Mark Wignall | The Jamaica Labour Party sensing a win?

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has occupied the seat of governmental power for two terms, 2016 to 2020 and 2020 to where we are now, readying ourselves for an election this year.

Considering the many policies formulated by both the JLP and the People’s National Party (PNP) when it ran the governmental administration, each party has sworn that it has made a better job during its run. Lately, however, like, say, in the middle of 2020 when COVID-19 was in its buzz-and-roar, the JLP found something in its political energy to take it to a big win over the PNP that year.

Poll findings since the 2024 municipal elections have consistently indicated that the PNP is not entirely out of the race. The bigger problem is, each time signals are sent to the leadership of the PNP to tell it to seek a wake-up pill, the louder the PNP groan lasts.

The last week or so was taken up with the extent to which anything politically positive could be milked from specific budget presentations. From my perspective, the presentations of the prime minister and his finance minister took the prize. But, if we are honest with ourselves, we really do not know what issues will surface more than others in this election. Not yet.

It seems to me that PM Holness has found some form of diplomatic agreement on our differences and it has made him look good in his talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

We have not had to kick out the Cuban doctors. Plus, Rubio has left a package of spending to assist us in purchasing equipment technology and other matters in fighting domestic and regional crime.

The expected hostility from certain sections of Jamaica, including me, did not materialise. Secretary Rubio left behind his gunship at a berth in Florida and Jamaica is still living and, thankfully, insignificant in the eyes of President Trump.

For now, Holness is looking good.

FINDING FUN IN THE FEAR

It’s a place in the middle of West Central St Andrew, the prime minister’s constituency. I think we know West Central is not exactly Beverly Hills where the prime minister lives. At the same time, if we are to be honest, given a choice, we would much prefer to live in Beverly Hills than West Central.

It’s easy for me to make that social case. But it will be a bit harder coming from the PM, a political man. Like the PNP president, Mr Mark Golding, there is no way he can ever make the case that his representing one of the original ghettos in Jamaica has done much to change the face of Trench Town/Arnett Gardens and make it more economically comfortable, liveable and socially acceptable..

I say all of that to speak of the fact that many from uptown are rediscovering certain areas like the more musically driven parts of West Central St Andrew. It is not the same uptowners who would visit Southside and Tivoli in the 1990s. These are the sort of people who actually made it out from the belly of the beast, built small businesses in mid-town and made the money to give back a shoutout to areas in places like West Central.

At the same time, the politicians in the JLP and PNP should never believe that, throughout the fear that many of us live, we are readily prepared to forget the pressing issues, swallow the trepidation, and vote without reservation when Andrew calls it.

Messrs Holness and Golding, it is a bit more complex than that. I must confess that, based on the way that both political leaders have shown their respective sides to the voting public, Golding, it would seem to me, has more catching up to do.

But, with all of that, Jamaicans are pushing back against the fear and putting forward their most irrational and unsurprising sides. PM Holness is, of course, the political leader likely to gain from this.

At his base, the prime minister is a more attractive man than Opposition Leader Mark Golding. Add to that, he looks better in a suit than Golding. While Golding can, at times, cut an impressive dash in his parliamentary deliveries, I sense that Holness meshes and blends in with the voting public outside Parliament much easier than Golding.

Some readers may believe that I am looking at the matter of voting in too simplistic a fashion. That I can understand. Until you realise that many people lean on the far side of emotional judgement when arriving at reasons for voting.

WHAT COULD MAKE GOLDING SURGE

Some of us believe that our political leaders never really formulate policy because, at the best of times, it is the big private sector princes that own them. In other words, the main policy which governs a political party’s main platform push is that which was made in New Kingston and not at Jamaica House.

Some of us believe that Golding has more in common with the New Kingston type than Holness has with them. Frankly, I believe that, while Holness has a political need to show he is with the ‘little man,’ there are times when he presents a case for preserving big business. But, of course, he does this because of the real fact of Jamaica’s global capitalist realities.

Mark Golding needs to first convince the PNP’s own hardcore workers and supporters that he is the real deal. As far as I can see, I am not convinced that he has been able to do this. Long before he gathers the political strength to reach out to farmers, shopkeepers, teachers, artisans, taxi drivers, nurses, doctors, builders, engineers, policemen, etc, he needs to reach deep inside the PNP to rediscover it.

From where I stand, Mark Golding needs to reach way back before he can dare to reach out.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com