Dawn RitchEVERYBODY KNOWS that Bruce Golding was not my choice for leader of the Jamaica Labour party (JLP). But it has happened, and it must be said.
The 62nd Annual Conference at the National Arena where he was crowned was reconfigured and dressed to the nineses. It was the most up-to-date looking JLP Conference ever, but it lacked a focus.
There was a V-shaped platform, and some distance away a very high pulpit-like structure from which each person spoke. This pulpit-podium could only fit four or five people comfortably at the most. So much has the vessel shrunk.
PRESUMPTUOUS
It seems a little presumptuous for people who haven't won state power in over 16 years to be lecturing and preaching to the party faithful and the nation from a pulpit on live television. But there it was. So designed no doubt to lend an air of authority to the accession of Bruce Golding to the leadership of the party, someone who has never fought for anything in his life. He has only negotiated and now by acclamation is the new leader of the JLP. Why quite so high up in the air, and why that shape for a political podium?
Was it the dirty laundry list presented by Golding as his maiden speech? He unveiled
a pile of dirty linen in
agreements reached between the JLP and the government that have only been partly or not implemented. It is therefore clear that for 16 years the JLP has sat in conciliatory talks behind closed doors with the ruling People's National Party (PNP), and agreed all sorts of things without any reference to the Jamaican people. No wonder they couldn't be bothered to win an election.
By the time Golding finished reeling off this long everlasting list, he had spoken for over an hour and half the room was empty. He said "We are ready to sit down with the government not only on these issues, but on any matter that will advance the interests of the people of Jamaica".
PHILOSOPHICAL CONVICTION
Is he seized by the philosophical conviction that Jamaica's problems can be itemised, new ones invented and everything negotiated away as long as he, or anyone else wishes? If that were so, state power would be the sole purview of monks, and not politicians.
Politicians have something to do. They can't just cogitate and wait.
This maiden speech is
intellectualism gone mad.
The point of leadership is not itemisation, nor solutions being debated ad nauseam. The object of leadership, which Golding now has, is prioritisation of urgent needs in the national interests of the Jamaican people.
Golding didn't mention the problem of his getting a by-election in Western Kingston which he hopes to represent in Parliament, again hopefully as leader of the Opposition. But Delroy Chuck had already dealt with it. He has been reported as saying there would be no CCJ without a by-election for Golding. Only then can the government have the two-thirds majority they need to establish the CCJ lawfully.
The Prime Minister the Most Honourable P. J. Patterson has been found by the Privy Council acting unconstitutionally in setting up the CCJ, and
the JLP Opposition wants to negotiate. Is this among the 'any other matters' Golding had in mind in his speech, and does he think a by-election
for himself in the national
interest?
It cannot be. This can only be in Golding's interests, and that of one out of 60 constituencies in the island perhaps. The JLP knew he didn't have a seat when they selected him, and that's their problem. Not ours, nor cannot it be made the fault of the Government regardless of even the most contemporary spin that can be put on that perennial problem.
The most honourable is probably minded to assist Golding, if only for cynical PNP political reasons. After all the JLP has been unable to prevent themselves leaping overthat cliff. It is therefore unlikely that the Most Honourable will be detained by any concern about an unsavoury and unethical taint, should he hasten his usually leisurely approach to holding by-elections. The prime minister has the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party exactly where he wants dependent upon him for any hope of life.
CRESTFALLEN
It was therefore, a matter of some moment that Edward Seaga relented and appeared at the 62nd Conference. Let the record show that only two
people in the JLP hierarchy enjoyed it. Most were crestfallen and captured live on national television in careful headshot after headshot, as though the TVJ crew had known it would happen.
Delroy Chuck is now trying to give the impression in his column for this newspaper that he was in on it. If he were a prime mover behind Seaga attending the conference, it is hardly likely that he would have been caught on camera with his nostrils flared.
WELL-KNOWN FIGURES
Of all the well-known figures in the JLP, only Babsy Grange and Daryl Vaz looked happy. She, because she worked on it, and he because he loves
successful political manoeuvres regardless of where they
originate. Seaga stole the show, both by the political grandeur of his tumultuous reception from the delegates, a reception accorded neither Bruce Golding nor Pearnel Charles, and the obvious discomfort of the Golding camp and all their guests.
It was an upset of major
proportions and will likely make it difficult for Golding to put his stamp upon the party. This perilous situation is
further aggravated by the fact that Golding doesn't even have a stamp, save and except separation of powers, which is of no urgent concern to anyone, not even apparently his own party.
On the day after the Conference, Seaga was on one radio station, Golding on another. They were saying completely different things about the policies of the JLP on a whole range of issues. It was the tower of Babel and not likely to improve.
