Peter and Portia Combo!

SENSING THE possibility of electoral success, owing to the perception of a bleeding governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), the opposition People's National Party (PNP) is positioning its two top guns to deliver a knock-out blow at the polls.

Popular leader and party president Portia Simpson Miller will today send a clear signal to Jamaica that she intends to partner with her former rival, Dr Peter Phillips, in a one-two-combination aimed at showcasing the party as a viable alternative.

Simpson Miller will use her address at the party's 72nd annual conference this afternoon to announce that Phillips has been serving as head of the party's national campaign committee for the past three weeks.

According to Simpson Miller: "The PNP is more united, more prepared, fired up, and ready to go."

"Dr Phillips will always play a critical role in any government I lead, or the party," she told The Sunday Gleaner during a break in yesterday's private session of the conference.

This is welcome news for most PNP stalwarts who have often quietly complained that the rift between supporters of Simpson Miller and Phillips would affect the party's chances of an electoral victory.

Dr Paul Robertson, the PNP campaign director for the 2007 general election, said "it would be a good thing for the unity of the party" if Simpson Miller and Phillips teamed up in a one-two punch.

He, however, reserved further comment, saying he had not done the research that would inform his views on the possible electoral impact of the combination.

Pollster Bill Johnson, while noting that he had not included Simpson Miller and Phillips in a leadership poll in two years, said his intuition tells him it would be good for the PNP.

"It would be a good move as long as it is a true relationship and not a one-night stand," Johnson said.

The last time Johnson examined the favourability rating of Simpson Miller and Phillips he found that 45 per cent of Jamaicans believed she would do a better job as leader of the Opposition compared with Phillips, who polled 27 per cent.

But the JLP is far from worried about the 'Peter-Portia combo'.

According to Karl Samuda, the general secretary of the JLP, if Simpson Miller promotes Phillips as her deputy, it would signal that the PNP is "desperately searching for relevance".

"Peter Phillips has always been a person within the PNP of some worth, and it is akin to paying a good worker little money and giving them a big title," Samuda said.

The JLP general secretary also said his party was not in danger of being booted when the next polls come around.

"Nonsense! This party is doing very, very, well. We are doing well on the economic front, we have offered a sense of hope in the future, we are a positive government. We have had our setback with this media frenzy on Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, but we are a good strong government. We are not in danger of losing the next election. The answer is a very sharp, crisp, and precise no!" Samuda said.

"We have work to do, but we are by no means considering anything like a defeat in the next general election," he added.

PNP lost

The PNP lost the September 2007 general election by approximately 5,000 votes as the JLP captured 32 of the 60 seats in the House of Representatives.

An appraisal of the PNP's performance conducted after the general election defeat said that "with any other leader, the party would have done much worse at the general elections".

The report, however, identified disunity within the ranks of the PNP and said that for Simpson Miller's leadership to be a success, "it requires compromises on all sides and for everyone to put the interests of the party first".

"This is the only approach that will help to avoid a long period in the political wilderness," the report concluded.

Golding's leadership has been called into question by many Jamaicans over his handling of the Christopher 'Dudus' Coke issue.

Against that background, the PNP has scented victory, and since the September, 2008, showdown between the Simpson Miller-led 'Team PNP' and the Phillips-backed 'Arise and Renew', the party has moved to break down the 'Berlin Wall' which has divided them.

In March, Phillips, a former vice-president, was given an official platform within the party when he was named communications chairman.

Phillips had left the leadership ranks of the party following his unsuccessful bid to unseat Simpson Miller.

PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill told The Sunday Gleaner at the time that Phillips was appointed that he "enjoys the privileges of a vice-president in the party and he attends spokespersons' meetings.

"He is treated as a senior person in the party. Recall that at first he opted for a little time to, you can say, cool out, but he is fully on-board."

Only days before being forced to defend her presidency at the polls against Phillips in 2008, Simpson Miller told this newspaper that her rival had not accepted defeat at her hands two years earlier.

"I would go to my bed with a prayer in my heart, praying for unity, and wake up with that said prayer ... . I embraced them until my hands hurt," Simpson Miller said.

Simpson Miller emerged victorious from the 2008 challenge and immediately set about putting the stamp of her image on the People's National Party.

The Phillips camp made it easier for her with most of his supporters declaring they were not available to serve as shadow ministers in Parliament.

Top Portia supporters were rewarded with key posts while Phillips was regulated to the backbench in Parliament.

He would spend the next few months licking his wounds before finally reuniting with Portia in a bid to seal gaping holes that appeared in the house that Norman Manley built. 

QUOTES:

• It would be a good move as long as it is a true relationship and not a one-night stand. - Bill Johnson.
  
  
• Peter Phillips has always been a person within the PNP of some worth, and it is akin to paying a good worker little money and giving them a big title. - Karl Samuda
  
  
• Dr Phillips will always play a critical role in any government I lead, or the party. - Portia