Colin Steer, Associate Editor - Opinion
More than 15 years after visiting the office of a medical doctor to do an interview for an article and being greeted by his receptionist, I have not forgotten her face.
She was what Jamaicans would call a 'big woman' and the French, a woman of a 'certain age', meaning she was, perhaps, close to or past retirement. What was stark was that she was wearing a lot of cosmetics and her jet-black hair contrasted sharply with her fair complexion. If the intention was to appear younger, she had succeeded in creating the very opposite effect.
The recent clampdown on media access in the People's National Party (PNP) among supporters and spokespersons was no doubt aimed at protecting its image from the tawdry picture of soiled laundry on a line in a yard with a broken-down fence. But the party's problem is much deeper than image and certainly can't be fixed by surface changes.
On the one hand, the incumbent party leader and challenger have both spoken, on different occasions, about recapturing the party's 'democratic socialist' roots and ideals. What does that mean in today's Jamaica and today's world?
If comrades Portia Simpson Miller and Peter Phillips mean that there remain great social inequalities in Jamaica that have to be addressed, how do they propose to do so under the umbrella of 'democratic socialism'?
Certainly, the rhetoric that resonated with a dissatisfied middle class and marginalised underclass of the 1960s and '70s would sound hollow today. They can't blame Jamaica's problems on 21 families controlling the economy.
Class struggle
Most of the easily identifiable white and near-white members of the business class no longer operate here. So who are today's 'oppressors' against whom the underclass will have to struggle? Do social inequalities remain? Of course. The question is: Can this be changed by the kind of class struggle that appealed to an earlier generation?
The stated grand purpose of the PNP over its first four decades of existence was to provide leadership in the movement for self-government and independence and, under Michael Manley, to engage in class struggle to challenge extant economic and social structures. The country, therefore, needs to hear more from Simpson Miller and Phillips, what either one of them means by recapturing the party's democratic socialist ideals.
Lacks visionary leadership
On the other hand, the public has heard party comrades say of Mrs Simpson Miller, that she has not provided visionary leadership, that even when she is presented with reports on which to act, she is not given to the discipline of reading and absorbing and then leading the charge to implement necessary changes.
If they are correct and she prevails in this weekend's elections, what chances are there that she will become more diligent in applying herself to the weighty matters of party and state in the years ahead?
Ruthless party machinery
Also, despite the frequent references in some quarters to Peter Phillips' intellectual capacities, if he were to prevail this weekend, Jamaica may yet see a more ruthless party machinery in operation in the short run, before it gets back to any philosophising about ideology and governance. Winning becomes everything.
The worst thing that could happen to the PNP, and Jamaica, would be for the party to paper over the deep hostilities manifested in these last two presidential elections and to pretend that "we are now all united". For, fundamentally, they would not have addressed the core issue - what the party is about and what gave rise to these hostilities? They need a time to engage in introspection and redefining their core values and tenets - not just salivating at the prospects of regaining state power quickly.
Jamaica has had more than its fair share of cultic personality worship. This has not served us well in the past, and certainly will not in the near future. In more ways than one, the PNP's dilemma is Jamaica's.
Feedback may be sent to colin.steer@gleanerjm.com.
