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Why the PNP lost the 2007 elections
Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
RESEARCH findings on media representation of women in the 2007 general elections in Jamaica claim that gender, colour and class were influential elements in the campaign which led to victory for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the loss of power by the People's National Party (PNP). That is the summary of a news item on a report of a special forum published in the Observer of October 15. The report was presented by researcher Kinishea Correia recently at the forum, entitled "Women in Politics: Reflections on the 2007 elections in Jamaica", sponsored by the University of the West Indies Centre for Gender Studies.
I do not believe that gender and colour were a feature of the media presentation, but certainly class was. The JLP's advertisements did not specifically refer to PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller's gender, colour or working-class background, although there were undertones in the country.
Rather, it was the PNP's campaign handlers who were pushing for people to vote for Portia because of her working-class background, gender and colour. What the JLP's campaign people did in their advertising campaign was to reflect on her weaknesses, mainly her temperament, speeches and antics on the platform which fell short of a PNP leader. Simpson Miller and her backers also failed to grasp the psyche of the Jamaican poor. They invariably want their leaders to be a cut above them and not to talk down to them, which Portia had a way of doing. Despite criticisms and suggestions, she refused to change her style.
One may recall that PNP president and founder Norman Washington Manley had a remarkable hold on people through his speech. I once heard a Jamaican saying of Manley: "And when he expounded the King's vocabulary the very walls of the building trembled, and the crowd shouted 'talk, you talk, you big'." That is also why many trade union leaders drove big cars. Small cars would not impress union membership. What the PNP's campaigners failed to do was to adequately emphasise Portia's good heart and sincerity, which in politics are assets.
In any case, the negative factors and poor strategy in the PNP campaign did not cause it to lose the elections. Rather, it was the long 18-year reign of the party without much to show for the poor. Jamaicans, including some PNP supporters, were quietly saying, "It is time for a change: they appear tired and want some rest." Certainly, on the basis of the bad conditions of at least 90 per cent of the parish council and farm roads in the country over the period of its rule, the PNP did not deserve a fifth term. The PNP government failed to provide parish councils with sufficient funds to maintain these roads while a lot of money was being wasted. The display of Simpson's colour - yellow - worn by herself and some of her followers, alone or along with the party's historical and revered colour - orange - angered many PNP supporters. I heard followers from the camp of Peter Phillips, Portia's main rival in the PNP presidential campaign which she won, saying that they would not vote for her. How widespread this was I cannot ascertain. Other factors were that some of the big guns in the party did not support her as they should in the campaign; corruption, which was rife; and mismanagement of the economy which, among other things, left a national debt of $1 trillion. Yet, the party's loss by the narrowest of margins was an achievement.
Race issue in USA: shame in Louisiana, regret in North Carolina
Forty-seven summers ago while touring some of the southern states in the United States of America, I travelled by train through Louisiana and saw "whites only" signs at the entrance of the railway stations in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In spite of the heroic fight by black Americans, supported by a few whites, there are still pockets of race discrimination in Louisiana.
There is a town named Jena in Louisiana where tension between races arose this summer after four blacks were charged with attempted murder following an incident in which a white schoolmate was slightly injured. During the controversy which followed, two nooses were hung from a tree in front of the schoolyard. Nooses were the weapon used to lynch blacks many years ago. The charges against the four boys were dropped following a massive march on the town by people from many states. According to reports, this is not the first time that unequal justice had been meted out to blacks in Jena in many years.
Meantime, this summer as I visited the US south, as I have been doing since 1960, to look at the race problem, I continued to see considerable changes in the attitude and spirit of white Americans against blacks. A classic example of the change was demonstrated in Charlotte, North Carolina during my visit there. On September 4, 1957, a 15-year-old black girl, Dorothy Counts, walked into integrated Harding High in Charlotte. It was her first day at school and she walked like a princess, head high, shoulders straight. It was not an easy walk. She walked alone with pride in the middle of racial prejudice - a sea of white students trailing behind and taunting her.
According to Tommy Tomlinson, writing in the Charlotte Observer of Sunday, September 2, 2007, "the dress that her grandmother made for her first day in school has spit on it. Every so often, something flies towards her: a stick, a chunk of ice, a balled-up milk carton. The students screamed at her to go back home." But she continued to walk majestically. She walked her way to school and into the history books of Charlotte and the United States. She had struck a blow against discrimination.
However, change came many years after. Many of the students who jeered Dorothy Counts are now expressing regret. One of the students who yelled at her as she tried to make it to the school said he was very young and a very foolish boy, and then later apologised for what he did. And on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the incident, Dorothy returned to the school as a heroine to attend a function in her honour. Whites and blacks came, politicians and civil rights leaders and young children came. Everybody wanted to hug her. The governor of the state sent her a letter.
The city and county governments did a joint proclamation calling it "Breaking Barriers Day". Said Dorothy, "Fifty years ago I walked through these doors feeling unaccepted. Fifty years later, I walk through these doors feeling accepted."
However, the fight against race discrimination continues in the USA.
Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
RESEARCH findings on media representation of women in the 2007 general elections in Jamaica claim that gender, colour and class were influential elements in the campaign which led to victory for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the loss of power by the People's National Party (PNP). That is the summary of a news item on a report of a special forum published in the Observer of October 15. The report was presented by researcher Kinishea Correia recently at the forum, entitled "Women in Politics: Reflections on the 2007 elections in Jamaica", sponsored by the University of the West Indies Centre for Gender Studies.
I do not believe that gender and colour were a feature of the media presentation, but certainly class was. The JLP's advertisements did not specifically refer to PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller's gender, colour or working-class background, although there were undertones in the country.
Rather, it was the PNP's campaign handlers who were pushing for people to vote for Portia because of her working-class background, gender and colour. What the JLP's campaign people did in their advertising campaign was to reflect on her weaknesses, mainly her temperament, speeches and antics on the platform which fell short of a PNP leader. Simpson Miller and her backers also failed to grasp the psyche of the Jamaican poor. They invariably want their leaders to be a cut above them and not to talk down to them, which Portia had a way of doing. Despite criticisms and suggestions, she refused to change her style.
One may recall that PNP president and founder Norman Washington Manley had a remarkable hold on people through his speech. I once heard a Jamaican saying of Manley: "And when he expounded the King's vocabulary the very walls of the building trembled, and the crowd shouted 'talk, you talk, you big'." That is also why many trade union leaders drove big cars. Small cars would not impress union membership. What the PNP's campaigners failed to do was to adequately emphasise Portia's good heart and sincerity, which in politics are assets.
In any case, the negative factors and poor strategy in the PNP campaign did not cause it to lose the elections. Rather, it was the long 18-year reign of the party without much to show for the poor. Jamaicans, including some PNP supporters, were quietly saying, "It is time for a change: they appear tired and want some rest." Certainly, on the basis of the bad conditions of at least 90 per cent of the parish council and farm roads in the country over the period of its rule, the PNP did not deserve a fifth term. The PNP government failed to provide parish councils with sufficient funds to maintain these roads while a lot of money was being wasted. The display of Simpson's colour - yellow - worn by herself and some of her followers, alone or along with the party's historical and revered colour - orange - angered many PNP supporters. I heard followers from the camp of Peter Phillips, Portia's main rival in the PNP presidential campaign which she won, saying that they would not vote for her. How widespread this was I cannot ascertain. Other factors were that some of the big guns in the party did not support her as they should in the campaign; corruption, which was rife; and mismanagement of the economy which, among other things, left a national debt of $1 trillion. Yet, the party's loss by the narrowest of margins was an achievement.
Race issue in USA: shame in Louisiana, regret in North Carolina
Forty-seven summers ago while touring some of the southern states in the United States of America, I travelled by train through Louisiana and saw "whites only" signs at the entrance of the railway stations in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In spite of the heroic fight by black Americans, supported by a few whites, there are still pockets of race discrimination in Louisiana.
There is a town named Jena in Louisiana where tension between races arose this summer after four blacks were charged with attempted murder following an incident in which a white schoolmate was slightly injured. During the controversy which followed, two nooses were hung from a tree in front of the schoolyard. Nooses were the weapon used to lynch blacks many years ago. The charges against the four boys were dropped following a massive march on the town by people from many states. According to reports, this is not the first time that unequal justice had been meted out to blacks in Jena in many years.
Meantime, this summer as I visited the US south, as I have been doing since 1960, to look at the race problem, I continued to see considerable changes in the attitude and spirit of white Americans against blacks. A classic example of the change was demonstrated in Charlotte, North Carolina during my visit there. On September 4, 1957, a 15-year-old black girl, Dorothy Counts, walked into integrated Harding High in Charlotte. It was her first day at school and she walked like a princess, head high, shoulders straight. It was not an easy walk. She walked alone with pride in the middle of racial prejudice - a sea of white students trailing behind and taunting her.
According to Tommy Tomlinson, writing in the Charlotte Observer of Sunday, September 2, 2007, "the dress that her grandmother made for her first day in school has spit on it. Every so often, something flies towards her: a stick, a chunk of ice, a balled-up milk carton. The students screamed at her to go back home." But she continued to walk majestically. She walked her way to school and into the history books of Charlotte and the United States. She had struck a blow against discrimination.
However, change came many years after. Many of the students who jeered Dorothy Counts are now expressing regret. One of the students who yelled at her as she tried to make it to the school said he was very young and a very foolish boy, and then later apologised for what he did. And on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the incident, Dorothy returned to the school as a heroine to attend a function in her honour. Whites and blacks came, politicians and civil rights leaders and young children came. Everybody wanted to hug her. The governor of the state sent her a letter.
The city and county governments did a joint proclamation calling it "Breaking Barriers Day". Said Dorothy, "Fifty years ago I walked through these doors feeling unaccepted. Fifty years later, I walk through these doors feeling accepted."
However, the fight against race discrimination continues in the USA.
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