Tweet
Roast BreadFruit mi seh!! How did the big favourite Vaz lose?
Mark Wignall
Thursday, December 09, 2010
The moment Daryl Vaz, minister of information and member of parliament for West Portland, announced that he would be challenging veteran politician Karl Samuda, industry and commerce minister, for the post of general secretary of the JLP, the word went out that a win for him would be a sure thing.
In response to his challenge, the sly old fox Karl Samuda did some political shuffling. First, he said that he would be withdrawing from the race and many thought that he was afraid of being beaten in a straight contest with the young upstart Vaz. Within a few days, he announced a change of heart and was fully back in the race. As the sun rose and set in one cycle, the perennial winner Samuda announced that he was backing out. Before the moon had a chance to become full, the wily gen sec made a surprise announcement that he was endorsing Aundré Franklin, a deputy gen sec, for the post of general secretary of the JLP.
By then it should have been obvious to most that a complex political strategy was at work.
As far as I was concerned, Vaz was a more capable candidate than Franklin, plus Vaz must have had inside tracks to key delegates, being close to the inner sanctum of the power players and having the resources, both financial and otherwise to network with the grass-roots delegates whose votes would be needed to take him home comfortably.
In the end, Franklin won, did so handsomely, and for that he must be congratulated.
But it is still my belief that the better man for the job lost the contest. If in my judgement Vaz was the better man, why did not the bulk of the 160 delegates eligible to vote not see it that way? Well, I have made my examinations, and although Vaz is a personal friend of mine, it appears that in the race, Vaz was his own worst enemy.
The first error he made was to challenge for the post at this time. Once the mood of change was embraced, especially by G2K, the old dinosaurs in the party gingerly joined their calcified hands and hoped that their bones would survive a tight clench. Many of them were never prepared for any raid on the remains inside their caves by any of the "young Turks".
The second error on his part should have been obvious to him. In the three years since the JLP victory, he had grown distant from the people who took him to his dizzying heights. In Jamaica we want our politicians to wake us up in the morning with a steaming cup of coffee and as the day ends he must tuck us in at night. When Vaz was on the campaign trail in 2007, both nationally and in his West Portland constituency, he was prepared to do that.
Once the PM announced that an ideal gen sec was one who would be prepared to give his all to the post without the encumbrance of ministerial responsibilities and constituency representation, the word went out among the party faithful that "Vaz cyaaan do all a dem wuk deh".
A few days before the Sunday elections I had a telephone conversation with Bobby Montague and in seeking his reasons for endorsing Aundré Franklin, what he told me convinced me that Vaz would not be coming through as the winner. His reasons were not, to me, as important as the fact of his endorsement. From here on, the individual to watch in the JLP is Bobby Montague.
Outside of that, many of the class and social interplays in the wider Jamaican society showed up in the JLP internal elections for general secretary. At present, the JLP hierarchy is being seen as a "brown man" set-up. Outside of Desmond McKenzie as a deputy leader, Bobby Montague as deputy chairman and Aundré Franklin as general secretary, all the other lead posts in the officer corps in the JLP are held by "brown men".
To allow Vaz to walk through the gate and take over the post of general secretary could not be allowed. Of high import is the fact that the JLP does not do a good job of taking care of its grass-roots workers. It can learn a thing or two about that from the Opposition PNP.
The issues that abound nationally - that is, big man versus small man - surfaced big in the JLP gen sec elections. Again, Vaz was his own worst enemy, failing to adjust his body language to the realities facing the little man at street level in the party. To many of them, he was unapproachable and representative of the social gulf in the society, with him being at the top talking down to them. I happen to know that he is not like that, but he played to the wrong gallery and got his just deserts.
He was to me the better candidate with a strong record of performance, plans and vision. He has superb organisational and leadership skills and determination, but he lost.
Another reality was the presence of Karl Samuda and the entire machinery of the General Secretariat operating against Vaz. And, of course, Daryl Vaz's run-in with Sunday Herald editor Christine King did not in any way assist his efforts. To many, all that did was solidify the big man arrogance in the Jamaican society.
Vaz is one of the smartest politicians in Jamaica but he made a royal boo-boo over the interaction with Christine King. A certain politician of the not too recent past would have approached Ms King at that function, smiled broadly at her, physically embraced her then with his lips close to her ear, would have said, "I know your paper is solidly PNP and pushing a PNP agenda. I know you dislike me (still hold the smile) and, honey, I feel the same way about you."
That is what he should have done. After that he would have made himself into the complete politician.
It is my hope that Aundré Franklin will grow in the very difficult job he has ahead of him. It is going to be uphill for the JLP from here on. All hands will need to be on deck if the party hopes to prevail at the next elections.
As for my friend Daryl Vaz, as a party man, it is his job to support it from wherever he is. I am certain he holds no grudges.
observemark@gmail.com
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz17hbSUWVf
