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The swinging political pendulum
MARK WIGNALL
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Something tells me that a December 2011 election wish by the JLP is off and will have to be placed in the category of ideals that have no place in the same space with political reality.
The latest round of extradition requests, not yet made public, may force the JLP administration into making a radically different move on the political chessboard. There is an inordinate rush towards something. What is it really?
GOLDING... his party messed up
For almost the entire life of this JLP administration, public opinion as reflected in opinion polls has been unfavourable to it. Based on our political culture where Opposition parties earn their major stripes by their ability to not just criticise ruling administrations, but to tear down and place political spins on positive achievements of the incumbent, it was no surprise that in the latest instalment of that practice, the JLP administration found itself consistently under public pressure.
As the global recession reverberated in Jamaica in 2008 and placed a brake on commerce and added pain to many households where jobs had been lost, many of us in the business of making public commentary made the obvious prediction that incumbent administrations would be, at the next elections, the easiest target of voter disaffection.
While the JLP government had the more difficult task of shoring up an economy that in the best of times over the last two decades had been limping behind regional growth rates, the Opposition PNP had the easier job of constantly fiddling with the truth.
One commentator on Facebook captured it correctly.
"Without exception, no one in the PNP wants to admit to the obvious facts: The world economy was almost in a depression. Thousands of jobs were lost, poverty increased, government services were cut, and wages were cut. That's the reality of the world we live in. If you deprive a person of oxygen he will turn blue, collapse and eventually die. Same is true for economies. Deprive them of credit and a similar process kicks in. As the world's financial crisis broadened and intensified, the global economy began to suffocate. That is why the world's central banks have been administering emergency measures, including rounds of co-ordinated interest rate cuts in an attempt to prevent catastrophe and avert a global depression.
"The rich world's economies are either shrinking, or close to it. America's economy lost steam throughout the recession. President Obama's stimulus provided a temporary push to the US economy, but as the stimulus wore off the job market worsened, credit tightened and consumer spending slid. In Europe the outlook was equally grim. The British economy was stalled for most of the last three years and fell into recession.
"Jamaica must be the only country in the world that offered its public sector workers a significant increase in salary and failed to reduce the size of the public sector workforce. Despite the many successes of the government as it relates to stabilising the nation's economy, much more needs to be done.
"Fixing Jamaica requires political will by both Government and Opposition (not cheap political point scoring)."
In the middle of this, the Golding-led JLP messed up in the extradition of Dudus and the code of trust was broken.
In the last two weeks much has changed and with Education Minister Andrew Holness heading for a sure destination of prime minister, the Opposition PNP has pounced on him, not because he has skeletons in the closet like so many politicians, but because he is the most potent threat to a PNP victory at the next elections.
The PNP has cited the case of the education minister appointing his personal adviser Mr Alphansus Davis to head the Teachers' Service Commission. Until Mr Davis stepped back from heading the TSC, the Jamaica Teachers' Association made life most difficult for the proper functioning of the TSC, including the appointment of principals.
I have known Mr Davis since I met him and conversed with him as principal of the Spaldings High School in 1999. The man has never had an ounce of "politics" in him, but being a gentle soul, the JTA pounced on "the conflict of interest" angle and ceased sending its representatives to meetings of the TSC.
The treatment of Mr Davis is a perfect example of the clash between decency and politics. To have caused a man of such decency and integrity the pain of political assassination, when really Davis was just a conduit used by the politics of the day to get at the education minister, is indicative of the extent to which politics has poisoned just about everything worth fighting for in this country.
Frankly, I congratulate Andrew Holness for standing up so long for a principle. In the end, politics won.
Having taken the JLP towards a whiff of an election victory, it is my belief that that December 2011 election is no longer on.
Months ago Prime Minister Golding had been (behind closed doors) imploring various senior people in his party to "step back" before embarrassment steps on them. If the rumours are true and the names on the extradition list are the ones some of us have heard, that December 2011 election is just a dream that once held promise.
Something tells me that the graph of the cleaning of the political stables is on the right curve, but before it gets better, it will get worse. Politically, for some.
All eyes from now on will be on Andrew Holness to see how well he handles a crisis handed to him as his baptism of fire.
If he doesn't make the strongest declaration of his intention to eradicate the ghosts of our political past from his party, he may well become the best thing that almost happened to this country before he gets the chance to prove anything.
observemark@gmail.com
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1aifA8ndJ
MARK WIGNALL
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Something tells me that a December 2011 election wish by the JLP is off and will have to be placed in the category of ideals that have no place in the same space with political reality.
The latest round of extradition requests, not yet made public, may force the JLP administration into making a radically different move on the political chessboard. There is an inordinate rush towards something. What is it really?
GOLDING... his party messed up
For almost the entire life of this JLP administration, public opinion as reflected in opinion polls has been unfavourable to it. Based on our political culture where Opposition parties earn their major stripes by their ability to not just criticise ruling administrations, but to tear down and place political spins on positive achievements of the incumbent, it was no surprise that in the latest instalment of that practice, the JLP administration found itself consistently under public pressure.
As the global recession reverberated in Jamaica in 2008 and placed a brake on commerce and added pain to many households where jobs had been lost, many of us in the business of making public commentary made the obvious prediction that incumbent administrations would be, at the next elections, the easiest target of voter disaffection.
While the JLP government had the more difficult task of shoring up an economy that in the best of times over the last two decades had been limping behind regional growth rates, the Opposition PNP had the easier job of constantly fiddling with the truth.
One commentator on Facebook captured it correctly.
"Without exception, no one in the PNP wants to admit to the obvious facts: The world economy was almost in a depression. Thousands of jobs were lost, poverty increased, government services were cut, and wages were cut. That's the reality of the world we live in. If you deprive a person of oxygen he will turn blue, collapse and eventually die. Same is true for economies. Deprive them of credit and a similar process kicks in. As the world's financial crisis broadened and intensified, the global economy began to suffocate. That is why the world's central banks have been administering emergency measures, including rounds of co-ordinated interest rate cuts in an attempt to prevent catastrophe and avert a global depression.
"The rich world's economies are either shrinking, or close to it. America's economy lost steam throughout the recession. President Obama's stimulus provided a temporary push to the US economy, but as the stimulus wore off the job market worsened, credit tightened and consumer spending slid. In Europe the outlook was equally grim. The British economy was stalled for most of the last three years and fell into recession.
"Jamaica must be the only country in the world that offered its public sector workers a significant increase in salary and failed to reduce the size of the public sector workforce. Despite the many successes of the government as it relates to stabilising the nation's economy, much more needs to be done.
"Fixing Jamaica requires political will by both Government and Opposition (not cheap political point scoring)."
In the middle of this, the Golding-led JLP messed up in the extradition of Dudus and the code of trust was broken.
In the last two weeks much has changed and with Education Minister Andrew Holness heading for a sure destination of prime minister, the Opposition PNP has pounced on him, not because he has skeletons in the closet like so many politicians, but because he is the most potent threat to a PNP victory at the next elections.
The PNP has cited the case of the education minister appointing his personal adviser Mr Alphansus Davis to head the Teachers' Service Commission. Until Mr Davis stepped back from heading the TSC, the Jamaica Teachers' Association made life most difficult for the proper functioning of the TSC, including the appointment of principals.
I have known Mr Davis since I met him and conversed with him as principal of the Spaldings High School in 1999. The man has never had an ounce of "politics" in him, but being a gentle soul, the JTA pounced on "the conflict of interest" angle and ceased sending its representatives to meetings of the TSC.
The treatment of Mr Davis is a perfect example of the clash between decency and politics. To have caused a man of such decency and integrity the pain of political assassination, when really Davis was just a conduit used by the politics of the day to get at the education minister, is indicative of the extent to which politics has poisoned just about everything worth fighting for in this country.
Frankly, I congratulate Andrew Holness for standing up so long for a principle. In the end, politics won.
Having taken the JLP towards a whiff of an election victory, it is my belief that that December 2011 election is no longer on.
Months ago Prime Minister Golding had been (behind closed doors) imploring various senior people in his party to "step back" before embarrassment steps on them. If the rumours are true and the names on the extradition list are the ones some of us have heard, that December 2011 election is just a dream that once held promise.
Something tells me that the graph of the cleaning of the political stables is on the right curve, but before it gets better, it will get worse. Politically, for some.
All eyes from now on will be on Andrew Holness to see how well he handles a crisis handed to him as his baptism of fire.
If he doesn't make the strongest declaration of his intention to eradicate the ghosts of our political past from his party, he may well become the best thing that almost happened to this country before he gets the chance to prove anything.
observemark@gmail.com
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1aifA8ndJ