Wanted: A better, smarter PNP

[evanovitch]

Wanted: A better, smarter PNP



Last weekend, I was in a supermarket in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew, standing in line, waiting to pay for my groceries, when out of nowhere, this woman, with a long scar on her left cheek and dressed in a dirty, short jeans skirt and a red T shirt barged in front of me, paid for whatever she was buying without even the courtesy of saying excuse me.

Someone asked her if she was heading to the arena to which she replied: "Portia, a dweet!" Then, as quickly as she appeared, she was gone, obviously off to the National Arena to support her leader.

Later that day, I was in Liguanea sipping on a drink, while my son devoured some KFC, when a friend of mine and her friend walked up and we began talking about the possible outcome of the election that had taken place at the arena a couple hours before.

Like many Jamaicans, they were on pins and needles wanting an outcome they believed would be in the best interest of not just the party, but Jamaica. It was obvious that none of them wanted Portia Simpson Miller to be the winner, but realised that they were powerless to do anything about it.


Powerless

Why, because like many working class Jamaicans, they are not involved in the political process of a party they support, and because of that, it is left to other people to make decisions they are ill-equipped to make.

So, what has happened is that the party leader retained her position and well, the rest as they say, is history. And while her supporters celebrate, many others are now rueing their stand-by-and-watch-attitude that cost them their say in the PNP and more importantly, a much-needed change of direction.

I mean, look at what has been happening since the conclusion of those elections; the party is turning on itself. Constituents are turning on their representatives. The cannibalism is now on in earnest and I don't think the party leader is doing enough to stem the haemorrhaging.

A lot of people love the PNP leader because they say she loves poor people. And no one can deny that. Have you ever been to her constituency? It's full of poor people; some of the nation's poorest. Portia loves poor people.


Wrong leader

I have made no secret of the fact that I didn't think she is the person to lead Jamaica into the future and it seems like most of Jamaica agreed with me, which is why she is now leader of the Opposition. And based on the feedback I am getting from people since last Saturday, it seems as if the JLP is going to be in power for some time. So I guess Bruce is one happy man these days, for as long as there are debates there can only be one outcome in any future general election.

So, those supporters of the PNP who were hoping for a different outcome, now have two options. They can either decide that now is the time to start taking a more proactive role and rescue the party from itself, or they can choose to switch sides which for many is really not an option.

I guess the lesson has been learned. It's not enough to sit by and watch and hope for a suitable outcome to happenings inside the party. People have to stop talking and start doing. From where I stand, it is clear that the quality of delegates within the party need an urgent upgrade. (The same can be said for the JLP). The PNP desperately needs people who can make sound decisions in the best interest of the country.

It's either that or leaving the PNP in the hands of people like the woman who cut in front of me in the supermarket last week Saturday. If the PNP is to return to power any time within the foreseeable future, such a scenario is definitely not an option.

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[Tuff Gong]

Re: Wanted: A better, smarter PNP


Another big hypocrite. Menlie and his gangs brought this kind of thing to the forefront of the Party, so-called journalist such as this joker have been defending that wing of the Party for decades until they wanted a Brown Man to run thing.

Portia is a protégé of the Menlie System of the 70s; she did not just come from just anywhere and take the Party over.

The Elections (including Party Leadership races) that the PNP has won or lost since the 70s have been ran on the following themes:

Better mus come
My leeda bawn yah
Socialist Time Now
The Fresh Prince
Blackman Time Now
Fly di Gate and let in the Pirate
Fourth Term
Portia is not only the hope but the only hope

It seems to me that the girl with the cut in her face was an integral part in all of these, since finesse and policy was never at the forefront but the brute force of those cutting the line.

[evanovitch]

PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

PNP elders reflect: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart
published: Sunday | September 28, 2008

Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter



WITH SIGNS of bitterness and separation peeping through the cracks of the 70-year-old People's National Party (PNP), founding member Richard Hart is warning that a fall-out within the ranks could be devastating.

Hart, a member of the infamous Four Hs who were expelled from the PNP in 1952, tells The Sunday Gleaner that the PNP could bleed heavily if it remained divided.

"It would be very damaging to the PNP to have a break-up now. I don't think they could survive it," Hart says.

The once-enviable PNP's robe has been unravelling since the 2006 presidential elections. After a bruising campaign, Portia Simpson Miller was elected to replace the outgoing P.J. Patterson as president of the party.


Two-and-a-half years later, Dr Peter Phillips, who had finished second to Simpson Miller in 2006, challenged her and was beaten - by an increased margin - by 373 votes.

"But it certainly is not the greatest crisis of the party's history," reasons Hart. I think the ouster of the party's left wing in 1951-52 was worse because it diluted the party's nationalism and anti-imperialism for some years, a situation which was not remedied until Michael Manley had succeeded his father as party leader and restored the original composition of the party."

He adds: "Norman Manley was lucky that by the time of the following general election, the strength and popularity of the ousted leftists had drastically declined, due mainly to the policy of apology and retreat which Ken Hill, the leader of the left, insisted on introducing."

Since his defeat a week ago, Phillips and key lieutenant Maxine Henry-Wilson have resigned from their posts in the shadow Cabinet. Sources close to both have reported that they will not be accepting spokesperson assignments from Simpson Miller and will, instead, move to the backbenches in the House of Representatives.


Hart, while indicating that he does not get blow-by-blow information on developments in the PNP, says he does not think party members have daggers drawn.

"They seem to be united now as far as I can see," Hart says, while adding that ideology is what has always fractured the PNP. "And I do see where there is a difference of ideology," he says.

Political analysts have argued that the PNP may descend into chaos if Simpson Miller fails to unite the factions. Despite her gaining the majority vote on September 20, 45 per cent of the delegates held the view that she was not the party's best choice for president.

Hart notes, however, that "the mass of the membership of the party seems to prefer Portia".

For Hart, the central question facing the PNP now is how it make itself more relevant to most Jamaicans. According to the once-controversial PNP founding member, Bruce Golding has brought the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in line with PNP philosophy and has has won numerous hearts.

"With (Edward) Seaga going out of prominence, Bruce Golding is much more progressive than he was. Golding has led the JLP to a situation when there is not much difference between the JLP and the PNP," Hart reasons. "Seaga was associated in the minds of a large number of Jamaicans with everything reactionary and conservative. Not so Golding," Hart adds.

He says the PNP has its work cut out, but notes that he cannot advise Simpson Miller about how to unite the party.

"I am not qualified," says Hart, who, along with Ken Hill, Frank Hill and Arthur Henry, were expelled from the PNP in 1952.

[email protected]

[evanovitch]

Re: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

PNP elders reflect - 'Party won't shatter'
published: Sunday | September 28, 2008

Lovelette Brooks, News Editor



VETERAN MEMBERS of the People's National Party (PNP) have scoffed at claims that the present infighting and bad blood in the party could leave it seriously wounded, if not dead.

The former front-line members say they have seen worse clashes in the 70-year history of the PNP and the party has survived these and gone from strength to strength.

"Every vibrant, active political party will have contests for leadership. This is nothing new," party elder David Coore tells The Sunday Gleaner in an interview.

Former general secretary, Dudley Thompson, agrees, and does not think the present fallout is the greatest crisis the party has ever faced. He recounts some stormy internal squabbles between former leader and late Prime Minister Michael Manley and his ministers.

"I recall an occasion in which there was serious division in the party as to whether we should continue with the International Monetary Fund. Prime Minister Michael Manley called a special meeting of party leaders and after a free debate, agreement was reached."


Thompson shares another incident where there was a disagreement over some policy issues resulting in the Comrade leader threatening to resign.

"There was a meeting of the party executive where Prime Minister Manley required a unanimous vote in support of a suggestion of his. The party voted with two in opposition and one in abstention. Michael, who had not attended, threatened to resign as leader. It was a very difficult period as we were actually in a campaign for local-government elections.

"I had a long and serious discussion with Mr Manley and came to the agreement that he would withhold his resignation, which he had already written out, until after the election. We won the election and he let the matter drop," Thompson says.


Another former party heavyweight and elder statesman, Richard Hart, who now resides in the United Kingdom, also in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner, expresses optimism that the PNP will survive the divide between Simpson Miller and Phillips.

"In my day, there were serious ideological differences between the 'left' and 'right' factions. These were ideological and more serious than the party now faces," he says, adding, however, that the current friction could be damaging.


Delegates of the PNP took to the polls on September 20 after months of vigorous and public campaigning. Having had a tradition of one leader stepping aside for the other, the party held its fourth presidential election.

Under the supervision of the Electoral Office of Jamaica, delegates reaffirmed Portia Simpson Miller as leader of the party. She outclassed her opponent by 373 votes.

Commenting on the outcome of the election, David Coore points to a "contest of personalities and programmatic difference" between Simpson Miller and Phillips.

"There is no ideological split; it was a contest at the personal level to see who was more popular. Both Portia and Peter also had a difference of priorities - Portia has placed a heavy emphasis on structural, welfare issues, whereas Peter's emphasis is on infrastructural development, not that he is not also concerned about welfare ... ," says Coore.

According to Coore, the programmatic shift, which is dogging the party, can be resolved easily and in a very short time. He feels the two factions can work together, and would, under a general election watch.

"The speed of unification is contingent on how long a general election takes to be called," he asserts.


Downplaying what some pundits say is a widening chasm that will take years to close, the former government minister says the PNP 'hiccup' is of minor proportions, as the ideological base of the party remains intact.

On the resignation of the five shadow Cabinet members - Dr Peter Phillips, Maxine Henry-Wilson, Fitz Jackson, Sharon Hay-Webster and Dean Peart - the retired PNP executive member hails the move as a sensible one.

"The resignation of Peter and some of his top campaign officials from their shadow Cabinet posts is an expression of acceptance of the delegates' choice. They are saying, 'Let Portia make her new appointments in the same manner that the existing shadow ministers were appointed in 2006'."


Thompson offers his advice for resolving the current party differences. "I think both parties need to invite two or three members, all with no political ambition and agreed to by both, to a free discussion in private, designed to solve the rift and agreeing to abide by the results."

Putting into a global context the dramatic presidential race, Coore says that both the leaders of the ruling parties in Britain and Canada are at present facing leadership challenges.

"What is happening here in Jamaica is no different," he remarks.

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[evanovitch]

Re: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

Party's intellectual base alienated
published: Sunday | September 28, 2008

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

VINCENT EDWARDS, a long-serving member of the People's National Party (PNP), believes Peter Phillips' loss in last week's presidential race will alienate the party's intellectual base. This, he says, could keep the PNP out of power for some time.

"If you look at the party's history, it has always done well when it has the backing of the intelligentsia; they make the policies and handle fund-raisers," Edwards said Friday during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner. "How things stand, the party is going to have problems between now and the next elections."

The 75-year-old Edwards backed Phillips in an acrimonious presidential contest which was won convincingly by the incumbent, Portia Simpson Miller. It was the second time in 21 months that Phillips, a former University of the West Indies lecturer, was beaten for the post by Simpson Miller, a populist who is Jamaica's first female prime minister.


Last Monday, Phillips announced his resignation as the leader of opposition business in Parliament. Maxine Henry-Wilson, Fitz Jackson and Sharon Hay-Webster, all Phillips supporters and senior PNP members, followed suit.

They represent the PNP's middle-class faction with which Simpson Miller has been at odds since she assumed leadership in March 2006. In the lead-up to the polls, her supporters accused the Phillips camp of undermining her.

Edwards served the PNP as a two-term councilor and made three unsuccessful attempts for Parliament in general elections. In 1993, he supported Simpson Miller when she unsuccessfully ran against P.J. Patterson for party president. The difference between then and now, Edwards stressed, was that Patterson went for a policy of inclusion when he won.

"That's the biggest problem they have with Peter Phillips - he had the audacity to run against the incumbent," said Edwards. He points out that this goes against the principles of the party's most influential founding father.

"Norman Manley was never like that. He always left the door open for a challenge," he said.

Edwards says he has been a PNP member for over 60 years. The party he cut his political teeth on was built on the middle-class ideas of Norman Manley and 'high-brown' members, such as Noel Nethersole.

appealed to the working class

In 1968, when Manley's son, Michael, succeeded him as party president, he not only had middle-class backing, but appealed to the working class due to his position as an island supervisor with the National Workers' Union.

Edwards noted that while the common man provided the votes for Manley's landslide win in the 1972 general election, the intelligentsia's contribution to that victory was just as significant.

He said the intelligentsia has dwindled considerably since Patterson retired as party president nearly three years ago, and the decline is likely to continue with Phillips' defeat.


'In 1968, when Manley's son, Michael, succeeded him as party president, he not only had middle-class backing, but appealed to the working class.'

[Tuff Gong]

Re: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Party's intellectual base alienated
published: Sunday | September 28, 2008

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

VINCENT EDWARDS, a long-serving member of the People's National Party (PNP), believes Peter Phillips' loss in last week's presidential race will alienate the party's intellectual base. This, he says, could keep the PNP out of power for some time. </div></div>The day idiots such as Vin Edwards become the spokesman for the Party is the day the Party died.
It is clear that the Brown Man Wing dominated by the genetically linked comrades, who got fat under the Blackman Time banner are worried that their sponsors are going to be left out this go round. They bloody chickens with they collective heads lopped off.


I say it is all good. Menlie opened the gates to the riff-raff to control the dialogue in the Party while the so-called intellectuals rubber stamped whatever crassness and idiotic diatribe issued forth from their lips. This worked fine until the riff-raff mamma was the last one standing in the Leadership. She has not delivered in hope placed in her. The Palace Coup failed to dislodged her and has no put her and the Riff-Raff Army firmly in the driver's seat/

I say suck it up, light a cangle, sing a sankey and fine unno way ome or goh ded a bush!

[brianmaxw]

Re: Wanted: A better, smarter PNP

Jamaicans are getting more educated. I would like to see what the PNP and JLP will be like in 10 yrs time!

[Tuff Gong]

Re: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> They bloody chickens with they collective heads lopped off.! </div></div>...oops I meant they are running around like bloody chicken with their collective heads cut off.

[johnnycakes]

Re: Wanted: A better, smarter PNP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: brianmaxw</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Jamaicans are getting more educated. I would like to see what the PNP and JLP will be like in 10 yrs time! </div></div>


They will look much the same. They represent the status quo, always have and always will.

The intelligence of the general public has very little to do with how the country is run. The government consists of party members who have the interests of the party, the maintenance of their power and maintaining things as they were and are.

Jamaican politics are no different from those of the United States. It's only that the Jamaican system is younger.

Take a good look at U.S. politics and you will be able to see the future of Jamaican politics and it isn't good.

[Q3210]

Re: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> They bloody chickens with they collective heads lopped off.! </div></div>...oops I meant they are running around like bloody chicken with their collective heads cut off. </div></div>

Dem seh de `bre bre` regain power in the PNP now again. Yu done know seh what bre bre mean, dont.

[johnnycakes]

Re: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

In the end, what is really needed is a better and smarter Jamaican voter, without whom you'll never get a better and smarter PNP/ JLP/ government/ society.

We all have to learn from history that what has never worked is not likely to ever work and go from that understanding to the necessary changes.

[Q3210]

Re: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

Johhny, you`re right. We have been stuck in the same political rut for decades. A 2-party system that has fed party loyalists first and citizens next to never.
A rut where favours are done 2 ways between thugs, thieves and murderers hand in hand with so-called intellectuals that have surrendered integrity and dignity for filthy and ghoulishly low values. So much so that wrong cannot be righted. Extortionist run things on the buses in the bus parks of all towns in every parish. Public services are done only when an `extra-payment` is forthcoming.
Where evil is condoned and nothing done to stop it is what the 2-party sysytem has created and maintained at the cost of our lives in Jamaica.
To hell with our so-called leaders. They and their cronies have run Jamaica to the ground.

[johnnycakes]

Re: PNP can't survive break-up - Hart

Q3210,
Responding to me in that fashion is just preaching to the choir.
Try convincing other Jamaicans that the two-party system is really a one party, a capitalist party system.
As I've repeated over and over when a societies values come from a money based way of life, values just go down the plug hole.
The epidemic corruption in Jamaica is incurable with standard methods as the money based system is the basis of that corruption.

What is needed IMO is a system of representation wherein the people of a given political district choose their representative from amongst themselves and as in Cuba have meetings with that representative every six months (or so) in which that representative has to account to the assembled constituency for exactly what he/she has done in that time.
If he or she is found to be corrupt or otherwise undesirable, he.she can be voted out right then and there by a show of hands.

The cure is democracy and not only in the electoral system but in the economic sector as well.

As long as there is such a wide disparity between the haves and have-nots in Jamaica (and everywhere else) you just cannot eliminate the corruption which is money driven.

When people have enough and KNOW that their future security will be guaranteed, corruption will end.