Don Robotham, Contributor ARE THE reformers in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) simply objecting to the unpopularity of Mr. Seaga?
Is their purpose simply to ditch the image of Seaga while retaining the whole complex of political methods which have come to be associated with Mr. Seaga over the years?
For that matter, is the People's National Party (PNP) seeking also simply to retain Pattersonism while ditching PJ? Is the game here, too, a simple shuffling of personalities while leaving all the fundamental failings of the PNP intact? A political 'makeover' show?
Are the reformers in both political parties simply playing the personality game, hoping that in the excitement of the moment the public will not notice? Is a new day dawning in Jamaican politics, or is this another false dawn?
Time will tell, but it will tell faster than the reformers on both sides think!
THE JLP
On the JLP side in recent weeks, the tendency has been to pillory Mr. Seaga personally.
While making ritual mention of his 'contributions to the nation', every single failing of the JLP under the sun has been attributed to him.
Of great interest here is that the main failing mentioned is his 'unelectability' and almost nothing else.
Yet, whatever the failings of Mr. Seaga, it is quite obvious that almost none of his challengers have even an ounce of his intellectual qualities. Who and what is Mr. Seaga being swapped for?
Ironically, it was the very victory of the JLP in the recent Local Government election which brought this to a head.
The wealthy backers of Bruce Golding in the JLP could see victory in a general election clearly on the horizon.
What the Local Government victory did, therefore, was to speed up the actions of those who wished to take no risks with this opportunity for victory. They concluded that they had to get rid of Mr. Seaga now.
But this approach to the failings of the JLP simply focuses opportunistically on election tactics alone. It does not raise any issue of principle.
It is ominously silent on the iron link between garrison communities and party politics in Jamaica. The problem is image and 'electability'.
Silence on this pivotal issue tells us what to expect. Some of the young guard may not have the slightest objection to the persistence of garrison politics in the party system.
Indeed, one analysis of the reason for the victory of the young guard, argues that the key element in their success was precisely the adeptness of some in this group in dealing with garrisons. In this area, some say, they exceeded all expectations!
If this is indeed the case, then it bodes ill for the future of both the JLP and Jamaica.
OTHER CONFLICTS
This, however, raises another point. As usual in situations of political struggle, the young guard is not a uniform group. It is an alliance of conflicting interests who have only one thing in common: the desire to remove Mr. Seaga as an obstacle to the realisation of their personal ambitions.
These conflicts may burst into the open sooner rather than later, especially given the overweening ambitions which are already plainly visible in some members of the young guard.
Mr. Golding, the leader around whom the young guard cluster (for the moment!), has made many public commitments against garrison politics in the very recent past. The whole nation is watching to see if Bruce will adhere to these commitments and boldly lead the JLP on a path of true reform.
I personally believe Mr. Golding is a sincere person who would like to end garrison politics. Often, however, expediency defeats sincerity in politics. Will he be able to carry all the young guard with him if he turns his back on garrison politics?
THE PNP
Because of the openness of the clashes in the JLP, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that a similar set of issues faces the PNP.
They, too, are having a retreat this weekend to embark on what they describe as a renewal process. But there is reason to be highly skeptical of this process as well.
As usual, the PNP has wheeled out Burchell Whiteman to present a human face to the public. But one reads the statement by Burchell the Good in vain for the slightest mention of the issue of garrison politics.
The PNP retreat is going to discuss globalisation, civil society and a host of other lofty academic subjects.
But the issue which is before their very nose the iron link between garrison politics and Jamaican politics parties somehow fell off the renewal agenda!
This is a stupid game which, as in the case of the JLP, is not going to fool a soul. If the PNP can draft an Anti-Terrorism Bill why can't it draft an Anti-Garrison Bill with life imprisonment provisions for politicians who breech it?
In the PNP, the dominant idea seems to be also that a few cosmetic changes here and there will do the trick. Perhaps if they dump PJ and bring forward Portia or Peter and make some vague statements blaming globalisation for their problems, all will be well.
The dominant group in the PNP presents the failings of the PNP as largely an organisational problem. Their sankey is that they need to 'reconnect' to their base.
NO CRISIS FOR POLITICIANS
But this is nonsense. The question that the PNP needs to ask itself is why it has lost 'connection' and who is its real base. Is it simply an organisational failure, or is it something deeper?
The problem goes again to the basic issues of political methods and public policy. The PNP, as will be the case for any government of Jamaica in the foreseeable future, is faced by certain basic constraints set by the uncompetitiveness of the Jamaican economy in an age of globalisation.
They are surrounded by a population with the highest material expectations. But their approach to the Jamaican people is that this is a crisis for the people alone to bear, but no crisis at all for the politicians.
Everyone else must pay higher taxes and make great sacrifices while the politicians and their middle-class supporters ride off into the sunset in their SUVs. In fact many PNP (and JLP) politicians carry a sense of being unappreciated by the Jamaican people. They nurse this sense of grievance that their many 'sacrifices' are not recognized and appreciated.
ADDRESSING ISSUES
But instead of pitying themselves, the PNP would be better served addressing seriously and forthrightly the issues of accountability, transparency and corruption which plague the country.
Put in laws with teeth and enforce them impartially through independent civil society commissions. They would be better served confronting the substantive issues of garrison politics, inner city renewal, police reform, human rights and economic policy which really concern the Jamaican people.
The PNP has to figure out how to overcome its traditional distributionist mentality more public housing and free education.
For the main challenge facing them is not distribution but investment, production, productivity, competitiveness and the quality and content of education.
The challenge is how to get the formal economy to grow in a manner which realises the traditional aspirations of the mass of Jamaican people. An extremely difficult task which will require decades and more to achieve. All of this must be done in an honest and self-critical spirit or it will have zero credibility.
In both political parties, the supporters of renewal are a disparate bunch. Most only want cosmetic changes which simply put them closer to feeding from the public trough. Contrary to what many hoped, some of the young seem even more eager to feed than their older colleagues. Having never eaten, some may be hungrier!
We must not be deceived into thinking that, because they are young, they must be different. That would be foolish indeed. We must not allow the young to get away with the games which the old have played for so long and are still playing.
We must demand that new leadership take substantive public positions on the really burning issues. We must judge them by what they do and not what they say. Keep an eye also on the company which they keep!
Don Robotham is an
anthropologist specialising in development issues in Africa and Caribbean societies.
