Vaz Speaks

[Assasin]

How the West (Portland) was won.
Three Portia Simpson Millers could not take me out - Vaz
By Desmond Allen Executive Editor Special Coverage Unit specialcoverageunit@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, March 29, 2009
DARYL Vaz didn't think he was being pompous when he declared on nomination day for the West Portland by-election that he would win by over 2,000 votes. And it didn't bother him that not even close Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) colleagues took him seriously. In the end, he won by 2,294.
He's likely now to be given the benefit of the doubt for boasting to the Sunday Observer after his March 23 triumph: "I won the seat even before election day."
VAZ... I did it with my passion, commitment and hard work Vaz believes that West Portland was ripe for the picking. "The people of the parish of Portland as a whole have always felt that they were forgotten by previous administrations and never allocated their fair share of the pie, in respect of infrastructure and other amenities.
"I came in and identified myself as the de facto representative of the people and of Portland. West is my constituency but I have been Mr Portland. I bat for all the people," says Vaz, the son of a political father and former minister, Douglas Vaz.
Vaz insists he did not win because he outspent his People's National Party (PNP) opponent, Kenneth Rowe.
"I started working before the by-election. I was able to uplift the lives of the people and improve the infrastructure through my Constituency Development Fund and government ministries and agencies. I have been seen as one who stands up for Portland, especially in times of crisis and disasters. Trust and loyalty has been developed between me and the people of the parish.
"Water supplies, schools, roads are among the improvements I brought to Portland, and importantly, on a non-partisan basis. That allowed me to get a large block of people who did not support me in the 2007 general election."
Quoting the statistics, Vaz claims among his successes, the 72.6 per cent turnout on election day; a record margin of defeat - 2,294 votes compared with the 2,158 for Errol "Jiggs" Ennis in 1997; the largest turnout for a by-election in Portland's history and the most votes cast for any one candidate in that eastern parish.
"I did it with my passion, commitment and hard work. If you don't love what you are doing, you won't give it your all," adds Vaz. "I was working for the past 18 months (since the general election), not since the by-election was announced."
Vaz discloses that he worked to convert loyal PNP supporters and did. "They chose performance over loyalty." But he admits to some element of luck, at the expense of Abe Dabdoub, his erstwhile opponent in the general election, and the PNP campaign focus.
"The court action over dual citizenship sensitised the people of West Portland and threw the spotlight on the fact that I was working. They were not going to leave me after that. Got a lot of support and commitment from non-JLP supporters," he says.
"Then the PNP wanted to have a referendum on the government's performance. It was a bad move. They changed the focus from Vaz vs Rowe to Vaz vs Simpson Miller. The results represents a devastating blow to her and the PNP.
"It has shown that in the end, the people's choice must prevail. No one, including in my own party, wanted to believe me when I predicted that I would win by over 2,000 votes. But I know the work I had done as someone who meant the constituency well and performed. I won the seat before election day.
"It would have taken three Portia Simpson Millers to take me out," says Vaz, unable to mask his pride.

[Assasin]

How the West was lost I knew I couldn't win - Rowe
By HG Helps Editor-at-Large Special Coverage Unit specialcoverageunit@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, March 29, 2009
KENNETH Rowe found out late that defeating Daryl Vaz would be more difficult than sprinting up to the Blue Mountain peak.
Rowe, the former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate turned People's National Party (PNP) MP hopeful, started out believing he had a reasonable chance of upsetting the odds in the West Portland by-election.
ROWE... the constituency was left by itself for too long A PNP-commissioned opinion poll and the presence of the party hierarchy, united or not, had given the man from Linstead, St Catherine the fillip that he needed. But there was a time leading up to the March 23 poll that Rowe knew that his chances of beating Vaz were as slim as him becoming the next head of the Roman Catholic Church.
"As you get into the campaign you start to feel that maybe we could do this. But in the last week when I saw the effect of the money on the ground, I realised that we could not match it and based on my knowledge of the constituency, I knew that we could possibly be in trouble," Rowe admitted in a post-election interview with the Sunday Observer.
The claim that the JLP had used public funds to organise projects for potential voters that would tip the scales in its favour had been raised by the PNP soon after the campaign began.
Rowe claims that the ruling party had also handed out cash to lure voters.
"As we got closer to the day and I saw more and more the effects of the cash, I was a little bit worried. I was really hoping that we could overcome this, but it didn't happen. I am very concerned, because our democracy and the right to vote is precious.
"When your own supporters are telling you. 'Look, they are giving out money, and you have to give us something to come out and vote or else.', it's terrible. We have to look into ourselves as a society. We cannot continue like this.
"The JLP knew that this was going to happen and they started their mobilisation work within the last 18 months. They put in some amount of infrastructural work, they continued some of the PNP's infrastructural development too. a lot of money went into Portland Western, so people will get the impression that 'yes', this Member of Parliament is working. I guess they did what they had to do, but that contributed a lot too," Rowe said.
But the PNP candidate conceded that poor group organisation within the constituency was also one of the reasons for his loss. And though still maintaining that he was the best possible chance for a PNP victory in the seat, Rowe was well aware of some of the other challenges that would face him.
"I knew that I would have been well behind the eight ball. It was not an election that we were favoured to win. We would always be the underdogs and for us to win it would be an upset, so we always knew that," he said.
Rowe, who said he and Vaz did not speak to each other during the campaign, polled 5,633 votes in succumbing to the victor, whose 7,927 votes confirmed him as the popular choice and closed a chapter in Vaz's life that was disrupted by a court ruling that he was ineligible to hold public office because he held citizenship of the United States, as well as a Jamaican passport.
The insignificant 28 polled by independent candidate Astor Black, political analysts said, could be a message to the Rastafarian that he should cease losing his deposit in every election that is up for contest.
Counting his losses, Rowe said that a proper assessment would be done in the process of moving forward.
"The constituency was left by itself for too long. There was no organisation, no leadership in there for the past 18 months and that had a serious psychological effect, because people really believed that the leadership didn't care much about them.
"On the other hand, while there was this period of inactivity on the part of the PNP, the JLP was busy enumerating people. This is a numbers game. You need to have more supporters on the voters' list than your opponent. They were busy and put on over 900 new people on the list when we were doing nothing.
"If you look at the result, I thought that we achieved something, in that the party was able to retain and energise its base. People thought that we would have lost that," Rowe said.
Not even the powerful influence of party leader Portia Simpson Miller could swing the balance in Rowe's direction.
Simpson Miller had been in the constituency almost daily since Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced the date for the by-election.
She walked door to door, night and day, apparently to no avail. But Rowe's faith in her remained unshaken.
"She is the most popular politician and people love her, so it could never hurt my campaign, it could only enhance it. Her campaign gave my campaign a wow factor. It was the right combination given the circumstances, she with her level of love and popularity and Kenneth Rowe, which was the face in the parish that the people know. If you had put in a new face there, based on my house-to-house experience, it would have been a little more difficult. It was really the right candidate and the right mix.
"What held us back is the lack of organisation on the ground. We were too late with that. We didn't have the foundation and that's where my job comes in now to ensure that there is a firm foundation that whenever and election is called again, we won't be caught napping," he said.
For now, Rowe is in no mood to give up working in West Portland and has since returned to the constituency to start the rebuilding of the party's base.
"I am back in the constituency starting to build the organisation from the ground up and spend some time getting the division executives in place, getting the group structures in place, getting the youth on the corner involved in the process. If you do it the right way, within a year or two, you will see the difference.
"All my time in politics I am the one who is always spending cash. I am not lucky to have a godfather to finance me. I always have to find mine from my resources and you may wonder why I do it, but I just love it. Once it gets into your blood you just got to do it. I just want to make a difference. I want to make this a model constituency. I must make my mark," Rowe said.
He argued that the constituency needed income-generating businesses to develop the human capital in the constituency, and he lamented the state of the world's economy, which he said would make it no easier for investors to pump resources into West Portland.
"My plan is really about micro business - finding a way to get the farmers to do what they do best and that is farming, and to create a marketing arm with a storage and cold storage facility to do the marketing of the farmers' product.
"West Portland has a lot of gifted people, but because of the economic situation a lot of people can't get to go to school. Some bright students are going to school part-time. There are some kids out of West Portland getting 10 subjects and they can't get a tertiary education," Rowe complained.
The coffee industry, one of the principal economic activities in the area, needed a complete overhaul, Rowe said, but suggested that only a handful of people reap real benefits.
"It is a shame, because the people in the parish are relegated to just being coffee pickers working in terrible conditions. I know a particular old lady over 80 years old, walking up sharp slopes in the morning to pick coffee. It really makes you want to cry," Rowe said.

[Assasin]

How the west was won. and lost
It was bigger than Rowe, says Cliff Hughes
BY KIMONE THOMPSON Observer Senior Reporter Special Coverage Unit specialcoverageunit@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, March 29, 2009
ANALYSTS agree that Daryl Vaz edged out Kenneth Rowe for the West Portland seat in last Monday's by-election through a combination of visibility and performance in his constituency and organisation at the party level.
Cliff Hughes But more important than what Daryl and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) did, they say, was what Kenneth and the People's National Party (PNP) didn't.
The major weakness in the PNP's campaign, according to a group of political commentators who spoke with the Sunday Observer after the results were announced, was an extended lack of party representation in the constituency.
Asked if he thought Rowe's late entry to the race was to be blamed for his defeat, Nationwide Radio CEO Cliff Hughes said:
"It's bigger than Rowe. I think it's a PNP problem in that, as the PNP general secretary, Peter Bunting, said on Nationwide, the PNP was guilty of neglecting the people of West Portland. The people of West Portland knew that and they punished them.
"Mr Rowe coming into the constituency over the last three weeks and asking the people for their support was par for the course but the people, in making their judgement, had to make a decision between a performer and someone who represented a party that had not performed," Hughes said.
The journalist added that while the JLP was better organised and represented in the constituency, its victory had more to do with the PNP's lack of organisation than any perceived reasons having to do with resources or media coverage.
"I don't think it was a matter of resources. Certainly, the JLP was better organised and resources may have played a part in that but I suspect it's more than just resources. I think the PNP as a political machinery is creaky. It has got quite creaky, old and is simply not on par with the Jamaica Labour Party at this time.
"When I went to West Portland on election day and in speaking to scores of people, you heard it.
There's no love there for Mr Vaz or hatred there for Mr Rowe. It was a matter that the people thought that Mr Vaz had had a good start and they thought it was prudent, in their best interest, to keep him as their Member of Parliament."
Rowe was rejected in 2002 when he ran on a JLP ticket against the PNP's Errol Ennis. In 2006, he lost the bid to represent the constituency as caretaker to Daryl Vaz. He then defected to the PNP and snatched the candidacy from Abe Dabdoub who lost his court bid to get the seat from Vaz on grounds he had dual citizenship.
But political commentators believe Rowe's latest challenge to Vaz was not well co-ordinated and smacked too much of party president Portia Simpson Miller.
"I think one of the things that went wrong for the PNP was that there was not so much focus on Rowe, the candidate, as on Mrs Simpson Miller, the party leader," said Troy Caine, a political historian who usually favours the JLP.
"There was too much focus on this thing they call the 'Portia factor', which I personally don't believe exists. I've said so before and I'm saying it again; the 'Portia factor' is a political myth. It might work in a few marginal seats, or it might work very well in certain PNP garrison constituencies of the Corporate Area especially like hers. But it's not going to work very much in deep rural constituencies like West Portland that have always had a tradition of good support for both parties, moreso when deep rural constituencies find a hard worker like Daryl Vaz to work for them. I think that was one of the major things that went wrong for Rowe and the PNP and (their) pushing this line to the point where Mrs Simpson Miller almost became the candidate," he said.
According to Caine, another mistake the PNP made in West Portland was to ignore what he defined as the two major demographic sections: the coastal urban and semi-urban areas like Buff Bay, Hope Bay, Orange Bay and Windsor Castle.
"These are the areas with the highest populations, voting populations also, but unfortunately for the PNP, these are also the highest voting areas for the JLP."
From where pollster Don Anderson sat, the odds were stacked high against Rowe and the PNP and it would have required much more work at the grass roots level to overturn them.
"When a candidate is contesting an election and his party is the incumbent party, his chances are inherently better. Secondly, Vaz as the Member of Parliament has been working in the area before 2007 so any new candidate that is put to oppose him must start at a disadvantage, must start on the back foot because Vaz, from, I believe 2006, was handed the constituency by way of elections in which he defeated Rowe and from then he has been very active, not only in West Portland but in East Portland as well. He is well known, he's an established candidate, he's the Member of Parliament and he's the Member of Parliament where his party is the government of the day."
Anderson agreed with Hughes and Caine that the PNP's absence from the constituency factored greatly in the outcome of Monday's by-election.
"Since the 2007 elections he has been very much in the area and has been present. The PNP, on the other hand, has been fighting the battle not on the ground but in the court and Abe Dabdoub was very much absent from the constituency even though he was supposed to be the caretaker.
"...You're uncertain up to the time when nomination day is announced and you find a candidate and you have three weeks to campaign in a situation where all those other odds are against him. Nobody had seen the PNP to any large extent in the area between September 2007 and March 2009 and you have a candidate who now has three weeks against those odds to campaign and win enough support to overturn a national trend - because the trend towards the JLP set in from 2002 when Ennis was the PNP candidate in the area. He had won the 1997 election by over 2,000 votes [but it was narrowed down] against the very same Kenneth Rowe by 281 votes in 2002. There's a national drift towards the JLP so you can't really expect somebody coming in against those odds. I think it was really asking a bit too much."
The final thing that tilted the balance in Vaz' favour, said Anderson, was the fact that the ruling party, by virtue of being the government, would have had the opportunity to use state funds on needed projects as part of its campaign strategy.
Former West Portland representative, and PNP MP, Errol Ennis spared Rowe of any blame, saying he did nothing wrong in the way of his election campaign.
"He just came onto the scene so I think he did a good job with very little resources. I think he was up against a lot of resources that he couldn't match. He had two weeks to challenge Vaz who was there for 18 months and I think he did the best he could under the circumstances and the result is a reflection of that," he said, adding: "It's difficult for an opponent to challenge a government in a by-election because far more organisation would have occurred on the government side."
So what were the critical factors that won the West for Vaz?
"Performance, performance, service, service, take care of the people and they will take care of you. I think that was the critical factor," said Hughes.
"The people of West Portland had been used to a certain level of representation in Mr Vaz over the last 18 months. They have seen a different quality of representation, a better quality of representation and I think they have rewarded it accordingly," Hughes added.
"They had found somebody they could put their trust in and they did, all 7,915 of them," added Caine. "Not even Leopold Lynch who was there for 32 years used to get this kind of support, nor St Clair Shirley who had a big victory there for the JLP in 1980."
And what of his decision to renounce his American citizenship? To what extent did that influence the outcome of Monday's election?
"I don't think that in itself had much to do with it in the same way that I don't think the fact that the PNP [presented] a candidate who was a citizen of another country, even if legally so, was an issue that resonated too much with the general public. It's not that it wasn't an important issue, as a matter of fact, it was the central issue and the reason for the by-election but this is not something that people factored on," Anderson suggested.
"More than anything else, I think they would have said that Rowe was a former JLP man who contested two elections - national elections in 2002 and party election in 2005 - in which he lost to Vaz and therefore is a former supporter of the JLP. I think that would probably have more impact on the outcome of the election than the question of dual citizenship because it didn't really come out in any anecdotal information that we have been able to gather," said Anderson.
Added Caine: "I'm sure that a lot of West Portlanders, like many of us in the other parts of the country were relatively impressed with that kind of move and the haste with which he did it. I'm sure it would have gone down well that not only is this man a hard worker but that he was willing to give up what a lot of people hold dear in Jamaica...But it is not my view that it was a major factor."

[Gamma]

and the once noble chiron formerly sagest of all centaurs still insist that portia have the qualities of a good leader?!!!

[Assasin]

All me know is when a man use his constituency development fund for 4 water projects and the PNP NWC water slogan was "water is life" it make it hard for him fi lose. Windsor Castle, and Hart Hill are swing communities and when you make middle class people stop carry water pon them head them nuh figet it. Certain MPs figet bout basic service for their people.

While the election in West Portland don't totally reflect on Portia campaigning it shows that if you want to win election then you should perform whether you a PNP, JLP or what Don1 call him again?.


My Granny house is 1/2 mile over the border in St.Mary and stream sorround her house but no water inna the pipe, mi sure if them give her water she will vote fi them and get others too. No amount of money in hand is as valuable to these people as water, light, ambulance, police station and road.

[Mosiah]

No amount of money in hand is as valuable to these people as water, light, ambulance, police station and road.

Perhaps, but high time our politicking moves away from such issues and deal with the real advancement of our people as a people, as families as a productive generation, basically as human resource.

Road, water, light and dem tings should be part of a national, non-partisan program, regardless of the party.

[Assasin]

Mo it should be but the only way we going to get pass it is for politician to be honest with the people. I have sat on so many committees and groups and seen these candidates promise water, light and basic service and after election they simple forget that their job is to be of service to their constituency. We may not like them but two politicians who have worked hard in for their people in a short while is Montique and Vaz. Montique constituency was a PNP one and because of the work he did he locked it down. To be fair to Ennis he started out good but he dropped the ball a long time ago.

Mo I can say that each constituency is different and what we need are MPs who can make a plan(road map if you will) and deal with each individually to create the big picture. Without road and proper then many of these communities can't create no wealth for themselves. Ennis is like Portia in West Portland. The people love him and he is a likeable fellow. I personally have never seen him say a harsh word but the people were glad to see his back. They just got tired of words. Yes we should be human resources but don't also forget the creation of wealth too.

[Don1]

All me know is when a man use his constituency development fund for 4 water projects and the PNP NWC water slogan was "water is life" it make it hard for him fi lose. Windsor Castle, and Hart Hill are swing communities and when you make middle class people stop carry water pon them head them nuh figet it. Certain MPs figet bout basic service for their people.

While the election in West Portland don't totally reflect on Portia campaigning it shows that if you want to win election then you should perform whether you a PNP, JLP or what Don1 call him again?.


My Granny house is 1/2 mile over the border in St.Mary and stream sorround her house but no water inna the pipe, mi sure if them give her water she will vote fi them and get others too. No amount of money in hand is as valuable to these people as water, light, ambulance, police station and road.

I called him reprobate. Seems to be a popular reprobate... but reprobate nonetheless.

[Mosiah]

What have Montague and Vaz done for the people, other than give dem light and water?

[Lazie]

What have Montague and Vaz done for the people, other than give dem light and water?

Well, don't dem sey "Water is Life" don't it?

[Assasin]

a lot more Mo. They walk there constituency not only at election time. They visit community groups(not just JLP). They know the people and address their problems, not run from it like most MPs.

[Gamma]

damn mo..if they have given these people light and water in the 21st century...you have no idea what that means to those people if you have to ask that question. it simply means that they did not have it before and that in itself is a travesty and reflects very poorly on the previous reps.

[Muadib]

A popular reprobate...

Heh, heh.

The comedy material is appreciated.. keep it coming.

[Willi]

MO

You are exhibiting the samesilly behaviour I hear coming from the PNP.
They blame the losses on everything but themselves...JLP phantom gangs, vote buying, lack of a "socialist" philosophy, simplistic voters, etc.

The REAL reason is the past 18 years of increasingly uncaring PNP rule and downright theivery. its not that the voters LOVE the JLP, its that they are fed up with TODAY's PNP. PJ caused nuff of these peroblems and compounded it by installing Portia as the only hope. PNP is simply a vote catching machine that run out of ideas.

They need to wheel and come again with great humility and tangible caring for the people. They need to rediscover the passion to server.

You and I feel the same way about Vaz....BUT...we MUST give him credit for this passion to serve in Portland...even if he has an ulterior motive, he forces himself to do the WORK. PNP is by and large too lazy to do actual work.

[Willi]

Until now for Portland, not even this was being fulfilled.

Haffi walk before we can run.