Robert Buddan, Contributor

THE PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) holds an 18-point lead over the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), with 35 per cent of voters declaring hard-core support for the Portia Simpson Miller-led party.

More people said they preferred the PNP to the JLP and more said they preferred Portia Simpson Miller to Bruce Golding by more than two to one. All of this was revealed by the Bill Johnson-Gleaner polls last week.

Almost three-quarters of Jamaicans say crime and violence is their number one concern.

But in a new survey question, 37 per cent felt that the PNP was more religious compared to 12 per cent who felt that the JLP was.

However, the Johnson-Gleaner poll did not say how people rated religious issues when they voted. Considering that over 90 per cent of poll respondents say they were religious it would have been interesting to know.

However, more religious people seem to prefer the PNP.

Public opinion continues to shatter political myths. Jamaicans, we had been told, would never accept a woman as prime minister.

Not only have the delegates of the PNP done so, but the latest polls have confirmed that the population at large has endorsed the votes of those delegates. Portia Simpson Miller is vastly more popular than Bruce Golding and is poised to receive her own mandate as prime minister.

Alexander Bustamante had unsuccessfully propagated another myth. He had claimed that the PNP was a party of communists and atheists and would never win an election.

Now for the first time, a poll has actually revealed that more Jamaicans think the PNP is more religious than the JLP. The PNP certainly has the most avowedly Christian leader than at any time before and than any JLP leader had ever claimed to be, including Bustamante.

EXCHANGE OF WORDS

In an exchange between Florizel Glasspole and Alexander Bustamante in Jamaica's new House of Representatives in July 1945, Glasspole wanted to know why Bustamante had not supported the PNP's demand for self-government even though it was constantly complaining about the limits imposed by the existing colonial constitution on his power.

The exchange went like this:

Mr. Bustamante: I am not opposing. I don't oppose anyone with an honest mind (laughter).

Mr. Glasspole: You opposed self-government.

Mr. Bustamante: I oppose communism. I oppose atheism.

Mr. Glasspole: You opposed self-government for Jamaica.

Mr. Bustamante: I did not oppose self-government.

Mr. Glasspole: You did.

Mr. Bustamante: I oppose self-government right now.

Mr. Glasspole: Then what more responsible government can you have right now?

Mr. Bustamante: I oppose immediate self-government and I oppose moreso those who are clamouring for self-government now, why? The reply is this: Most are atheists who do not believe in God.

Mr. Glasspole: Rubbish.

Mr. Bustamante: Most are persons who believe, or try to lead the people to believe that if they get self-government they would be able to go to the man who had property with10 cows and say: 'Now I will divide your 10 cows, giving five to the self-governing sea cow who is a lazy man and won't work (laughter).

Mr. Glasspole: Rank stupidity.

Mr. Bustamante: The day will come when these envious socialists who do not want to work and believe they can divide with others will not even get a hearing anywhere ...

In the 60 years since, the PNP has got a fair hearing because most Jamaicans never believed that the party was either communist or atheist. The PNP has gone on to win more votes and seats, on average, and more absolute days in office than has the JLP between 1944 and the present.

MANLEY AND SOCIALISM

Time has made the 'communist bogey' redundant. No one has ever even accused the PNP of suppressing religious freedom and worship. When the PNP declared itself socialist in 1940, Norman Manley said that this meant neither a commitment to revolution nor to godlessness. Socialism, he said, was not anti-religious.

In fact, Manley explained that, "There is a very strong body of people who call themselves Christian socialists because they actually affirm that socialism is the only Christian principle of social organisation that has ever been devised. It is obvious that any genuine pretence of democracy must allow religious liberty and cannot deny the right of a section of the community to its religious idealism if it is pretending to support freedom as well as socialism."

Manley admitted that there were people in the PNP who considered themselves communist but that they were members of the party, notas communists, but as part of the national movement for self-government.

The most famous were the 'Four Hs' (Richard Hart, Ken and Frank Hill and Arthur Henry) who were expelled from the PNP in 1952. Richard Hart, at 89 years old, remains the only living member of this group, and the most important researcher and writer of Jamaica's early history of party formation and union organisation.

HART AND THE MARXISTS

Over the previous weekend, the Department of Government's Centre for Political Thought honoured Dr. Hart for his rare contribution to political and labour research and activism during this early period.

In one of his many books, Hart notes that he and other Marxists and communists also worked with Bustamante's trade unions in the days while it was already being rumoured that they were 'communists'. Bustamante accepted them, not as Marxists, but for their contribution to the early labour movement much as Manley had accepted them for their contribution to nationalism.

Some of these persons joined or were founding members of the PNP. Eventually, they were expelled from the PNP, but as Hart said, Manley acted in the interest of preserving unity in the national movement led by the PNP.

In fact, one such person, Ken Hill, later went on to join Bustamante's own federal party and won a seat to the federal parliament. On the other hand, some JLP leaders like Rose Leon, who joined Bustamante's claims that the PNP was communist and atheist, later joined the PNP.

Most, if not all, of Jamaica's party leaders and Members of Parliament have been religious. Portia Simpson Miller is just the most overtly religious among them.

None of the parties has been atheistic. Most of Jamaica's current Members of Parliament subscribe to one or the other of the Christian denominations existing in Jamaica.

At a time when the Jamaican public has become wary of the political parties, Trevor Munroe wrote that, "The public continues to regard the church as an institution of the highest importance." (Renewing Democracy into the Millennium, 1999).

The Johnson-Gleaner polls provide more information to make this judgment. The polls support the view that the Church remains an important institution. But respondents were also critical about corruption, business practices, and hypocrisy on the part of the Church.

Some church leaders, like Ernle Gordon, felt that the depth and quality of preaching had declined and the entertainment value of religious worship had become greater. This raises issues about the moral partnership possible between church, state and parties in the achievement of good governance. What is important is trust in institutions. Communism and atheism were never important in Jamaican politics. What is important are moral issues and the trust that people have in their moral-religious and political institutions in order to effectively address their issues.

Robert Buddan is a lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies. You can send your comments to robert.buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.