Three-card trick third time around

Gordon Robinson, Contributor

So, once more it's rumoured that Bruce Golding has resigned. Yet again, the nation must rely on what Daryl says, because up to the time of writing, we're yet to hear a word from our prime minister. However, it appears that 'Driva' has finally taken the advice of those who matter in the JLP. Or maybe he heard the command from folk/rock legend Bob Dylan drifting across the decades to him in the sands of time.

"Come gather 'round people wherever you roam

and admit that the waters around you have grown

and accept it that, soon, you'll be drenched to the bone.

If your time to you is worth savin'

then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone.

For the times they are a-changin'."

As expected, columnists and commentators alike are scrambling like eggs to be the first to comment. No thought required, just early regurgitation of that which we already know. And, of course, we have obligatory boasts of who was first (after the 'Tivoli invasion') to call for resignation. Be careful, guys and girls, this is a time when Jamaica urgently needs you to engage a brain (rent one if you have to) before rushing to print. As usual, nothing is as it appears.

"Come, writers and critics who prophesise [sic] with your pen.

And keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again.

And don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'

For the loser now will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'."

If what Daryl says is true, we the people are once again about to be conned by a constitutional three-card trick regarding the naming of our next prime minister.

Why? Because the prime minister hasn't resigned. According to Daryl Vaz, who appears to be the JLP's information minister, as well as Jamaica's, Mr Golding "conveyed" to the JLP's Central Executive meeting that he had taken a decision not to seek re-election at the party's annual general conference in November and to step down as prime minister as soon as a new leader had been elected.
manley backed portia

Once again, if this is done, Jamaica will have a prime minister imposed on it by the delegates of a political party without the courtesy to the electorate of seeking its input. Michael Manley did it in 1992 when, in my opinion, what he wanted to achieve was for Portia Simpson to succeed him, regardless of the wishes of the people or the people's representatives.

The Constitution provides that the prime minister shall be the MP who, in the governor general's judgement, commands the confidence of a majority of the members of the House of Parliament. This is the best method, given the inherently warped nature of the Westminster system, of having a prime minister 'elected' by the people. Since we don't have direct elections of prime ministers (yet), the appointment must, constitutionally, be made by the people's elected representatives.

The reason I assert without fear of any successful attempt at contradiction, that Manley wanted Portia to succeed him, is that it was obvious to the world and his wife that, at the time, P.J. Patterson was that MP who the Constitution mandated should be our next prime minister. If Manley had no problem with P.J. succeeding him, all he had to do was resign as PM. The governor general would automatically have been forced to appoint P.J. Patterson prime minister, after which his election as PNP party leader would've been a mere formality.

Instead, Manley resigned as party leader, but remained as prime minister until a new party leader had been chosen. P.J. was forced to endure a bruising, party-rending political battle with Portia, who started howling odds-on favourite, which he surprised all and sundry (not for the first or last time) by winning. But, as usual, Jamaicans were the losers, having, as always, been treated with utter contempt and egregiously taken for granted. Only PNP delegates had any input into the selection of the new prime minister.

As it turned out, no harm was done in that case, as the person who would've been entitled to be prime minister under the Constitution did, in fact, so become despite all odds and machinations against him. But the process used, and the principle upon which that process was based, were unconstitutional and undemocratic.

At the end of that constitutional debacle, I breathed a sigh of relief, confident in the belief that, having been through the fire, Patterson would ensure that it never happened again. Surely, the sons would change the parents' bad habits?


"Come, mothers and fathers throughout the land.

And don't criticise what you can't understand.

Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin'."


To my shock and amazement, in 2006, when it was Patterson's turn to resign as prime minister, he did to Peter Phillips exactly the same thing that Michael Manley had tried to do to him. Again, because my respect for Patterson's legal acumen has no limit, it's my considered opinion that he must have wanted Portia to succeed him. Why? Elementary, my dear Watson. If not, all Patterson had to do was to resign as prime minister. At the time, it was no state secret that Peter Phillips commanded the confidence of the majority of members of the House. They said so in closing ranks and joining his campaign for PNP leadership in overwhelming numbers.

So, the only reason for resigning as party leader first must have been an attempt to deny Phillips the top job. It can't be said to be seeking to support democracy because it is totally undemocratic to force a prime minister upon a nation whose electorate has had no opportunity to choose. Once again, a few PNP delegates imposed a new prime minister on Jamaica. This time, it didn't turn out so well, as Portia wasn't even able to secure the votes of a majority of PNP delegates, winning with 47 per cent of the delegates' votes. At the earliest opportunity, Jamaica rejected her at the polls.

Which only goes to prove that puss and dawg don't have the same luck. Manley tried to force his hand-picked successor on Jamaica. He failed, but the process he set in motion fortuitously ended in the correct result. P.J. Patterson, in my opinion, tried the same thing and succeeded. But the flawed process gave Jamaica a prime minister it didn't want.

golding commits same error

Now it's Driva's turn. The self-proclaimed champion of constitutional reform can find no better way to make his inglorious exit but to copy the same unconstitutional process from his PNP predecessors. This time it's the JLP delegates who'll be used to try to ensure that it's Driva's choice that succeeds him. Will our elected representatives permit this anti-democratic tactic to be perpetrated on the Jamaican people for a third time?


"Come, senators, congressmen, please heed the call.

Don't stand in the doorway; don't block up the hall.

For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled.

The battle outside ragin'

will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'."


And what about us? Will we view the shenanigans from the comfort of our living rooms, satisfied to limit our choices to whether we turn on TVJ or CVM? Will we accept that a private party's choice for leader is to be our prime minister without our vote? Or will we draw a line in the sand and, like the Raven, say, "Nevermore!"?


"The line it is drawn; the curse it is cast.

The slow one now will later be fast

as the present now will later be past.

The order is rapidly fadin'

And the first one now will later be last.

For the times they are a-changin'."


Is this third time political three-card trick something, in the words of the great Winston Churchill, up with which we will not put?

Peace and love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.