THE CAMPAIGNS to succeed P.J. Patterson, and Portia Simpson Miller's eventual victory, have shattered certain myths and should force us to rethink Jamaican society and politics. Three popular conceptions, folk and
academic, have prevailed about Jamaican society, its parties and their politics.
One is that it was not likely or even possible for a woman to become prime minister because Jamaica was a macho society.
Masculine characteristics were essential to be the maximum leader. Feminine characteristics were a sign of weakness. Male-dominant traits were necessary to be a political strongman and hero of the crowd. Macho characteristics made us gay bashers too, and so, according to a human rights organisation, we were a homophobic society.
The more relevant consequence, though, was that male competitiveness resulted in male role dominance and women were therefore marginalised from positions of power.
The next popular conception is that the preference for maximum (male-dominant) leaders was
reinforced in party politics. Society's bias overlapped with political bias so that parties, like the PNP, were class organisations. Classes are groups separated by their own internal biases.
A woman like Portia Simpson Miller, even one so popular, would not be accepted as leader of the PNP. She could not beat someone like Peter Phillips, a brown man, an intellectual, and most acceptable to the 'Drumblair set', a mysterious PNP elite that protected the social legacy of the Manleys guarded by the party's power elite.
RULING ELITE
This elite had the influence to manipulate the power structure of the party and ensure the victory of a candidate of its own social image. Since parties had a class bias towards the ruling elite, democracy within these political parties was really a sham.
The third popular conception is that parties operated internally the same way that the society operated politically. Democracy did not determine who rose and fell in the ranks of the parties. Rather, a system of patron-clientelism did. Political bosses (patrons) operated through middlemen (brokers) to manipulate the grass roots (clients) so that it was the party and parliamentary leaders who had power (along with their rich and often secret business backers), not delegates. Power emanated from the top, not the bottom.
This meant that Peter Phillips and his parliamentary supporters (the patrons) would operate through their campaign team (the brokers) to manipulate the delegates (clients). The lower level of the party could, according to this theory, be bought out and bullied by the big men through violence and patronage.
MACHO SOCIETY
These popular 'theories' combined against Mrs. Simpson Miller. When taken together, we have a powerful mutually reinforcing view that Jamaica's macho society was biased towards men. This social bias was reinforced by the structure of party bias further reinforced by political-organisational bias.
These biases are rooted in the plantation legacy and bourgeois class society and its class democracy. Even an exceptionally popular
person like Portia Simpson Miller could not break through this comprehensive structure of bias. Even though public opinion polls confirmed her singular popularity, most Jamaicans still believed that she would nonetheless lose the contest in the end to Peter Phillips.
This conspiracy of 'theories' was propagated through 'folk wisdom' (everybody knows that men don't want a woman leader); the media (particularly keen on the 'Drumblair' thesis); and the theory of patron-clientelism, rooted in Carl Stone's political sociology. However, Portia Simpson Miller has already rewritten Jamaican political sociology, not in a book but by her life. It is for the rest of us now to catch up.
EVIDENCE OF DEMOCRACY
These theories suggested that Jamaican society and politics were not properly democratic because ruling groups and their social biases prevailed. However, the past week has provided evidence of democracy in our society and polity. The wide acclaim by which the decision of the delegates was received is evidence that the men in Jamaican society heartily welcome Portia Simpson Miller, woman and all. Jamaicans overseas were among them. Leaders of CARICOM
welcomed her, and Prime Minister Kenny Anthony (St. Lucia) said her victory was an inspiration to women across the Caribbean.
Caribbean women could use this inspiration. A colleague of mine told me of a certain Caribbean country in which two women from opposing parties attended a conference on women's issues. When the press published a photograph of them together their parties punished them for associating across party lines. That kind of 'tribalism' is not found in Jamaica.
She told me of another Caribbean country in which a female candidate won the most votes and the largest margin of any of her colleagues, and despite her popularity and experience in politics, she could only get a position as junior minister in the government. That kind of subordination of female politicians does not happen in Jamaica either.
Evidence of democracy in our polity was also confirmed last week. The election results were announced last Sunday evening. By Monday the three leading contenders were together in a united Cabinet ready, as Mrs. Simpson Miller put it, to treat the campaigns as 'water under the bridge'.
By Tuesday, the 34 PNP Members of Parliament were unanimous in expressing support for the president-elect thereby making her Prime Minister-designate.
The Prime Minister was thus able to announce to Parliament and the country that the constitutional requirement had been fulfilled for the Governor-General to appoint a new Prime Minister when the time comes.
All contenders, and all PNP Members of Parliament, were ready to accept the democratic will of the delegates of the party. To use their theme, 'the delegates have spoken'. The new Governor-General can breathe a sigh of relief that he will have no constitutional crisis on his hands. Within three days, the PNP had elected a new president, united around that decision, and appointed a new Prime Minister.
Claims of a bitter and divisive campaign must be measured against the fact that there are no threatened splits or deep-seated factionalism within the party and government. There is no crisis of politics for Mr. Patterson or the broader leadership to contend with. It is not just the delegates who have spoken.
The country has spoken by
quickly uniting behind their decision. There is no crisis in the country over the fact that a woman will soon be Jamaica's Prime Minister or because men have lost that chance.
Nothing in the above should be taken to deny that there is bias in society against women or people of certain colour. What Portia Simpson Miller has proven is that some of these biases might be private and personal and cannot stand up in the public and democratic sphere. Therefore, education and commitment to service can overcome. Women, in fact, make up the more educated section of our society.
BIAS
The view that there is a comprehensive and institutionalised bias against women must be rejected. It gives the impression that women are not achieving when there is so much evidence that they are.
There are women leaders right across society. In every sphere I can think of, there are women leaders at the top. Portia Simpson Miller won't be alone.
She will be able to establish a
sisterhood of leadership across the social, economic and political
sectors to accomplish her mission. And, the men will be there to
support her.
Robert Buddan is a lecturer in the department of Government at the University of the West Indies. You can send your comments to robert.buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.
