Bad decision, JLP

George Davis

The decision of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to reduce Sunday's leadership election to a mere delegates' conference is a very bad one. It cannot make sense on the back of the leadership campaign that has been run by the Andrew Holness and Audley Shaw camps, riddled with vituperative comments and poisoned barbs. From insinuations of 'bad mind' to an alleged phobia of bright people, to fears about contamination, this leadership campaign has delivered enough grist for the mill of those who catch feelings easily. The mere perception of disrespect has caused the loss of many a life in Jamaica, so it's not difficult to imagine friendships within the JLP having already been burnt to ashes because of some 'diss' delivered on the political hustings. With this as the backdrop, the party should have gone all out with a general party conference where the election victor and vanquished stand cheek-by-jowl on stage, showing Labourites that the only way forward is on the bus, UNITY.

The fallout from a leadership election is peculiar given that it's the top brass of the party that's affected the most. Yes, it would have been worse had rank and file Labourites started hating each other. But it's another thing when the men and women marshalling the affairs of the party develop an acute wariness of each other, treating former staunch allies as if they were a virulent strain of the flu. And yes, the People's National Party has done three leadership elections in the last 25 years and have made up. But theirs is a party peopled by members who sell the impression that no matter what, when the cookie crumbles, it's always party over self. You don't get that with the JLP and that's why the healing of the wounds from this internecine war should start on the evening of November 10.

BAREFACED BETRAYAL

This delegates-only event is also a barefaced betrayal of the JLP's earlier promises about how it would treat the celebration of its 70th anniversary. As one of the most successful and impactful political organisations in the Western Hemisphere, the JLP certainly looks stupid in allowing this occasion to pass without a mass meeting of its supporters to celebrate its past and visualise its future under either a new leader, or one with the all-important delegates' stamp. In the week of July 10 this year, Andrew Holness told the Jamaica Observer that, "the party would return to its usual conference format this year with a bang, and expects to stage a really, really big conference".

The party had announced plans to honour 70 persons who had served the party for 70 years, culminating in a special ceremony for them at, you guessed it, a big conference in November. Recall that last year the party held a one-day event, in lieu of conference, for delegates at the Jamaica Conference Centre. For this year, its 70th birthday, the JLP executed a church service and planned events to commemorate the life and work of former Prime Minister Sir Donald Sangster and the 36th anniversary of the death of Sir Alexander Bustamante. It announced the launch of a book about the party's journey written by former Ambassador to the United States and High Commissioner to London, the gentleman, Anthony Johnson. Most of those planned anniversary events cater to the 'up' crowd. So what for the small man who supports the party? No wonder the report of the strategic review commission found that the party is for the 'brown' and 'rich', rather than those at the grass roots!

So now, how does the party convince anyone about the wisdom of its collective thinking in abandoning an event which it planned for, had all year to marshal funds towards and which it advertised as an occasion to announce its readiness to challenge strongly for the right to run the country? An idiot was once told that if filth was his brain, then he would be constipated. While it would be a stretch to fit a collective label of idiot across the JLP, this decision, certainly, smacks of mental constipation. Or maybe, as a wise man once said, the party in this instance is simply behaving as if it has termites in its brain. Selah.

George Davis is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and george.s.davis@hotmail.com.