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No prize bulls on farm, JTA
Published: Wednesday | May 29, 2013 0 Comments
By George Davis
There are a few organisations in this country so wrapped up in the sheet of partisan political activism that they are virtually ineffective in advancing the cause of their primary constituents.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with an entity being sympathetic to a political party. Especially if said entity may have been birthed and sustained in its formative years by the ideology and endeavour of a political organisation.
Problems arise, however, when that entity, face pressed up against the armpit of their party of leaning, functions as an attack dog against political rivals, rather than as agitator for the betterment of those it calls members.
Such organisations, which usually boast strong, islandwide memberships, are led by cocksure men and women who conduct their public business on the front foot. These entities are confident their political parties will always have their backs and that political rivals, even when in Government, are minded to give in
to their demands for fear they may call their members to strike action.
The eye sometimes waters at how much power these entities have and yet, because of their politics, how relatively little they've managed to do for their members.
POSITION REGRETTABLE
That the Jamaica Teachers' Association is one such entity is most regrettable. The position is regrettable because the JTA should ideally be a body committed only to doing what will advance the cause of its members. It should not act, or be seen to act, as an extension of a political party.
It may be because the leadership of the JTA is so close to the political Establishment that the teachers' union reacted in so splenetic a manner to the education minister's announcements concerning the withdrawal of fully paid study leave for teachers.
The reaction, led by the current president, appears vulgar and disproportionate.
It appears as if the JTA is more angry at being slighted by the PNP administration, than at the slight itself. It's almost as if the JTA is saying, "How could you do that to us PNP, when we've been such a loyal bloodhound to you?"
What the JTA seems to have miscalculated is its real worth as an ally to a political party. In these straitened economic times, the Government is making it clear that there are no prize bulls on the farm and that everything will be sent to the slaughterhouse. The JTA appears to have bought into the idea that because of its relationship with the PNP, it would've been spared the effects of the
cutbacks rubber-stamped at Jamaica House, but authorised in Washington.
Unfortunately for the JTA, it can't now take back the advocacy it has engaged in on behalf of the party. It cannot now strike from the records the strong support of the PNP, as it placed tremendous pressure on the hapless JLP administration on matters such as the Alphansus Davis issue and the payment of a seven per cent wage increase in 2011.
It cannot do these things because it has seemingly handcuffed itself to the bed of partisan politics. And after being tickled pink by the PNP, it was tricked into swallowing the key. Make no mistake about it, the ongoing fallout from Minister Thwaites' statement highlights the error of the JTA in choosing a political bedfellow when it really ought to have been satisfied with sleeping by itself.
The withdrawal of the paid-leave facility should be seen for what it really is: the response of a cash-strapped Government to an IMF-facilitated programme designed to reduce its unsustainable debt burden.
It's not the act of perfidia that the JTA would have us believe. It's not an act which supports the unfortunate caricature of Minister Thwaites as a 'likkle mongrel', looking to 'rush' a JTA, which, according to past President Doran Dixon, is a 'big lion-heart cat'.
The JTA needs to cry the country a river, build a bridge and then get over it. Better to try to work out how best to cater to the study needs of its constituents over the four-year life of the IMF programme rather than be vexed with their political patron for making a decision to lift the country from its impecunious state.
Selah.
George Davis is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and george.s.davis@hotmail.com.
Published: Wednesday | May 29, 2013 0 Comments
By George Davis
There are a few organisations in this country so wrapped up in the sheet of partisan political activism that they are virtually ineffective in advancing the cause of their primary constituents.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with an entity being sympathetic to a political party. Especially if said entity may have been birthed and sustained in its formative years by the ideology and endeavour of a political organisation.
Problems arise, however, when that entity, face pressed up against the armpit of their party of leaning, functions as an attack dog against political rivals, rather than as agitator for the betterment of those it calls members.
Such organisations, which usually boast strong, islandwide memberships, are led by cocksure men and women who conduct their public business on the front foot. These entities are confident their political parties will always have their backs and that political rivals, even when in Government, are minded to give in
to their demands for fear they may call their members to strike action.
The eye sometimes waters at how much power these entities have and yet, because of their politics, how relatively little they've managed to do for their members.
POSITION REGRETTABLE
That the Jamaica Teachers' Association is one such entity is most regrettable. The position is regrettable because the JTA should ideally be a body committed only to doing what will advance the cause of its members. It should not act, or be seen to act, as an extension of a political party.
It may be because the leadership of the JTA is so close to the political Establishment that the teachers' union reacted in so splenetic a manner to the education minister's announcements concerning the withdrawal of fully paid study leave for teachers.
The reaction, led by the current president, appears vulgar and disproportionate.
It appears as if the JTA is more angry at being slighted by the PNP administration, than at the slight itself. It's almost as if the JTA is saying, "How could you do that to us PNP, when we've been such a loyal bloodhound to you?"
What the JTA seems to have miscalculated is its real worth as an ally to a political party. In these straitened economic times, the Government is making it clear that there are no prize bulls on the farm and that everything will be sent to the slaughterhouse. The JTA appears to have bought into the idea that because of its relationship with the PNP, it would've been spared the effects of the
cutbacks rubber-stamped at Jamaica House, but authorised in Washington.
Unfortunately for the JTA, it can't now take back the advocacy it has engaged in on behalf of the party. It cannot now strike from the records the strong support of the PNP, as it placed tremendous pressure on the hapless JLP administration on matters such as the Alphansus Davis issue and the payment of a seven per cent wage increase in 2011.
It cannot do these things because it has seemingly handcuffed itself to the bed of partisan politics. And after being tickled pink by the PNP, it was tricked into swallowing the key. Make no mistake about it, the ongoing fallout from Minister Thwaites' statement highlights the error of the JTA in choosing a political bedfellow when it really ought to have been satisfied with sleeping by itself.
The withdrawal of the paid-leave facility should be seen for what it really is: the response of a cash-strapped Government to an IMF-facilitated programme designed to reduce its unsustainable debt burden.
It's not the act of perfidia that the JTA would have us believe. It's not an act which supports the unfortunate caricature of Minister Thwaites as a 'likkle mongrel', looking to 'rush' a JTA, which, according to past President Doran Dixon, is a 'big lion-heart cat'.
The JTA needs to cry the country a river, build a bridge and then get over it. Better to try to work out how best to cater to the study needs of its constituents over the four-year life of the IMF programme rather than be vexed with their political patron for making a decision to lift the country from its impecunious state.
Selah.
George Davis is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and george.s.davis@hotmail.com.