Editorial | PNP must say its plans

There is a greater sense of assuredness, if not a hint of swagger, in the leadership of the People’s National Party (PNP), since the opinion polls in March that showed the party running neck-and-neck with the Government.

Not unreasonably, Mark Golding, the PNP’s president, and his key lieutenants, harbour hopes of winning the next general elections, whenever they are called. Their ambition, especially in the face of the polls, isn’t far-fetched.

But if Mr Golding and the PNP hold a philosophy about the purpose of government and see the party as an instrument for pursuing that agenda they shouldn’t want to win election by default, merely because Jamaicans, or the minority who vote, have grown tired of, or disenchanted with, the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Its pursuit of state power should be to fulfil specific policy ends. This newspaper isn’t convinced that the Opposition has clearly worked out what, for it, those policies are. Put another way, two-and-half years before the next elections are constitutionally due and more than seven years since it last formed the administration, the PNP can’t claim that it has definitively assured Jamaicans of its preparedness for office, or why it should lead.

This issue is relevant at this time given speculation that Prime Minister Andrew Holness is about to recast his administration as a precursor to an early vote. He apparently hopes to lift the government out of the funk in which it appears to be mired.

The prime minister and his party will probably claim to be hard done by matters largely outside their control. The macroeconomy remains stable; output has returned to pre-COVID-19 levels; and unemployment, at 6.6 per cent, is near historic lows; and the spiral in inflation during the post-pandemic period has begun to moderate.

STATISTICAL DEAD HEAT

Yet, in March, a survey commissioned by the PNP and done by the respected pollster, Don Anderson, showed the opposition party in a statistical dead heat with the JLP for voter support. In a poll with a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent, the PNP was backed by 28.1 per cent of the electorate, against 27.9 per cent for the JLP.

This was the first time in six years the PNP was either even or ahead of the JLP. Indeed, six months earlier, Don Anderson poll for the RJRGLEANER Group showed the JLP’s support at 31 per cent and the PNP’s at 18 per cent. Other polls showed similar gains for the Opposition and slippages by the Government.

There have been no new polls since those in March, but the Government’s concern is likely to have been deepened by a rash of recent complaints and demonstrations over poor roads and water supply, and hiccups in paying some public sector workers their higher salaries after a compensation review.

In the circumstance, were the PNP able to contain the infighting that has characterised the party for most of the past decade and a half – and assuming the JLP doesn’t reverse the negative public sentiments – it is quite possible that the Opposition could win most seats in Parliament next time out. At least, it should avoid the humiliation of 2020.

CURRENT PERFORMANCE

However, on the PNP’s current performance, winning, or coming close thereto, would be on the basis of voters’ attitude to the administration rather than the policies the PNP has placed on the table. Those are few.

As this newspaper previously observed, while the PNP has shifted to the right and did the early heavy-lifting towards the current macroeconomic/fiscal stability, the party appears uncertain of where it stands ideologically or philosophically. A review document on that question prepared by the academic, Tony Bogues, proposed that the PNP, which officially remains a democratic socialist organisation, position itself as a party of the “democratic left”. But precisely what that means and how it translates to policy, isn’t clear.

But beyond such larger considerations, the PNP’s shadow cabinet has since the last election offered few specific policies the party would pursue in government.

The most fundamental of its proposals so far was shadow finance minister Julian Robinson’s call for a reorientation of the economy, from one based on low wages and primary production, to one higher levels of skills, greater use of technology and, therefore, higher wages. But since Mr Robinson sketched his ideas during the Budget debate, there has been no aggressive follow-up, or inputs by other spokespersons of how their sectors would help contribute to this ambitious initiative and help to hold it together.

What generally emanates from the shadow ministers are statements on the errors of the Government and what the PNP wouldn’t do, but not what are the party’s specific plans.

Voters shouldn’t have to wait until the eve of election for these policies to be disclosed in a manifesto that no one has an opportunity to review and digest. Not if they are by a government in waiting.