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Golding urges voters to focus on issues, not charisma
Promises to punish those who steal taxpayers' money
BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Bruce Golding has publicly confronted Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's substantial personal popularity in the lead-up to parliamentary elections - arguing that the "issues" rather than the prime minister's perceived "charisma" should be dominating the thoughts of voters.
Addressing a huge crowd labelled by him as "tens of thousands" which packed the square of this central highland town Sunday night, the opposition leader said that while political commentators claimed he had no charisma, he knew that "I have the experience, and I have the vision and I have the commitment to lead this country."
Against the backdrop of Simpson Miller's open embrace of Christianity since taking over as Prime Minister and leader of the ruling People's National Party (PNP) early last year, Golding also spoke of his own faith and commitment to God. And the opposition leader found cause to defend against questions surrounding his trustworthiness - having left the JLP to form the fringe National Democratic Movement (NDM) in 1995 before returning to the JLP in 2002.
Golding - who presented all 60 candidates at the rally - ridiculed suggestions that the upcoming elections involving the JLP and Simpson Miller's People's National Party (PNP) could turn on perceptions of a leader's personality. Rather, he said, Jamaicans should make a decision as to which leader and political party is best able to deal with the many problems affecting the nation.
"The election must be about the future of the country. must be about creating jobs .about providing an education system where people don't leave high school, can't read and write. It must be about the economy to grow in a way that all the people of Jamakica can share in the growth, it must be about justice, about protecting the human rights of every Jamaican citizen," he said.
"It is not enough to visit a school to go and comfort traumatised people when agents of the state are committing atrocities or violating the human rights of our citizens, it is not sympathy we must extend, it is not apology we must offer, we must put a stop to it. Election is about crime and what we going to do, election must be about providing hope for our young people," added Golding.
With parliamentary elections constitutionally due by October but widely expected to be called by Simpson Miller within days, public opinion polls have consistently shown Simpson Miller well ahead of Golding in 'head to head', personal popularity.
Simpson Miller is widely considered the most popular Jamaican politician since Michael Manley - the late former prime minister and PNP leader who combined Hollywood-style physical appearance with spellbinding oratory to sweep Jamaicans off their feet in the 1970s.
In launching an assault on the concept of "charisma", Golding made no mention of Manley or for that matter National Hero Sir Alexander Bustamante, who founded the JLP in the early 1940s and was said to be also extremely charismatic.
But the Opposition leader reminded his listeners that arguably the two most abhorred political leaders of the 20th-century Germany's Adolf Hitler and Idi Amin of Uganda were "charismatic". And, he argued, charisma was of no use to a mother who needed to pay bills and feed her children.
Golding told the crowd that while some among his own advisers sometimes told him he was too serious and needed to laugh and smile more, he believed that the nation's problems required a "serious leader".
"I am serious thinking of that mother who find herself with one hundred dollars and three children to go to school. A hundred dollars can't pay the bus fare and cover the lunch money for all of them, she has to decide which one will go to school today and which one to stay home; when I think about that I don't see anything to smile about, nothing in that to laugh about," Golding said.
Claiming that he had difficulty talking about himself, Golding threw a pointed barb at Simpson Miller: "I am not a person who is so taken up in his own flattery that he refers to himself by his name. . I get worried when I see people talking about themselves in the third person. It suggests a state of mind that is worrisome."
Revealing "that I can't begin a morning unless I go down on my knees", Golding avowed his faith and religious commitment but insisted that ". there is one thing I will never do and that is to seek to use the church in order to gain political mileage".
And on the question of trust, Golding reiterated that when he left the JLP to form the NDM he was motivated by an overriding desire to put country first. He had developed "fundamental" disagreements with the leadership of the JLP regarding the direction the country should go in terms of the deepening of democracy and accountability.
He was worried that there was too much power in the hands of the government and the Cabinet - that in fact the parliament had become a "department of the Cabinet" and Jamaicans were losing faith in the democratic process; he felt strongly that there should be term limits (two terms) for political leadership; that there should be a fixed election date; and that economic growth could not be achieved unless corruption was decisively dealt with.
"I am determined that if you tief taxpayers' money, is just like the man who tief the bicycle and you must go to prison," said Golding.
The JLP leader said he returned to the party in 2002 on the even of elections that year having been convinced that his concerns had been taken on board by the party. He could now boast that those principles were now firmly part of the JLP's programme for Government, he said.
Promises to punish those who steal taxpayers' money
BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Bruce Golding has publicly confronted Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's substantial personal popularity in the lead-up to parliamentary elections - arguing that the "issues" rather than the prime minister's perceived "charisma" should be dominating the thoughts of voters.
Addressing a huge crowd labelled by him as "tens of thousands" which packed the square of this central highland town Sunday night, the opposition leader said that while political commentators claimed he had no charisma, he knew that "I have the experience, and I have the vision and I have the commitment to lead this country."
Against the backdrop of Simpson Miller's open embrace of Christianity since taking over as Prime Minister and leader of the ruling People's National Party (PNP) early last year, Golding also spoke of his own faith and commitment to God. And the opposition leader found cause to defend against questions surrounding his trustworthiness - having left the JLP to form the fringe National Democratic Movement (NDM) in 1995 before returning to the JLP in 2002.
Golding - who presented all 60 candidates at the rally - ridiculed suggestions that the upcoming elections involving the JLP and Simpson Miller's People's National Party (PNP) could turn on perceptions of a leader's personality. Rather, he said, Jamaicans should make a decision as to which leader and political party is best able to deal with the many problems affecting the nation.
"The election must be about the future of the country. must be about creating jobs .about providing an education system where people don't leave high school, can't read and write. It must be about the economy to grow in a way that all the people of Jamakica can share in the growth, it must be about justice, about protecting the human rights of every Jamaican citizen," he said.
"It is not enough to visit a school to go and comfort traumatised people when agents of the state are committing atrocities or violating the human rights of our citizens, it is not sympathy we must extend, it is not apology we must offer, we must put a stop to it. Election is about crime and what we going to do, election must be about providing hope for our young people," added Golding.
With parliamentary elections constitutionally due by October but widely expected to be called by Simpson Miller within days, public opinion polls have consistently shown Simpson Miller well ahead of Golding in 'head to head', personal popularity.
Simpson Miller is widely considered the most popular Jamaican politician since Michael Manley - the late former prime minister and PNP leader who combined Hollywood-style physical appearance with spellbinding oratory to sweep Jamaicans off their feet in the 1970s.
In launching an assault on the concept of "charisma", Golding made no mention of Manley or for that matter National Hero Sir Alexander Bustamante, who founded the JLP in the early 1940s and was said to be also extremely charismatic.
But the Opposition leader reminded his listeners that arguably the two most abhorred political leaders of the 20th-century Germany's Adolf Hitler and Idi Amin of Uganda were "charismatic". And, he argued, charisma was of no use to a mother who needed to pay bills and feed her children.
Golding told the crowd that while some among his own advisers sometimes told him he was too serious and needed to laugh and smile more, he believed that the nation's problems required a "serious leader".
"I am serious thinking of that mother who find herself with one hundred dollars and three children to go to school. A hundred dollars can't pay the bus fare and cover the lunch money for all of them, she has to decide which one will go to school today and which one to stay home; when I think about that I don't see anything to smile about, nothing in that to laugh about," Golding said.
Claiming that he had difficulty talking about himself, Golding threw a pointed barb at Simpson Miller: "I am not a person who is so taken up in his own flattery that he refers to himself by his name. . I get worried when I see people talking about themselves in the third person. It suggests a state of mind that is worrisome."
Revealing "that I can't begin a morning unless I go down on my knees", Golding avowed his faith and religious commitment but insisted that ". there is one thing I will never do and that is to seek to use the church in order to gain political mileage".
And on the question of trust, Golding reiterated that when he left the JLP to form the NDM he was motivated by an overriding desire to put country first. He had developed "fundamental" disagreements with the leadership of the JLP regarding the direction the country should go in terms of the deepening of democracy and accountability.
He was worried that there was too much power in the hands of the government and the Cabinet - that in fact the parliament had become a "department of the Cabinet" and Jamaicans were losing faith in the democratic process; he felt strongly that there should be term limits (two terms) for political leadership; that there should be a fixed election date; and that economic growth could not be achieved unless corruption was decisively dealt with.
"I am determined that if you tief taxpayers' money, is just like the man who tief the bicycle and you must go to prison," said Golding.
The JLP leader said he returned to the party in 2002 on the even of elections that year having been convinced that his concerns had been taken on board by the party. He could now boast that those principles were now firmly part of the JLP's programme for Government, he said.
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