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Difficult times for the PNP
Mark Wignall
Thursday, May 10, 2007
In 1960 the late American country singer Patsy Cline recorded her classic hit, I fall to pieces, a favourite of mine since childhood. Last week I came across it in the online LimeWire catalogues, downloaded it and while doing so, it occurred to me that it would be an apt theme song for the PNP as, bit by bit, that party has been unravelling, in continuation of the trend since last year.
The period of 18 years and three months has been a long, sweet run for the party. Friends of the PNP have been living high on the hog over this period of time and most have begun to prepare themselves for retirement, all the better to enjoy what the filthy lucre provided them with - power, connections and a guarantee of a full cupboard in the kitchen, for life.
In somewhat similar fashion to 1972 when Michael Manley came riding into our lives and promised "power for the people" and "better must come", the 1989 re-emergence of the PNP had pretty much the same stage props (Michael again, albeit in a more subdued dispensation), a similar catchy phrase, "we put people first", and at various times between its beginning and end (some point in 2007) the PNP lost track of what its main objective was.
More so than any other administration in the history of this country, the PNP since 1989 has been running Jamaica as if it represents booty, and the PNP is the gang given first shot in rampaging over every nook and cranny of our island paradise. It began in infamy with the relatively petty furniture scandal, and because we had submitted our souls to it and allowed it to define our needs, it took that as carte blanche, and along with its friends, began gnawing away at and snatching up everything that wasn't nailed down.
In that process, the PNP's sole objective became winning power. Last year when Portia Simpson Miller was dubbed by PJ Patterson as the "only hope" for the PNP, Patterson the master politician must have known that the party as he had constituted it in government since 1993 had by 2006 totally run out of ideas. The PNP's internal election which catapulted Portia Simpson Miller to prime minister was not engineered in an effort to present the country with new directions in leadership.
It was not done to re-energise government and to bring back meaning to the "we put people first" election call. With all of her stark limitations of leadership and administrative abilities known to the insiders of the PNP, Portia was made PNP president because it was felt that only she could make the PNP win the next elections.
As much as we expected internal shock waves to resonate inside the PNP in the early days following her victory, one would have thought that her first objective over the last year would be marshalling of the troops who all (?) wanted to be part of another winning team. Not only were they wrong but in hindsight, why should they have expected her to be any different than what went before?
As for me, I sincerely believed that the press of leadership responsibilities would bring out the best in her. If anything, she has retreated.
The nasty fallout over the forcing out of Vando Palmer from the post of Central Manchester caretaker could not have occurred under the leadership of PJ Patterson. And therein lies the difference. Where Patterson was respected by those inside the party, Simpson Miller has never earned that level of respect. Over the many years when poll findings were showing her as the "best minister" and most loved person nationally, it seemed not to have mattered to her that she had done little to deserve the love and admiration.
Like a spoilt child who is "daddy's dearest" she knew that every move made, every complaint would result in someone else getting the strap. Hindsight has also taught us that our love for her was conditioned on her not having the power to upset that love. In other words, when we clamoured for her to become the PNP leader, it never occurred to us that in a different dispensation the love could turn to something else.
Many of the PNP people in leadership knew that they could never accept leadership from one who had demonstrated that she was at her best while accepting directives. They knew that Simpson Miller was known for missing meetings, being late and when she did show up, her presentations were... er, not well presented.
Had she the strength and the forthrightness to make necessary decisions, she would long ago have fired Vando Palmer and brought solutions to bear on those seats where trouble is brewing as you read this.The bigger problem dogging the PNP is that most PNP MPs and caretakers do not expect the prime minister to solve the PNP's internal problems for the simple reason that her one year of inaction in office is there for them as the future template of her leadership.
Where you have a situation that too many people believe that she does not have the capacity to lead the party, at the local level where tensions have been running high since last year, the party machinery on the ground will take steps to solve its own localised problems. That is pretty much where the PNP is right now. Free fall.
If we can add to that a PNP general secretary who is not very well liked nationally and who is thought to be "carrying the fool a little further" every time he speaks, the days ahead for the PNP will be dark indeed.
Some years ago a man now in the leadership rungs of the JLP told me that as 1989 rolled around, he had some trouble convincing then prime minister, Eddie Seaga, to call the elections early. His rationale was that the party's stock among the voters was waning so fast that had the election been called in, say, September rather than February, the JLP would have lost many more seats.
The PNP should take that as sound advice. Call the elections now and the JLP seems set to take about 39 seats. Call it later and we can begin the count at around 45 seats for the JLP.
The problem in the PNP is the incapacities of its leader, coupled with a need by the people to see the back of this administration after its lucrative, predatory run on the country over the last 18 years and three months.
observemark@gmail.com
Mark Wignall
Thursday, May 10, 2007
In 1960 the late American country singer Patsy Cline recorded her classic hit, I fall to pieces, a favourite of mine since childhood. Last week I came across it in the online LimeWire catalogues, downloaded it and while doing so, it occurred to me that it would be an apt theme song for the PNP as, bit by bit, that party has been unravelling, in continuation of the trend since last year.
The period of 18 years and three months has been a long, sweet run for the party. Friends of the PNP have been living high on the hog over this period of time and most have begun to prepare themselves for retirement, all the better to enjoy what the filthy lucre provided them with - power, connections and a guarantee of a full cupboard in the kitchen, for life.
In somewhat similar fashion to 1972 when Michael Manley came riding into our lives and promised "power for the people" and "better must come", the 1989 re-emergence of the PNP had pretty much the same stage props (Michael again, albeit in a more subdued dispensation), a similar catchy phrase, "we put people first", and at various times between its beginning and end (some point in 2007) the PNP lost track of what its main objective was.
More so than any other administration in the history of this country, the PNP since 1989 has been running Jamaica as if it represents booty, and the PNP is the gang given first shot in rampaging over every nook and cranny of our island paradise. It began in infamy with the relatively petty furniture scandal, and because we had submitted our souls to it and allowed it to define our needs, it took that as carte blanche, and along with its friends, began gnawing away at and snatching up everything that wasn't nailed down.
In that process, the PNP's sole objective became winning power. Last year when Portia Simpson Miller was dubbed by PJ Patterson as the "only hope" for the PNP, Patterson the master politician must have known that the party as he had constituted it in government since 1993 had by 2006 totally run out of ideas. The PNP's internal election which catapulted Portia Simpson Miller to prime minister was not engineered in an effort to present the country with new directions in leadership.
It was not done to re-energise government and to bring back meaning to the "we put people first" election call. With all of her stark limitations of leadership and administrative abilities known to the insiders of the PNP, Portia was made PNP president because it was felt that only she could make the PNP win the next elections.
As much as we expected internal shock waves to resonate inside the PNP in the early days following her victory, one would have thought that her first objective over the last year would be marshalling of the troops who all (?) wanted to be part of another winning team. Not only were they wrong but in hindsight, why should they have expected her to be any different than what went before?
As for me, I sincerely believed that the press of leadership responsibilities would bring out the best in her. If anything, she has retreated.
The nasty fallout over the forcing out of Vando Palmer from the post of Central Manchester caretaker could not have occurred under the leadership of PJ Patterson. And therein lies the difference. Where Patterson was respected by those inside the party, Simpson Miller has never earned that level of respect. Over the many years when poll findings were showing her as the "best minister" and most loved person nationally, it seemed not to have mattered to her that she had done little to deserve the love and admiration.
Like a spoilt child who is "daddy's dearest" she knew that every move made, every complaint would result in someone else getting the strap. Hindsight has also taught us that our love for her was conditioned on her not having the power to upset that love. In other words, when we clamoured for her to become the PNP leader, it never occurred to us that in a different dispensation the love could turn to something else.
Many of the PNP people in leadership knew that they could never accept leadership from one who had demonstrated that she was at her best while accepting directives. They knew that Simpson Miller was known for missing meetings, being late and when she did show up, her presentations were... er, not well presented.
Had she the strength and the forthrightness to make necessary decisions, she would long ago have fired Vando Palmer and brought solutions to bear on those seats where trouble is brewing as you read this.The bigger problem dogging the PNP is that most PNP MPs and caretakers do not expect the prime minister to solve the PNP's internal problems for the simple reason that her one year of inaction in office is there for them as the future template of her leadership.
Where you have a situation that too many people believe that she does not have the capacity to lead the party, at the local level where tensions have been running high since last year, the party machinery on the ground will take steps to solve its own localised problems. That is pretty much where the PNP is right now. Free fall.
If we can add to that a PNP general secretary who is not very well liked nationally and who is thought to be "carrying the fool a little further" every time he speaks, the days ahead for the PNP will be dark indeed.
Some years ago a man now in the leadership rungs of the JLP told me that as 1989 rolled around, he had some trouble convincing then prime minister, Eddie Seaga, to call the elections early. His rationale was that the party's stock among the voters was waning so fast that had the election been called in, say, September rather than February, the JLP would have lost many more seats.
The PNP should take that as sound advice. Call the elections now and the JLP seems set to take about 39 seats. Call it later and we can begin the count at around 45 seats for the JLP.
The problem in the PNP is the incapacities of its leader, coupled with a need by the people to see the back of this administration after its lucrative, predatory run on the country over the last 18 years and three months.
observemark@gmail.com