Orville TaylorLook at the acronym PNP! If you remove any of the 'Ps', then you bring the People's National Party to its 'N'. Standing at an estimated five feet 10 inches, Portia Simpson Miller is no midget. In fact, as women go, she is rather tall, and as we say in Jamaica, she 'traptin' (strapping).
The rotund Peter Phillips is no shrimp either, literally tipping a poorly anchored scale at around 300 pounds. He fills so much space NASA would pay attention.
Indispensable legs
Add to that, the 40-odd per cent of delegate support that each had in the 2006 elections and the similar declaration of allegiance up to the beginning of polling yesterday, and there can be little doubt that the lady and the gentleman are heavyweights.
Each of these two, who struggled to be king of the PNP hill, carries a large base of followers. It is almost like the two pillars that a blind Samson pushed apart to bring about the destruction of the temple, killing himself in the process. The PNP stands on two important and indispensable legs. Neither is sufficiently strong to keep the party afloat.
In the 2006 contest, the closest in the party's then 68-year history, Simpson Miller beat the highly touted Phillips by a measly 200-plus votes, hardly enough to give her or anyone a comfortable majority.
In comparison, the 1969 contest between Vivian Blake and Michael Manley was resolved in favour of the latter, 376 to 155. Manley garnered 70 per cent of the vote.
By 1992, when the departure of Manley was imminent, Portia and PJ Patterson squared off. At the time, it promised to be a two-sided contest, but PJ polled more than 2,322 votes to Portia's 756. More than 75 per cent of voter-delegates chose PJ.
The contest was bitter and harsh words were said. It might not have been the sort of class war that is being presented, perhaps because PJ could also claim a humble background. However, utterances were made that could have seriously hurt the party and the candidates, especially the 'gentleman'.
Yet, the PNP survived. PJ put the hurt behind him and given her popularity, she was given increased responsibilities.
Greater challenges
This latest challenge had its challenges. An incumbent was being opposed for the first time in history. Of course, this raised the ire of many, including the lady, who expressed hurt. Nonetheless, few seem to have noticed that in September 2006, another tradition was also broken.
At the annual conference, the Comrade leader's face was the only one on the banner that formed the backdrop. Her head was placed in the middle of the rising sun, making her the focal point of the conference. In previous years, as far as I can recall, this never happened. Images of the founding fathers had always occupied the backdrop in full view of all. The message behind that was that the party was a people's party and not that of the Manleys or PJ.
Team Portia is not Team PNP. Despite the obvious class and other rifts in the party, one critical mistake she made was to not make Phillips deputy prime minister. Given his stature and support, PJ would have made him number two.
In the aftermath of the recent Olympic Games, each attempted to make political mileage of the successes of the athletes.
As politicians do, Sister P was in the thick of things when Melaine Walker, an unknown resident of her constituency, won gold, broke the Olympic record and brought glory to the country. One caller on my radio programme pathetically attempted to link the success to the initiatives of Phillips.
Lessons from athletes
However, it is clear that little is learnt from the athletes. Therefore, here is a lesson for them. The contest between P and P is not dissimilar to the rivalry between Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.
Powell had for many years been our most popular athlete. He took Jamaica to international fame by becoming the most outstanding Jamaican sprinter since Donald Quarrie, the first Jamaican man to hold the 100 metres world record.
An heir apparent, he was expected to lead the country in the direction of Olympic gold, after promising so much and doing so well in the early rounds. Nonetheless, Powell, with all the promise, failed to deliver and seems to have flopped when he was clearly the favourite.
Out of the blue comes Bolt, after only a few months of running the 100 metres, breaks Powell's world record and then further lowers it as he delivers the promised gold. Powell, the long-time people's favourite, inexplicably finishes fifth in a surprise loss, reminiscent of the last elections.
Team unity
Still, Bolt was magnanimous. Rather than lauding his victory over his countryman, he eventually calmed down after winning and found his friend and colleague. Recognising that he had another greater prize to win, young Bolt then went about winning the 200 metres and spent little time in fondling his ego by talking about 'young-man' time.
He did not even get side-tracked by the detracting statements of president of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge. Refusing to typify himself as a victim, he knew that he needed to work with Powell because Jamaica wanted the world record in the 4X100 metres relay.
Of all his achievements, this is perhaps the greatest, because it is one of the few team events.
Powell declared that he wanted to help Bolt get another gold and the record and Bolt stated that he wanted Powell to finally to get one.
If these young men can understand this, what about two middle-aged Comrades on the brink of senior citizenry? The 'P' means Portia and Peter because their party needs them both.
Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona. Feedback may be sent to orville.taylor@uwimona.edu.jm or columns@gleanerjm.com.
