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The Voice

Bridging the credibility gap
published: Friday | November 5, 2004


Heather Robinson

Heather Robinson

THE POSSIBILITY that one's past will be used as a major factor in determining a politician's future is one of the many risks that politicians take. Electors over time have become increasingly more interested in the past behaviour of individuals who are currently offering themselves for positions in national leadership. The Jamaica Labour Party is expected to elect a new leader sometime soon. Both contenders for the position, Pearnel Charles and Bruce Golding, have been trying for several months now to persuade the JLP delegates and the wider Jamaican electorate that they are credible candidates for the position of JLP leader.

Two of the more common credibility measures are trustworthiness and honesty. An examination of these two measures is very revealing in any leadership race. It would be very interesting to know what is the largest age cohort among the JLP delegates. Delegates born between 1964 and 1971 would have been in the age group 18-25 in 1989 when the JLP last formed the government and could therefore have some memory and understanding of the JLP's performance as a government, and also the performance of then Members of Parliament and Ministers of Government Bruce Golding and Pearnel Charles. These persons are now in the age group 33-40.

Persons who are younger will have to rely on what they are told by older persons including some of those who have continued to sit in Parliament these 15 years. Some of these persons include Edward Seaga, Mike Henry and Carl Samuda. In 1995 when Bruce Golding left the JLP and formed the National Democratic Movement (NDM) persons who are now in the 33-40 age group would have been in the 24-31 age group and should be able to rely on their own recollections of that period.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

These persons might also need to ask Bruce Golding and Pearnel Charles to list their accomplishments as ministers of government. How many houses were built by the JLP government during Bruce Golding's tenure as Minister of Construction and Housing? What were the improvements done to the road network under his leadership? And as an MP what were the developments done in Central St Catherine to improve the livelihood and living conditions of the people there?

And for Pearnel Charles, many would have heard of your tremendous popularity with the Jamaican people, what was it that you did as minister that made people like you so much? And if you were indeed a good MP, why did the people of Eastern St Thomas in 1993 deny you the opportunity to represent them again? In 1997 the people of Central St Catherine also rejected Bruce Golding their longtime MP who offered himself as an NDM candidate. Why?

During my early months of campaigning for the St Catherine South Central constituency in 1992, residents of Spanish Town told me many stories about the sitting MP, and if I learnt nothing else I learnt the following. Constituents remember two things about their MP: the very good and the very bad. Therefore as an MP you should try and do only very good things to ensure that by the time the very good is exaggerated downwards you are still ahead in the game.

While listening to Bruce Golding speak during this campaign for the leadership of the JLP, I am overcome with a sense of déjà vu as I wonder if this is the 1997 general election campaign platform of the NDM or is it Bruce Golding campaigning to replace Edward Seaga? When I listen to Pearnel Charles, I am impressed by his promise to do the same for Jamaican children, as he has been able to do for his own children. And in all of this in seeking to determine who is more credible one question must be asked. Can either of them pass the trustworthy and honesty test?

GRAPHIC MEMORIES

Another of the things that I learnt while being an MP - which is related to my first lesson - is that some people have very graphic memories and our strong oral tradition allows them to provide descriptions of action, sequence and time. Can either of these two men bridge this credibility gap between themselves and the JLP delegates and ultimately the Jamaican people? Fortunately the Jamaican people have another three years to know who these would-be leaders are, and were.


Heather Robinson is a life underwriter and former Member of Parliament.

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