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IT is easy to tell when a political opponent is panicking; he behaves like a child trying to open an oversized suitcase. Clearly, the overwhelming attendance at the PNP's 73rd Annual Conference last Sunday, along with Portia Simpson Miller's sobering speech have created political nervousness within the JLP.
Mrs Simpson Miller's speech was not riveting; she still needs to lift the words from the pages and make them her own. But her speech was full of creative ideas that made it memorable and may have even helped to remove the perception that the PNP is bereft of ideas.
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Portia stood her ground, dug deep in the reservoir of progressive thought leadership and delivered a good message. Still, she accomplished more; she reassured and excited her political base and gave them enough to take back to their communities. Evidently, her message was tactically and strategically aimed at independent voters, as well as to reinvigorate grass roots support and she achieved both. And contrary to some political commentators, who wanted more details, she smartly kept the message simple. It is never good to inundate an audience at a party conference with copious amounts of information; people tend to remember and relate better to acronyms such as, "AVIS" and "JEEP" than to dull and boring minutiae about the historicity of Keynesian economic theory.
It is a pity that so many refuse to give her credit and are so obsessed and gung-ho with deriding her that they would "throw the baby out with the bath water", out of spiteful prejudice. But, 'He who laughs last laughs best'. All ideas should contend and it is time for those who speak out of both sides of the mouth like Spanish machetes about building social capital to consider somebody else's ideas. It is in this context that Dr Christopher Tufton's knee-jerk reaction and childish characterisation of the proposed Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) as "Socialist" is emblematic of myopia; yet these are the same people we are positioning as future leaders.
The JLP is nervous about JEEP and although we need to learn more about JEEP's bankability, the proposal is gaining traction, especially among unemployed youth who don't give a rat's behind about whether jobs come from Capitalist or Socialist programmes, so long as they have jobs.
Understandably, but troublingly so, it is in the JLP's best political interest to puncture JEEP's tyres, however detrimental to Jamaica's future, but it cannot be power at all cost. By attacking the proposal without even seeing the strategic outline, the JLP made itself appear more arrogant when voters want humility. I support MP Earnest Smith's call for a JEEP debate and I urge the PNP to acquiesce, because it is the PNP, through its Progressive Agenda, that touts the reliance on evidence-based research to inform public policy; a debate would be the first test of the PNP's commitment to its own principles.
But back to Dr Tufton: He knows that in economic situations like ours, where domestic and foreign investments are anaemic, states usually take the lead in spurring economic activities by greasing the economic levers to stimulate aggregate demand. We also know, as does Dr Tufton, that sometimes governments run bigger fiscal deficits to achieve longer-term economic development and growth. There are challenges, but Portia hinted at renegotiating the IMF deal possibly to accommodate economic stimulus programmes; so ease off the bovine excrement about JEEP being "Socialist".
The PNP embraced Democratic Socialism as its ideological dogma decades ago, but JEEP is not about political ideology; it is about the economy and jobs. And although details must come about JEEP's funding, implementation, phasing and sustainability, the fact that the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, the Jamaica Manufacturers Association and several economists and analysts have reacted mostly positively to the broad outline of the National Intervention Programme (NIP) under which JEEP falls, is very significant. Sadly, some politicians are too inebriated by their own ambitions to see the bigger picture.
Dr Tufton, an apparent "leader-designate" of the JLP, in declaring JEEP 'Socialist' did so without acknowledging his government's involvement in a similar scheme, the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP).
The JDIP is being touted as a jobs-generating road infrastructure programme and the Chinese funding is not gratis. Dr Tufton also appears unaware of his government's continuation and expansion of PATH, free health care and education all of which were designed and implemented under previous PNP governments and are progressively Socialist. Would this then not make the JLP Socialist?
Furthermore, Dr Tufton should be mindful of his government's celebration of previous bilateral and multilateral agreements and ties with Socialist states such as Cuba, Venezuela and The People's Republic of China. This brings me to a vulgar smear campaign being waged by the JLP and its apologists that accuses the PNP of sabotaging the JDIP and the Palisadoes project for political reasons. This would be politically suicidal for the PNP, given its history in building diplomatic and bilateral ties with these countries, even as the JLP bawled "blue-murder".
And just to put the Jamaican-Chinese relationship in context, it was the PNP that established diplomatic ties with China in 1972, amidst howls of protest from the JLP. The Chinese assistance to Jamaica for road building goes back to mid-2004 and who would forget that when the PNP government opened the embassy in Beijing in 2005, the JLP raised eternal "backside" about spending priorities.
The US$30 million concessionary loan for the Trelawny Stadium; the US$45-million Chinese Ex-Im Bank loan for the Montego Bay Convention Centre; and funding for the Sligoville Sports Complex in St Catherine, all pre-dated the Golding administration. And if the PNP wanted to create political mischief, wouldn't it have done so during its 2009 trip to China, which was sponsored by the ruling party and preceded Golding's visit?
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1Z43NaAUZ
Mrs Simpson Miller's speech was not riveting; she still needs to lift the words from the pages and make them her own. But her speech was full of creative ideas that made it memorable and may have even helped to remove the perception that the PNP is bereft of ideas.
1/1
Portia stood her ground, dug deep in the reservoir of progressive thought leadership and delivered a good message. Still, she accomplished more; she reassured and excited her political base and gave them enough to take back to their communities. Evidently, her message was tactically and strategically aimed at independent voters, as well as to reinvigorate grass roots support and she achieved both. And contrary to some political commentators, who wanted more details, she smartly kept the message simple. It is never good to inundate an audience at a party conference with copious amounts of information; people tend to remember and relate better to acronyms such as, "AVIS" and "JEEP" than to dull and boring minutiae about the historicity of Keynesian economic theory.
It is a pity that so many refuse to give her credit and are so obsessed and gung-ho with deriding her that they would "throw the baby out with the bath water", out of spiteful prejudice. But, 'He who laughs last laughs best'. All ideas should contend and it is time for those who speak out of both sides of the mouth like Spanish machetes about building social capital to consider somebody else's ideas. It is in this context that Dr Christopher Tufton's knee-jerk reaction and childish characterisation of the proposed Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) as "Socialist" is emblematic of myopia; yet these are the same people we are positioning as future leaders.
The JLP is nervous about JEEP and although we need to learn more about JEEP's bankability, the proposal is gaining traction, especially among unemployed youth who don't give a rat's behind about whether jobs come from Capitalist or Socialist programmes, so long as they have jobs.
Understandably, but troublingly so, it is in the JLP's best political interest to puncture JEEP's tyres, however detrimental to Jamaica's future, but it cannot be power at all cost. By attacking the proposal without even seeing the strategic outline, the JLP made itself appear more arrogant when voters want humility. I support MP Earnest Smith's call for a JEEP debate and I urge the PNP to acquiesce, because it is the PNP, through its Progressive Agenda, that touts the reliance on evidence-based research to inform public policy; a debate would be the first test of the PNP's commitment to its own principles.
But back to Dr Tufton: He knows that in economic situations like ours, where domestic and foreign investments are anaemic, states usually take the lead in spurring economic activities by greasing the economic levers to stimulate aggregate demand. We also know, as does Dr Tufton, that sometimes governments run bigger fiscal deficits to achieve longer-term economic development and growth. There are challenges, but Portia hinted at renegotiating the IMF deal possibly to accommodate economic stimulus programmes; so ease off the bovine excrement about JEEP being "Socialist".
The PNP embraced Democratic Socialism as its ideological dogma decades ago, but JEEP is not about political ideology; it is about the economy and jobs. And although details must come about JEEP's funding, implementation, phasing and sustainability, the fact that the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, the Jamaica Manufacturers Association and several economists and analysts have reacted mostly positively to the broad outline of the National Intervention Programme (NIP) under which JEEP falls, is very significant. Sadly, some politicians are too inebriated by their own ambitions to see the bigger picture.
Dr Tufton, an apparent "leader-designate" of the JLP, in declaring JEEP 'Socialist' did so without acknowledging his government's involvement in a similar scheme, the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP).
The JDIP is being touted as a jobs-generating road infrastructure programme and the Chinese funding is not gratis. Dr Tufton also appears unaware of his government's continuation and expansion of PATH, free health care and education all of which were designed and implemented under previous PNP governments and are progressively Socialist. Would this then not make the JLP Socialist?
Furthermore, Dr Tufton should be mindful of his government's celebration of previous bilateral and multilateral agreements and ties with Socialist states such as Cuba, Venezuela and The People's Republic of China. This brings me to a vulgar smear campaign being waged by the JLP and its apologists that accuses the PNP of sabotaging the JDIP and the Palisadoes project for political reasons. This would be politically suicidal for the PNP, given its history in building diplomatic and bilateral ties with these countries, even as the JLP bawled "blue-murder".
And just to put the Jamaican-Chinese relationship in context, it was the PNP that established diplomatic ties with China in 1972, amidst howls of protest from the JLP. The Chinese assistance to Jamaica for road building goes back to mid-2004 and who would forget that when the PNP government opened the embassy in Beijing in 2005, the JLP raised eternal "backside" about spending priorities.
The US$30 million concessionary loan for the Trelawny Stadium; the US$45-million Chinese Ex-Im Bank loan for the Montego Bay Convention Centre; and funding for the Sligoville Sports Complex in St Catherine, all pre-dated the Golding administration. And if the PNP wanted to create political mischief, wouldn't it have done so during its 2009 trip to China, which was sponsored by the ruling party and preceded Golding's visit?
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1Z43NaAUZ
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