No change from Golding

WHEN THE dust has settled after the Manatt-Coke enquiry, the political parties will stop, reconnoitre, gather themselves together and slowly slip into election mode. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will once again have to decide whether or not their leader is a political liability. But there are many who are confident that, by then, the embarrassment and the fallout over the 'Dudus' affair would have receded and that Prime Minister Bruce Golding will emerge as a strong, positive, political force.

But Dudus and enquiry aside, there will be some who will see Mr Golding as a major disappointment as our leader. These people will argue that, as a rank-and-file party man has said to me, "Bruce has failed as a leader because he has failed in his major undertaking as prime minister."

There are those who leap quickly to his defence, arguing that, under his administration, much has been achieved. They are eager to compare what this government has done to the achievements of previous administrations, given the economic conditions of the time.

Do things differently

But they are missing the point. There are many who supported Bruce, not because of a promise to do as well as most, and better than some, previous administrations. The hope that he gave to many Jamaicans was not that he would do things better than his predecessors, but that he would do things differently. He was given the reins of power because many people believed that he was genuine when he promised a change in the whole way that the ruling party would approach governance. There would be more openness, he promised, and more consultation with the people and with the opposition. There would be less political one-upmanship. We had been promised a change in the old system of doling out favours to party hacks and the political support base. We would have a government where backbenchers would have the opportunity to speak their independent minds freely. We would have a government where it would be irrelevant if it was believed that a senior civil servant had voted for the 'other party' in the election. There would be no brooms to sweep out anyone. Public service appointments and promotions, board memberships, everything, would be judged on merit. You would get the job because you were the best qualified, and keep it because you did it well. There would be no assumption that if you had been a loyal servant to the previous administration, you would not be loyal to this one. You would be expected to serve the public as a public servant, not a party person.

Promised new dawn

And most of all, we were promised a new dawn where there would be no 'hugging up' of gunmen and wrongdoers. Under this new prime minister we would see the whittling away of the power of the 'don'. First, the power he had through political alliances, then slowly his economic power, and finally the power he held because of the fear with which he was regarded.

Both parties had a long way to go to achieve any of this, but this administration, we were led to believe, would be the one where there would be a wholehearted, courageous effort to start the process.

Okay. Those who believed it all, expected it all, were naïve. But was it too much to expect at least some of this to happen? He had young men and women in his party who were willing to be part of that transformation. It was on these we pinned our hopes, why we gave him the benefit of the doubt. What has happened to them? Were they shunted aside by the hardcore oldschoolers? Why did we so quickly return to business as usual? And with such a vengeance!

Bruce Golding may have achieved enough to claim that his government compares favourably with many previous administrations. When election time rolls around, he will proudly list these achievements, and some will be impressive. But he risks being remembered as the man who duped us into thinking that he was going to set certain things right, only to make them worse.

And they are worse.

Is it too late for those young men and women of principle in this 'Grand Old Party' to step forward? Or is that a pipe dream?

Keith Noel is an educator. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.