Dawn Ritch, Contributor
EVERY time the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) is ahead in the polls, they themselves do something foolish to cause them to lose it.
Mrs. Beverley Anderson-Manley, co-host of the radio programme "Break-fast Club" and former People's National Party (PNP) activist herself summed it up well last week. She said that the situation within the JLP should never have been allowed to get to the point where two party stalwarts like Pearnel Charles and Percy Broderick, could be fighting over the same seat. It should have been settled, she said, behind closed doors as would have happened in the PNP. It's the same thing she said as having Portia Simpson Miller and Dr. Peter Phillips contending for the same seat, and it couldn't happen.
Well, not exactly. Percy Broderick left active politics and did not run in the 1989 General Election, nor in 1993. He came back in '94 and ran and lost in East St. Andrew in the '97 election, and again resigned. In a widely carried public statement Mr. Broderick advised colleagues in his age group to retire in the interest of the party as he was doing.
Unlike Portia Simpson Miller or Pearnel Charles, "loyalty" seems not to be part of Mr. Broderick's vocabulary. So he comes and goes as he pleases. Now that he's back again, he's set his heart upon running in North Central Clarendon where Mr. Charles is currently the candidate, and this despite a public statement from the JLP that there was "No Vacancy" in the seat.
It seems that Mr. Broderick has nevertheless run up and down gathering signatures from people in the seat who say they want to be represented by him. The JLP is therefore inclined towards having a selection in the seat between the two men, saying that this is what their constitution requires under the circumstances.
It seems to me that the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party only waves around their constitution whenever they want to justify their own managerial ineptitude. They never seem to lose an opportunity to set their numbers at each other's throats.
Where does it state in the JLP constitution that its leadership is entrusted to sew divisiveness, mistrust and malice among party officers and workers prior to a General Election? Where does it also mandate that this must be done in the most publicly-humiliating fashion possible?
Mismanagement
This is the kind of abject party mis-management that has led some to believe that JLP leader Mr. Edward Seaga has decided to remain Opposition Leader for life. They see the mismanagement as his grand design. It really doesn't matter to him, they say that others in the party may want to become cabinet ministers, because he already gets the second highest salary in Parliament. They also say Mr. Seaga watches without preventing his officers, caretakers and party workers tear each other apart. The more they do so, the more secure his own position.
These claims do him a grave injustice. Were I in his shoes I would think the country absolutely schizophrenic. First they spend 15 years running cartoons saying I'm the "One Don", and now I'm ascribed evil motive in the book for not taking charge.
Well, get over it Mr. Seaga. As I remember the PNP Opposi-tion gave you the name "One Don" during your term of office as Prime Minister in the 1980s, and it stuck. In that decade there was no detail too small for your attention, no fool suffered gladly, and no nonsense tolerated. As a consequence Jamaica experienced fresh and substantial foreign and local investment, people had jobs and could afford to own their own homes, and the hospitals and schools were restored.
After you went into opposition in 1989, the public heard not a word from you on the "Gang of Five". Only from Bruce Golding and Babsy Grange. Everything they did, they did in your name. Now Bruce has formed the National Democratic Movement (NDM), but Babsy is still there. And everything fractious is still done in your name, or that of the so-called constitution.
It is clear to the most dim-witted, however, that the person who ran the country so well is not the one now running the JLP. And if you can't manage your own party, how can you manage the country?
In politics everybody has a sphere of influence. From the indoor or outdoor agent to the polling division captain. The effective political party respects this. Their sphere of influence might not, however, have the same impact in a garrison seat, but even in these it is a witless politician who alienates his own workers, or indeed uses her or his affiliation to West Kingston, or the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, to alienate JLP constituency workers.
Whatever the reason for the dog war currently going on in North Central Clarendon, East St. Thomas or South East St. Mary, the job of leader is to put an end to it discreetly, and behind closed doors.
As a sitting Member of Parliament Miss Grange has the funds to prevail with might in the garrison seat of Central St. Catherine. But when a delegation arrived at Belmont Road two weeks ago composed of party loyalists from that seat wanting Miss Grange's removal, the message couldn't be louder that there will be more dog wars to come. Intimidation must not be allowed to provide the answers to internal party problems.
Nobody thrives in chaos, least of all Mr. Seaga. You are meticulous, and this is its antithesis. It is high time for you to get a grip. The country expects you to take charge.
FOOTNOTE: There is a great item on the Internet "The People vs The Government" it reads as follows:-
The Court of Appeal on Thursday the 22nd December, 2000 ruled that the Government of Jamaica as presently constituted is not qualified to stage a Nativity scene at Christmas. This ruling is not based on religious grounds, but in recognition of the fact that they are not able to provide between them three wise men or a virgin. Their Lordships have, however, taken judicial notice of the fact that the cabinet is in a position to provide more than enough asses to fill a stable.
