are hungry for power some say literally. There are still many there who hold to Bustamante's anti-intellectual credo, that is that 'philosophy can't plant yam'.
They think Golding's constitutional reform ideas are a waste of time, boring and incomprehensible to the masses. They favour the political histrionics of Audley Shaw, with his screaming accusations about "PNP corruption, mismanagement and waste" and his hysterical shouts of "this wicked and heartless PNP Government". Shaw, in my view, is the most astute Jamaican politician in terms of raw politics. None is more street-smart than he is.
Shaw is a master political tactician. He knows how to reach the masses and to play to the gallery. The JLP will always need his strategies in terms of pure political gamesmanship.
But Golding would do this country a disservice if, in the service of sheer pragmatism, he abandons the NDM agenda. It won't be hard to get the JLP NDM-ised. The party will go with whatever Golding wants and Golding must use his influence at this time, as well as his intellectual skills, to convince the party that there is a way to connect his constitutional proposals with the issues that face the people.
EMOTIONALNOT RATIONAL
It will not be enough to just attack the PNP on economic strategy and corruption (see Wednesday's polls), though most people react emotionally rather than rationally. The propaganda line about 'PNP mash up the country' and 'the most corrupt Government in our history' will never totally lose its appeal. But to appeal to the uncommitted, which is a substantial category, Golding needs to bring forward the NDM agenda, get the media on his side (Perkins is already there) and mount a national consciousness-raising campaign to show that the only real change in Jamaica will come through fundamental reforms to our political system.
Golding can do it. He is bright enough and has the communication skills to make the connection between constitutional change and the burning issues of the day.
He might not have the charismatic appeal of a Portia Simpson Miller, but he is no dead-beat communicator. Listen to him especially at budget time.
Do not fear, Bruce, your colleagues are focused on winning and they have no clear ideological alternative anyway. They are crude pragmatists. They can continue with 'the PNP mash up the country' line while you deal with the really fundamental issues. Only Seaga can mount a credible intellectual challenge to you, and the crude, calculating pragmatists in the party know Seaga's time has passed.
Those who, unlike Abe, know that there will be a place for them in the Promised Land will not be tempted rebel in the wilderness.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. Email him at ianboyne1@yahoo.com
