The JLP had better sheathe its swords

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Reporter

Given its troubled past, the compulsiveness of the 69-year-old Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to self-destruct appears highly probable at this time, as the party moves to renew itself following last year's crushing electoral loss to the People's National Party (PNP).

Not surprisingly, the party is charting a path to recovery. This is an eminently prudent and practical course of action.

A natural flow along this path is the decision by members to focus on the intensive search for the correct person to fill the pivotal positions of chairman and general secretary of the JLP, in order to assist the party's young leader, Andrew Holness, steer the organisation out of its current rut.

Landslide losses can be demora-lising to even the strongest of poli-tical organisations.

The defeat of the PNP in 1980 attests to the psychologically debilitating effects of such an occurrence. So are the crushing defeats suffered by the JLP in 1989, 1993 and again in 2011.

A primary challenge that confronts the JLP as it heads into its annual conference - the first since last December's general election and March 2012 local government polls - is to avoid the customary bloodletting.

PNP wisdom

The PNP has mastered the art of selecting persons to the chairmanship and general secretary post without the snags that have frequently catapulted the JLP into disrepute.

When former prime minister and PNP president, P.J. Patterson, decided to demit office, following the 2002 general election, the post of general secretary became vacant when Maxine Henry-Wilson quit.

There were at least four aspirants going after the position, but Patterson shrewdly surmised that it was not the time for an electoral tussle on the eve of his departure.

Patterson handpicked the well-respected PNP stalwart, Burchell Whiteman, who commanded the respect of Comrades on all sides, to guide the party through the potentially troubling transition.

Whiteman was unquestionably a stabilising force during the period that culminated in four contenders vying for the position of PNP president and, by extension, prime minister.

Similarly, as the JLP undergoes its own transitional process, there is need for a strong stabilising influence in the position.

Some senior party members are of the view that acting chairman, Robert Montague, who lost his Western St Mary seat, should step aside to focus on shoring up his political fortunes.

Information out of the party is that the Labourites are focusing on three persons to fill the all-important slot.

They are former deputy leader in charge of Area Council One, Derrick Smith; Karl Samuda, the ex-general secretary who helped steered the party to the 2007 electoral victory; and Edmund Bartlett, a former deputy leader, general secretary and deputy general secretary.

By their pronouncements, both Smith and Samuda are acutely aware of the potentially disastrous consequences of a tussle for the position and urged consensual action at this critical juncture in the JLP's history.

Experienced candidates

All three are over 60 and experienced, having sat in one of the two parliamentary chambers since 1980.

Neither Smith nor Samuda has ever lost an election.

Smith, a senator in the first three years of the Seaga administration, won the West Central Kingston seat in 1983 and was the only JLP candidate who won a new seat in 1989 - North West St Andrew - at a time when the tide of popularity flowed against the party.

Samuda, a victor in the North Central St Andrew seat since 1980, is the only Jamaican politician to win the same seat on the tickets of both major political parties. He continues to win.

Bartlett won the Eastern St Andrew seat in 1980, and held it until 1993 when he was defeated by the PNP's Colin Campbell.

He was appointed to the Senate in 1993, and did well to reinvent himself and revive his political fortunes when he won the East Central St James seat in 2002 at a time when the JLP was in dire need of vitality in the west. He has not lost the seat since.

As the PNP did in the aftermath of the 2002 election, the JLP is well advised to select a politically sturdy stalwart to usher the party into its rebuilding phase.

Gary Spaulding is a parliamentary and political affairs reporter. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com.