Tweet
the Re .. no Garnett Roper. After reading it, I wondered what he would say if the JLP won. Now ... mi really curious what him affi say.
Expect 34 seats for the PNP
It is counter-intuitive, but the People’s National Party (PNP) will probably win 34 seats tomorrow, Election Day 2007, and pull off a spectacular victory. The victory at the polls in 2007 will be the sweetest of all. Never has a party in government, based on the progress of the people under its watch, deserved more to retain power and never has a party had to overcome more to retain power.
This victory, which will be Portia Simpson Miller’s first, and the PNP’s fifth consecutive victory, will be a watershed. Jamaicans will know that any citizen can move from the periphery to the very pinnacle of power. Their dreams and aspirations would have been embodied and fulfilled in Portia Simpson Miller, the woman of ordinary stock who has been elected Prime Minister of Jamaica. They will also know that it is possible to take an ethical and principled approach to the practice of party politics, as the PNP has, and yet succeed and sustain that success for more than a generation.
Non-confrontation
The PNP defeated the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the 1980s with the politics of non-confrontation. PJ Patterson never lost an election as Prime Minister, though he was never vain, self-absorbed and in love with power as many before him had been. He led gently, absorbing personally greater abuse than any before who has held the office of Prime Minister. In the conduct of the 2007 elections, the PNP had no large war chess, but collected itself in a united manner behind Portia Simpson Miller and avoided in its ad campaign — for the most part at least — the vain boast and vitriol that have been the mantra of others.
When the results are counted, we will analyse more fully, why the JLP came close, but would not have succeeded at the polls yet again. The JLP has had every reason to win; they enjoyed unmitigated support from the private sector and uninhibited support by the media against a party that has been in power for 18 years. It would not have won because it fixed its packaging, but paid little attention to what was in the package. It has paid no attention to any public concerns raised about some of its candidates. It neither addressed the concerns of the disputability of some of its candidates, nor did it feel it necessary to address the obvious breach of the constitution it committed by nominating persons who were ineligible because of having sworn allegiance to foreign powers.
Investment Projects
It has also not indicated what it has learnt from its political past, what it would do differently this time around in light of the fact that the approach it took in the 1980s was rejected by the electorate.
The JLP has also failed to come clean with the electorate as far as its investment projects are concerned. One hopes that the JLP will learn to listen to its critics and detractors, rather than abusing or worse, silencing or sidelining them. The more profound questions, however, have to do with what the PNP under the watch of Portia Simpson Miller, ought to do differently this time around.
It seems to me that of first importance is the need for Simpson Miller to accept power with humility and with a duty to unite the whole Jamaican population.
She is perhaps best equipped to do so. It is not, however, something that can be taken for granted. Some yawning and bitter class division have emerged during the course of the political campaign. A measure of political desperation has also been on display, which is not good for the future of this country.
There is a place for a consensus-building approach between the government and opposition. This will be a strong and motivated opposition that could take the approach of campaigning for the next five years. Ways must be found in the next three years to renew bi-partisanship by incorporating not only good ideas from the opposition, but, where possible, to utilise members of the opposition on boards and committees.
The real challenge to the unity of purpose in the nation is to find a way to bring leading players in the business and commercial sectors to participate in the governance process.
It is clear that they fear something or see something or want something that is not readily apparent to the rest of us. They themselves may not even be clear about what it is they see or fear or want. What is beyond dispute is that even though their companies have increased profitability, they have other political ideas and values that are different from those of the present government.
The last three General Elections, including 2007, have demonstrated an incremental hardening of an anti-PNP position on the part of the majority of business leaders. It may well be par for the course. However, there is no future that is stable and sustainable in which such an important subsection of the population will likely feel excluded and feel that it is in its political interest to undermine the state. Unless ways are found to increase their participation in governance, the next time around, they are likely to find more desperate means of supporting those that are against the government. One is by no means talking about special incentives or a free ride for their members. History has proven that those often yield nothing.
Cabinet Appointments
The most important early step of the new Prime Minister will be the naming of her new Cabinet. First of all, the Cabinet needs to reflect the balance between creativity and stability in its composition. We will expect to see some of the old guards, even if in new positions, but we expect if they win their seats, to see some new faces who will think outside the box. Beyond mere forms, however, the priority of the government must be to demand the reform of the public sector. It is clear that where the public sector is concerned, in relation to the executive, the tail is wagging the dog. The bureaucratisation of the bureaucracy has become a virtue. The fear of corruption is greater than corruption itself, and has led the public sector to behave like a dog chasing its tail.
Someone told me about an incident while he was out of town. He was reminded that a certain parish council had a cheque for his company, and he decided to stop in to pick up the cheque. He was told that he needed a letter of authorisation from the company to pick up the cheque, even though he was the CEO of the company. He had the company letter head faxed to the parish council building and sought to write the letter authorising himself to pick up the cheque. He was told that he could not authorise himself, so he wrote the letter authorising his friend who was standing with him, to pick up the cheque and hand it to him. We have so many rules to do everything that we have forgotten what the rules were intended to do in the first place.
Public Sector
More profoundly, the orientation of the public sector has to change from a mindset that is seeking to limit the impulse of private capital, and to inhibit it, to one that seeks to stimulate and facilitate it. The approval process has got to be streamlined and expedited. This should be a priority of the new administration.
It will be necessary in for the completion of this fiscal year, to keep Dr. Omar Davis in his place as Minister of Finance, to quiet any jitters in the financial markets and among our bondholders, and to return stability to our foreign exchange markets. I think, however, as soon as it is possible to do so, Dr. Davies’ problem-solving skills should be utilised in a fresh area of challenge in a new Ministry of Education and Development. I would expect to see Peter Bunting and Professor Trevor Munroe join the Cabinet. Young minds like Lisa Hanna and Raymond Price, to name only two, should be placed in positions to understudy and to signal the promise of the future.
Portia Simpson Miller has been a symbol of the mainstreaming of the majority of Jamaicans. But as Prime Minister, symbols alone will not do, though symbols will continue to be important. She will need to fix the problem of community space, for recreation, renewal and competition. Ways will have to found to lift the quality of life for persons at the community level. Parks and gardens, as well as basketball and netball courts, playing fields and clubhouses, need to be built and ways found to maintain and sustain them.
Small businesses too, need to thrive and persons encouraged to take greater responsibility for their own lives and those of their children, and greater stake in and ownership of their communities. We need to open conversation in Jamaica so that opinions can contend and more voices can be heard.
Before all of that happens, we have a small matter of the exercise of our franchise. We must go out and vote tomorrow and even if we do not vote for the head, we must vote with our heads.
Expect 34 seats for the PNP
It is counter-intuitive, but the People’s National Party (PNP) will probably win 34 seats tomorrow, Election Day 2007, and pull off a spectacular victory. The victory at the polls in 2007 will be the sweetest of all. Never has a party in government, based on the progress of the people under its watch, deserved more to retain power and never has a party had to overcome more to retain power.
This victory, which will be Portia Simpson Miller’s first, and the PNP’s fifth consecutive victory, will be a watershed. Jamaicans will know that any citizen can move from the periphery to the very pinnacle of power. Their dreams and aspirations would have been embodied and fulfilled in Portia Simpson Miller, the woman of ordinary stock who has been elected Prime Minister of Jamaica. They will also know that it is possible to take an ethical and principled approach to the practice of party politics, as the PNP has, and yet succeed and sustain that success for more than a generation.
Non-confrontation
The PNP defeated the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the 1980s with the politics of non-confrontation. PJ Patterson never lost an election as Prime Minister, though he was never vain, self-absorbed and in love with power as many before him had been. He led gently, absorbing personally greater abuse than any before who has held the office of Prime Minister. In the conduct of the 2007 elections, the PNP had no large war chess, but collected itself in a united manner behind Portia Simpson Miller and avoided in its ad campaign — for the most part at least — the vain boast and vitriol that have been the mantra of others.
When the results are counted, we will analyse more fully, why the JLP came close, but would not have succeeded at the polls yet again. The JLP has had every reason to win; they enjoyed unmitigated support from the private sector and uninhibited support by the media against a party that has been in power for 18 years. It would not have won because it fixed its packaging, but paid little attention to what was in the package. It has paid no attention to any public concerns raised about some of its candidates. It neither addressed the concerns of the disputability of some of its candidates, nor did it feel it necessary to address the obvious breach of the constitution it committed by nominating persons who were ineligible because of having sworn allegiance to foreign powers.
Investment Projects
It has also not indicated what it has learnt from its political past, what it would do differently this time around in light of the fact that the approach it took in the 1980s was rejected by the electorate.
The JLP has also failed to come clean with the electorate as far as its investment projects are concerned. One hopes that the JLP will learn to listen to its critics and detractors, rather than abusing or worse, silencing or sidelining them. The more profound questions, however, have to do with what the PNP under the watch of Portia Simpson Miller, ought to do differently this time around.
It seems to me that of first importance is the need for Simpson Miller to accept power with humility and with a duty to unite the whole Jamaican population.
She is perhaps best equipped to do so. It is not, however, something that can be taken for granted. Some yawning and bitter class division have emerged during the course of the political campaign. A measure of political desperation has also been on display, which is not good for the future of this country.
There is a place for a consensus-building approach between the government and opposition. This will be a strong and motivated opposition that could take the approach of campaigning for the next five years. Ways must be found in the next three years to renew bi-partisanship by incorporating not only good ideas from the opposition, but, where possible, to utilise members of the opposition on boards and committees.
The real challenge to the unity of purpose in the nation is to find a way to bring leading players in the business and commercial sectors to participate in the governance process.
It is clear that they fear something or see something or want something that is not readily apparent to the rest of us. They themselves may not even be clear about what it is they see or fear or want. What is beyond dispute is that even though their companies have increased profitability, they have other political ideas and values that are different from those of the present government.
The last three General Elections, including 2007, have demonstrated an incremental hardening of an anti-PNP position on the part of the majority of business leaders. It may well be par for the course. However, there is no future that is stable and sustainable in which such an important subsection of the population will likely feel excluded and feel that it is in its political interest to undermine the state. Unless ways are found to increase their participation in governance, the next time around, they are likely to find more desperate means of supporting those that are against the government. One is by no means talking about special incentives or a free ride for their members. History has proven that those often yield nothing.
Cabinet Appointments
The most important early step of the new Prime Minister will be the naming of her new Cabinet. First of all, the Cabinet needs to reflect the balance between creativity and stability in its composition. We will expect to see some of the old guards, even if in new positions, but we expect if they win their seats, to see some new faces who will think outside the box. Beyond mere forms, however, the priority of the government must be to demand the reform of the public sector. It is clear that where the public sector is concerned, in relation to the executive, the tail is wagging the dog. The bureaucratisation of the bureaucracy has become a virtue. The fear of corruption is greater than corruption itself, and has led the public sector to behave like a dog chasing its tail.
Someone told me about an incident while he was out of town. He was reminded that a certain parish council had a cheque for his company, and he decided to stop in to pick up the cheque. He was told that he needed a letter of authorisation from the company to pick up the cheque, even though he was the CEO of the company. He had the company letter head faxed to the parish council building and sought to write the letter authorising himself to pick up the cheque. He was told that he could not authorise himself, so he wrote the letter authorising his friend who was standing with him, to pick up the cheque and hand it to him. We have so many rules to do everything that we have forgotten what the rules were intended to do in the first place.
Public Sector
More profoundly, the orientation of the public sector has to change from a mindset that is seeking to limit the impulse of private capital, and to inhibit it, to one that seeks to stimulate and facilitate it. The approval process has got to be streamlined and expedited. This should be a priority of the new administration.
It will be necessary in for the completion of this fiscal year, to keep Dr. Omar Davis in his place as Minister of Finance, to quiet any jitters in the financial markets and among our bondholders, and to return stability to our foreign exchange markets. I think, however, as soon as it is possible to do so, Dr. Davies’ problem-solving skills should be utilised in a fresh area of challenge in a new Ministry of Education and Development. I would expect to see Peter Bunting and Professor Trevor Munroe join the Cabinet. Young minds like Lisa Hanna and Raymond Price, to name only two, should be placed in positions to understudy and to signal the promise of the future.
Portia Simpson Miller has been a symbol of the mainstreaming of the majority of Jamaicans. But as Prime Minister, symbols alone will not do, though symbols will continue to be important. She will need to fix the problem of community space, for recreation, renewal and competition. Ways will have to found to lift the quality of life for persons at the community level. Parks and gardens, as well as basketball and netball courts, playing fields and clubhouses, need to be built and ways found to maintain and sustain them.
Small businesses too, need to thrive and persons encouraged to take greater responsibility for their own lives and those of their children, and greater stake in and ownership of their communities. We need to open conversation in Jamaica so that opinions can contend and more voices can be heard.
Before all of that happens, we have a small matter of the exercise of our franchise. We must go out and vote tomorrow and even if we do not vote for the head, we must vote with our heads.
Comment