Editorial | PNP fluffs the catch

It is not enough for the People’s National Party (PNP) to characterise the fallout in its Westmoreland Western constituency over Ian Hayles’ election as the party’s candidate for the next general election as sour grapes over the outcome of a democratic process.

That stance is, to say the least, disingenuous. If the PNP’s brass truly subscribe to that position, it only underlines how profoundly out of touch and tone-deaf they are to the sentiments of the vast majority of Jamaicans who are increasingly disengaged from the country’s politics.

It is, of course, quite possible, as recent public opinion polls have suggested, that the PNP could win the next general election, due in 2025. The danger is that it wins without the support of a critical mass for it to govern effectively. In that scenario, Jamaica’s institutions of government and governance will continue to merely limp along with little trust from citizens.

There is still time, though, for the PNP’s president, Mark Golding, to shift this unfortunate trajectory. But he has to be prepared to be bold, which includes having honest conversations in and outside the party on the Hayles affair. That might also require the leader imbibing heavy doses of mea culpa, as well as personal invitations to Garfield James, Ian Myles and Lawston James to rejoin the PNP, from which they resigned over what seem to be real questions of principle. The trio are members of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC), so their departure from the PNP effectively robs the party of its majority in the municipal government.

The PNP, at first glance, appears to be on the moral high ground in framing the resignations as an assault on the democratic process in the wake of Mr James’ failed bid to be the party’s candidate for the Western Westmoreland parliamentary seat.

UNSUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES

“These three councillors were unsuccessful in their campaign for Mr Garfield James to be the candidate,” said the party’s general secretary, Dayton Campbell. “The delegates of the party and the citizens of the constituency have spoken, and the party is moving forward in favour of democracy and the people’s will.”

Indeed, Mr James withdrew from the contest and Mr Hayles won the backing of nearly all the approximately 700 delegates.

The situation, however, is more complex and nuanced than Dr Campbell’s statement suggests. It starts with Mr Hayles’ antecedents.

Ian Hayles, who was member of parliament between 2007 and 2016, is a seasoned politician and person who tends to be dogged by controversy.

For instance, he was a subject of a scathing 2017 report – now before the police to determine whether there is the basis for charges to be laid against him – by the former contractor general, Dirk Harrison, into his family’s development of property in Hanover. Among the issues Mr Harrison probed was whether he followed the rules, or used his status as an MP and minister to pressure officials at the municipal authority to greenlight the projects. Mr Harrison concluded the latter. Mr Hayles spent five years attempting to prevent the report being tabled in Parliament. Last December Justice Lorna Shelly-Williams threw out his bid for a judicial review of the matter.

His potential legal, but political troubles notwithstanding, Mr Hayles was shooed in as a vice-president of the PNP in 2021 after the four sitting VPs resigned in the party’s years-long fratricidal struggles. Mr Hayles was a supporter of Mr Golding, who was then struggling to find his footing as leader.

Several months ago, having apparently concluded that his chances of regaining his Hanover seat weren’t promising, Mr Hayles switched to Westmoreland Western, which was lost in 2020 by Wykeham McNeill, one of the vice presidents who resigned in 2021.

His victory this week notwithstanding, not everyone in Hanover Western welcomed Mr Hayles. Indeed, several stalwarts of the party and in the parish, including the chairman of the municipal council, Bertel Moore, made their opposition to Mr Hayles publicly known.

PRIME ISSUE

Character – which is one of the criteria the PNP says it uses in candidate selection (it even has an internal integrity commission) – was the prime issue. Their choice was Mr James, who eventually withdrew, according to his backers, over concerns with selection of delegates.

Although they have specific memberships, internal structures and their own operational rules, political parties are not private clubs. When they propose candidates for elections it is with the intention to win control of the government and the management of the state. That, indirectly, gives them great authority over public resources and citizens’ lives.

So, who a party chooses as its candidates matters – even if it may eventually win the election only with its base, given the disenchantment of the majority (only 37 per cent registered voters cast ballots in the last election) with the process. Cynical attitudes only exacerbate the crisis, further undermining real democracy, raising the danger of implosion.

The PNP’s evocation of the hallowedness of its democratic process rings hollow in this situation. Only in May Dr Alfred Dawes was parachuted in to represent the party in South East St Catherine, thwarting Alric Campbell’s long-held ambition.

The democratic ideal is more than the mechanical casting of ballots. That was declared to be for the greater good.