Ian BoyneTHE ONCE seemingly impenetrable People's National Party (PNP) unity or the public perception of it seems to have been
shattered, and that Humpty Dumpty might never be put back together again.
This is the view of some persons who have been calling for Party President Portia Simpson Miller to 'take charge' and 'bring order' to what they see as an increasingly fractious and bitterly divided PNP, whose wounds need urgent attention. With charges and counter-charges flying and various 'camps' trading accusations of disrupting the unity, some are questioning the party president's ability to stamp her leadership firmly on the group.
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is elated.
When party leaders and members woke up to The Gleaner headline on Thursday which announced 'Portia's plunge', their ecstasy must have been uncontainable. It certainly assuaged their less than impressive showing in the East Westmoreland by-election the day before. (Mark Wignall stuck his head out in his column on Thursday with the claim that the JLP would have "significantly" cut the PNP's 2002 victory margin.The party did no such thing.)
The Bill Johnson poll showed that the enormously popular Prime Minister had seen her favourable ratings fall from 78 perr cent in March to 64 per cent in the May poll, a drop of 14 per cent. That she still remains substantially ahead of Opposition Leader Bruce Golding, whose rating also dropped and who now stands at just 31 per cent, is lost in the euphoria of what is perceived as electoral momentum for the JLP.
The election of Portia Simpson Miller consistently the most popular Jamaican politician since 1989 as President of the PNP in February would have cast gloom over the JLP. The excitement which gripped this entire country after her election that Saturday afternoon was palpable. The JLP leaders tried to put on a brave, smiling face but they must have been plunged into depression at the prospect- indeed almost certainty-that they would be to in the wilderness for another five years at least. That would be the end of Bruce Golding as leader.
The perceived disunity and infighting in the PNP is a gift to the beleaguered Opposition party. It is the most potent weapon that they have now. The cement crisis is nothing compared to this.
For if the JLP can convince the country that as loveable and caring as Portia is, she cannot manage her party and bring cohesiveness to her Cabinet, and then the Jamaican people can be convinced that a unified JLP is the answer. The JLP knows what its own legendary disunity and bickering has cost the party and how turned off Jamaicans had been at their apparent inability to control the fights within the party.
If the JLP succeeds in painting the PNP as an uncontrollably divided party, with Sista P against the Solid as a Rock wall and not able to really be in the driver's seat, then it has a chance at winning the next election. At the very least, it could force the Prime Minister to delay calling the elections any time soon, which would be in the interest of the JLP, giving it time to wear out the PM's popularity. We are at the height of political gamesmanship and Machiavellianism and there is a battle for the minds of all of us.
Reason and balance will be the first casualties in the propaganda war which has already started. The media will be an important, indeed the primary battlefield and some media practitioners, I predict, will find journalistic ethics of fairness, balance and responsibility too inconvenient a restriction.
The JLP must keep in mind, as Wignall admits in his column of Thursday that, "The Prime Minister is still being endorsed magnificently." As The Gleaner report concludes on Thursday, "In terms of the two political parties, Jamaicans have not changed their view at least not significantly ... The PNP remains at 47 per cent in terms of its rating while the Jamaica Labour Party fell from 33 per cent in March to 28 per cent in May." So the JLP can't take anything for granted. At this stage, they are depending heavily on the PNP to help them win the election.
The more the Comrades squabble publicly, the more they facilitate the JLP's return to power.
As he did 'magnificently' when Eddie Seaga was JLP leader, Wignall is again highlighting divisions, fights and conspiracies in the PNP. The media have been having a ball with the happenings in the PNP.
Enlightened self-interest should convince the Comrades to settle their differences, not their scores. They don't need any whip by the party president or any display of the aggressiveness normally associated with 'strong leadership' to help make a rational calculation. They just need some common sense thinking and a dose of self-control. Every leader knows of the overly zealous, militant, more-fanatical-than-the-leader type of follower. They are found in all groups (particularly religious ones). These followers are more hard-line than the leaders.
They see it as their right to enforce the rules, to put people in their place and to announce who is in and who is out. Many times this happens even without the knowledge of the leader.
In organisations which don't depend on popular support or democratic elections, the hard-line loyalists can get away with that kind of destructive behaviour. In competitive democracies like ours, that kind of behaviour is fatal. Ironically, while Jamaicans are culturally fractious and divisive, with a tendency to balkanise, they hate divisions. Jamaicans don't like to be members of groups where people are fighting and constantly at war.
The Jamaican electorate will punish you if your party is perceived as being divided. A popular Biblical saying among us is, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
If I were a Portia loyalist in the party, I would ensure that I have no public quarrels with Peter Phillips Solid as a Rock people, at least until my leader has secured her own mandate. I would bite my lip, put up with even some disrespect for 'not everything good fi eat good fi talk'. The problem is that many people lack emotional control. They are impulsive.
Any arrogance, rudeness and aggrandisement on the part of the Portia supporters is pure foolhardiness and myopia on their side. There is a certain grace and graciousness which must come with victory. Never let the loser feel that they are vanquished. It is not in your interest. Effective ways must be found to win the support, trust and loyalty of those who are licking their wounds and who suffer some embarrassment from the defeat in the presidential race. And those who have lost must temper their anger, disappointment and frustration.
They must remember that they are part of one party.
And, no matter how dissed the Solid as a Rock people say they are, self-interest must show them that broadcasting this can in no way be in their long-term interest. Unless they have a Sampson complex. (For you who don't know your Bible, he brought down the building on himself.) The Solid as a Rock people are still comrades and if Golding wins he will not be inviting them to share power with him, so what is the point of all this public complaining?
We in the media love it, of course. We like the leaks, the juicy headlines, the frank and forthright interviews, the shots of Comrades wrestling with one another; the bites of Comrades making serious allegations against one another. This makes for good copy and sound bytes. So we benefit and the JLP benefits. But not the comrades, whether Solid as a Rock or Portia-ites.
If you read over my columns in the era of the JLP wars, you would see I gave the Labourites the same advice, showing them how their divisiveness hurt them, not just the internal party contestants. The JLP has learnt its lessons. I believe Bruce Golding and other leaders, notably James Robertson, have been excellent at ignoring provocation, offence and even insults. Abe Dabdoub tried mightily to fight, and Bruce wisely resisted. Recently Verna Parchment left with her accusations and Bruce just refused to fight with her publicly. Excellent.
The JLP is serious about returning to power and they know what they need to do. We will see whether the PNP is serious about retaining power.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. Email him at ianboyne1@yahoo.com
