EDITORIAL - Mr Holness and the old guard

We are encouraged by Mr Andrew Holness' media briefing last Friday that neither he nor his party is so badly demoralised by the election defeat more than a fortnight ago to be incapable of being a credible Opposition. That would be bad for Jamaica's democracy.

Whatever the basis of Mr Holness' posture of confidence, we assert that merely maintaining his job as leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) cannot be sufficient for either him or the JLP.

So, a critical test of his leadership is how well he holds the JLP together over the next few years and the quality of the institution that emerges by the time Jamaicans are next asked to vote. The review he has commissioned into the cause of the party's election defeat should be useful if the group goes about its work in a robust fashion and its analysis is incisive.

There are, however, a few suggestions that we offer to Mr Holness, starting with the JLP's need for renewal if it is to be a party fit for 21st-century governance. Fashioning such an organisation will be tough.

In the election campaign, with Mr Holness, 39, at the helm, the JLP sought to sell itself as the party of youth, vibrancy and the future. In the aftermath of the poll, it looks decidedly old. Its parliamentary group is a motley crew mostly of 1970s political vintage, remnants and, in some cases, beneficiaries of the ideological and tribalist upheavals that bequeathed political garrisons.

The rebuilding process

Many of this group did not support Mr Holness' quest for leadership when Bruce Golding's premiership disintegrated. They will resist serious moves to overhaul the JLP, assuming that is Mr Holness' intent. They will believe they have the base from which to undermine reform.

Mr Holness, however, is not without strategic options, if he indeed holds the JLP to be in need of reform and that he is the man for the job.

On the basis of the parliamentary seat count, the JLP was decisively beaten, with only a third of the members of the House in the party's column. But the party received 47 per cent of the popular vote. The JLP, therefore, has support beyond that represented in the legislature. Mr Holness must leverage that in the rebuilding process.

He must articulate a vision for the party, speaking, if necessary, over the heads of a derisive hard core, directly to the party's broad constituency. Members and supporters must be invited to help shape and refine the vision.

Mr Holness should also not be afraid to embrace young, bright and potential rivals - some of whom lost electoral bids - on whose intellectual energy he and the party should draw.

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