Time for the PNP

Martin Henry, Contributor

While the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) labours to put its house in order - or to mash it up further - I write about the PNP today. The JLP seems to have developed an inordinate affection for the opposition benches of Parliament.

Across media since last Sunday, I have been offering the same consistent advice to the philosophical, self-declared transformational leader who was returned to the leadership of the JLP by a healthy 57 per cent of the votes cast. Holness should have returned his shadow Cabinet en bloc and instantly.

And it would have been a stroke of genius in political strategy if Holness had offered back the defeated challenger Audley Shaw his old job of shadowing the finance portfolio right there on the stage in the car park at Independence Park as he made his victory speech and both men pledged to work in unity to rebuild 'Bustamante's great party'. The words would have become flesh there and then.

Whatever might be the need to restructure a sleepy shadow Cabinet, immediately after a divisive leadership contest, when the need for healing is bandied about in words, is absolutely the wrong time to do it. There are three years left in the life of the present Government, ample time for a later restructuring, if unity to face a common opponent is anything more than words in the wind.

And there is no right time for messing around with Senate appointments and the hallowed traditions and constitutional intent of the Upper House by inviting the resignations of appointees.

The party secretariat has been shamefully and shamelessly splitting hairs of technicalities, as Holness agent, over unchallenged sole nominations of two Holness opponents for the leadership of two area councils.

Holness and the JLP can ill afford to cultivate 'enemies' within and certainly not among, its top talent and its parliamentary caucus, roughly half of which had backed Shaw. And the Shaw posse needs Holness, the confirmed leader of the party, as much as he needs them. A perfect marriage of convenience, which is the norm in the cut-throat world of politics where there are no real friends, only convenient allies. And also solid grounds for hard negotiations.

Visible cracks

Holness should know that visible cracks in the party can only damage its already tenuous chance of taking home the next election. And his former challengers very well know that with him now strongly confirmed as leader, and with no prospect of a fresh challenge until he loses a couple of elections, they will only see inside a Cabinet if he can bring home a victory.

And for older men like Shaw and Bartlett, it has to be the next one. Their political destinies are tied, not by cords of love, but of necessity. Shaw will never be prime minister of Jamaica as he had hoped. And Holness is not likely to lead the Government again anytime soon if he cannot build a party strongly holding together for a common goal.

The rigmarole of the last week, however it finally settles, can only further weaken the party. Time will tell if Gleaner cartoonist Las May is merely a comic loss or a good prophet when last Tuesday he had Portia singing "Oh, happy days" as friends, man, woman and pickney, euphorically celebrated Andrew's victory.

But this was to be about the PNP, right? Last week, I met a retired civil servant by accident, quite literally as he pulled out of lane in slow traffic right into mine. In peacefully and quietly settling the fender bender (as gentlemen should), he invited me into his home to meet his lovely wife, who warmly commended me for fairness and balance in media, my most cherished commendations.

So last week, it was the JLP occupying this space embedded in a good deal of neutral political history that needs to be told. Is PNP time now. And what preceded could be regarded as nothing but an analysis of why the party is likely to win the next election.

Delano Franklyn has been cranking out edited books about leaders of the PNP almost at the same rate that I write newspaper columns. His latest output, which was recently launched, is about the party itself in celebration of its 75th anniversary.

The book is simply titled PNP at 75 - The Party for the People. And I immediately take umbrage with the subtitle! Beyond political sloganeering, which one has to expect from party faithful like Delano Franklyn, there is nothing about the PNP which uniquely makes it 'the party of the people'.

Among the delightful features of another book on which I heavily rely for data, Trevor Munroe and Arnold Bertram's Adult Suffrage and Political Administrations in Jamaica, 1944-2002 is data on laws enacted and institutions established by each administration, as well as socio-economic indicators. Those data speak volumes of the peopleness of both political parties in Government and provide rich raw material for assessing who was better - or worse - at what.

From Rex Nettleford's 1971 groundbreaking Manley & the New Jamaica- Selected Speeches & Writings, 1938-1968, there is far more published documentation on and by the PNP than the JLP. Although with Seaga's works and books on Bustamante and Donald Sangster, things are coming along for the other side. I am reliably informed that a work on Hugh Shearer, as seen through the eyes of those who knew him best and from his papers made available by his widow, is being prepared. The nation needs these works as long as we take the trouble to critically counterbalance the biases of loyalists and perform our own labours for fairness and balance.

Edwin Jones conclusion

Forewordist, Professor Emeritus Edwin Jones, says of the latest Franklyn book: "The papers in this volume are extensive in emphasis and reach. They offer significant narratives and discourses about the party's history, its institutional mechanisms and governance framework. They stress policy dialogues, policy products and their impacts. Analyses are presented about the significant actors over 75 years."

Not everyone would agree with Jones' conclusion, certainly not Labourites and the broad mass of the politically disillusioned, that "the essence of the collective story is that despite some shortcomings, the performance of the PNP over the past 75 years has been overwhelmingly positive". And that qualifying word, 'overwhelmingly', doesn't help.

Franklyn's own introduction, reminding us of the socialist roots of the PNP, and Richard Hart's Chapter 1 (from a 1984 lecture) on the 'Origins and Development of the PNP' provide very useful historical data and ideological insights on the party. Delano makes no bones about his purpose: "The book, he says in closing his introduction, "is intended for all those who are generally interested in the politics of Jamaica, and, specifically those who have an abiding interest in seeing the PNP become a bigger and better party, in order for it to play an even more meaningful role in the growth and development of the country".

Among the 19 chapters is a critical review by neutralist (now) Professor Densil Williams, who heads the Mona School of Business and Management at the UWI, 'Beyond the Grave: Is Manley's Economic Philosophy Relevant to the Advancement of Contemporary Jamaica?' First delivered as the 2012 Michael Manley Foundation Lecture, commendations to the foundation which Delano Franklyn now chairs, Williams' short answer is no, and yes, depending "on which Manley we are referring to"! No for the democratic socialist Manley of the 1970s. Yes for the neo-liberal sympathiser Manley "with a dose of realism about the need for the reordering of the global financial and trade architecture".

PNP chapter studies

There are chapter studies on the party leaders: Norman Manley (Robert Buddan), Michael Manley (Brian Meeks), P.J. Patterson (Delano Franklyn), and Portia Simpson Miller (Robert Buddan).

But I found even more intriguing, for obvious reasons, Omar Davies' contribution on 'The PNP and the Economy', the Rev Ernle Gordon's on 'The PNP and its Relationship to the Church', and Danny Roberts', writing from long attachment to the trade union arm of the party on the badly titled 'The PNP in the Forefront of the Workers' Struggle', if 'forefront' is still a meaningful word. Roberts does nothing in the paper to defend his 'forefront' proposition.

A quiet gem from the PNP's and the country's longest-serving minister of finance: 'The statistics demonstrate clearly the disappointing results of many of the policies implemented during the ['Better Must Come'] Manley administration [Michael, 1972-1980]. The usual party explanations followed, which readers may or may not choose to buy.

Commitment to change

And in an absolutely riveting conclusion, Davies writes, "The review of the PNP's 75-year history has demonstrated an unswerving commitment to change. This commitment to change aimed at improving the standard of living of ordinary Jamaicans has been the raison d'être from its founding." How well this has been accomplished by the party in Government in absolute terms and vis-a-vis the other party which has formed Government over the period is a matter for legitimate and perfectly possible enquiry.

Ernle Gordon sets out to "demonstrate why there has never been a confrontation between the Church and the PNP", a situation, which if true, says more about the stance of the Church, or at least Gordon's wing of it (the PNP at prayer), than about the party.

I welcome PNP at 75 - The Party for the People as another useful addition to our growing literature of political history and will use it as a rich data source for my own work, as well as haul and pull it. It deserves both.

Martin Henry is a university administrator, communication specialist and public affairs commentator. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and medhen@gmail.com.