DAWN RITCHA POLITICIAN must be a hero. A politician without valour is not a politician, but a chess player or a businessman. He's not even an artist.
There should be no intimidation, hesitation or cogitation in a leader. The people have a right and are entitled to expect a leader who makes decisions. On him alone rests the duty to protect and prosper his people. A Cabinet meeting is simply a place where coffee and tea are served to a bunch of people waiting on their assignments. Government is not run by committee. It can only be run by the man in charge.
There is only ever one distinction, and it is when the form of government is a constitutional monarchy as in Great Britain. There, the Prime Minister has the great advantage of a Queen on a throne who has received the dispatches of countless Prime Ministers. The job of government is therefore less lonely for the top elected official, because he can avail himself of her collected experience and wisdom.
FIRST STATE VISIT
It is interesting to note that Queen Elizabeth II is receiving the first state visit by a United States President to that country since the break away of America from England hundreds of years ago. Even through a hundred years of special relationship, no state visit of this sort has taken place before. Old grievances and feelings die hard.
I'm happy to say the Queen has taken George Bush into her protection. A hundred thousand anti-war demonstrators unsuccessfully tried to storm the gates of the Palace, even though opinion polls there show the majority of the British are in favour of the war. The spectacle on BBC World of demonstrators being chased down the street by police ought to leave no doubt in anybody's mind that the Queen and President Bush are people of valour. Leadership requires it, and on an international level, they provide more of it than any other leaders anywhere else.
Here in Jamaica there is unanimous agreement on the valour of its founding father, Sir Alexander Bustamante. Like him or not, no one ever doubted his courage and capacity for action. Norman Washington Manley was an agreeable man, but as a political personality he enjoyed nothing of Bustamante's stature. The People's National Party (PNP) had to wait until the advent of Michael Manley to produce anything near Bustamante's kind of
frisson. And Manley
the younger combined
this star appeal with devastating good looks and
physical grace.
Edward Seaga and P.J. Patterson are political personalities for whom the country has since had to create a false justification. Namely that charisma is unimportant and star appeal doesn't matter. It is in this context that the recent internal elections of the Jamaica Labour Party must be viewed.
A middle-aged woman was up against a young and handsome man. Bear in mind that the very essence of politics is the protection of people who instinctively realise that a man is usually better at the job. As I said in a recent column, politics is a man's world. But it is not a world for big belly men, nor ones with vacant stares. The politician is by definition a warrior. And as George Bush noted in his visit to London, war is necessary when all else fails.
This is why the top political leader in a country can't be a wimp. Ironically this is what permits the rare, but notable successes of women in politics like Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, and Margaret Thatcher. They were not wimps. I think our own Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller is like that, and a lot better looking than any of them.
Mark Wignall's recent polls revealed that Bruce Golding beats her by 0.9 per cent as the person best suited to run Jamaica. Edward Seaga trails them by two or three per cent. The recent internal JLP elections are seen by most as the takeover of that party by the "Bruce For Leader" faction. It is also said that money caused the political earthquake which removed two staunch Seaga loyalists from the ranks of the JLP deputy leadership, and left him considerably weakened in the process.
But money doesn't buy votes, not when it's 5,000 votes that have to be bought and not five. All money does is give vibrance to a political campaign. It buys water bottles, caps, T-shirts and tents. The transportation and boxed lunches are inescapable and considerable expenses. It is doubly hurtful therefore, for Babsy Grange both to pay for the transportation and feeding of her delegates at Conference only to have them vote against her. In politics you see the seamier side of human nature. It is a sport where the winner takes all.
In this sport, which is inevitably played out in the media, it helps immeasurably to be 'young and handsome'. Both men and women love the 'young and handsome'. The red carpet is laid out for them in every sphere. Elected women leaders appear only when there is deep social and economic crisis. Most women probably do prefer to garden and look after their families. Deep as our crisis is, people would probably prefer to vote for 'young and handsome' over even Mrs. Simpson Miller.
NATIONAL ATTENTION
This rather leaves Bruce Golding out of the picture. By defying Edward Seaga successfully so far and with brilliant electoral results, James Robertson has catapulted himself into national attention. Not only is he 'young and handsome', but has given unbroken service to the JLP for the last 14 years. In the Beefcake Sweepstakes to come in the contest for the next leader of the JLP, this confers not only credibility but legitimacy upon Robertson. He is notoriously cheap, but generous with his time. I rather doubt therefore, that he felt inclined to buy and pay for democracy, nor have anyone else do it on his behalf.
Bruce Golding is not as pretty as Robertson, and comes with political baggage which will be fodder for the next political advertising campaign by the PNP. This is why I'm glad Daryl Vaz insisted on involving the police to investigate Seaga's charges of allegedly tainted money in James Robertson's campaign. The police report must be made public, so that he can be exonerated and not have to face the rest of his life with such a charge hanging over his head. There is a ready-made PNP advertising campaign on Golding condemned by his own lips and actions. The JLP should not have to face a general election with such a campaign on James Robertson as well, this time condemned by his own leader. While I hold Mr Seaga blameless in Mr. Golding's baggage except that he preferred him, the JLP leader is certainly to blame for this new crisis.
P.J. Patterson did the same thing in his internal elections two years ago. On the morning of the election for vice presidents, Mr. P.J. Patterson announced that it was being bought out for the first time in the PNP's history. Had Mr. P.J. Patterson really intended to do some good, he would have said that some six weeks before. The same applies to Mr. Seaga. It's all a nonsense in any event. In a democratic election, and both internal party elections were supervised by the Electoral Advisory Commission, the voter votes his conscience unless there is open voting and there have been no reports of that.
The results of the internal JLP election strongly suggest that it will not be Edward Seaga who takes the JLP to the next general election. His successor is widely believed to be Bruce Golding, but for the life of me I can't imagine that happening, no matter how much the media and big business say they want him. It is like Karl Samuda who broke the fingers on the V sign at a PNP political meeting when he went over to them. There is just too much footage and too much available material on them for negative PNP campaigns. That would be like digging a hole and throwing yourself into it. These things only happen to people who can't make up their minds.
A people ought to expect and to think themselves entitled to a leader who will act and live by its consequences without running. Most of us are followers and find it much too tedious to follow a leader running round and round in circles. This no doubt has contributed to the current political apathy in Jamaica, and it is time we raise our standards.
