Hartley Neita, Contributor

Television news on Tuesday night showed three political parties sitting in the legislative chamber at Gordon House.

On one side, in their usual seats, were the governing Jamaica Labour Party members. On the other, were two opposition groups, the Portia Simpson Miller Team PNP, and behind them was a coalition of Independent-People's National Party members - the Arise and Renew team which supported Peter Phillips. That was the image presented.

Clear division

It was a sad sight. Apart from when Westmoreland member of the House of Representatives F.L.B. Evans resigned as a member of the PNP and sat apart from his former colleagues in Headquarters House, and when A.G.S. Coombs' appoint-ment as a minister was terminated and he resigned from the party, it was the first time since then there was this clearly defined division in the PNP in Parliament.

There have been divisions in the party before but these were internal and not displayed in public. It was obvious from Saturday night at the National Arena that there could be no immediate healing within the party.

The body language and tone of voice of Simpson Miller sent a message to those who had dared to challenge her divine authority.

They must do as I do and say what I say. Follow the thrust to advance the progressive agenda for national development, whatever that means. Or else.

There was no doubt that the party's underclothes - bags and briefs - would be hung out to dry on a line strung in the frontyard.

This was not the left wing vs the right wing ideological divide as was the case in 1953, or the same divide which stretched the party paper-thin during the 1970s.

It was a celebration of hate and anger and a victory over the perceived privileged who had inherited the mantle of the Drumblair intellectualism.

Knowing and feeling the poverty experienced by the poor is one thing. Developing and articulating and strategising the programmes to address this poverty is another.

Saturday's election triumph was not the fruition of Norman Manley's dream. No longer can all factions contend in peace as comrades as he foresaw. No longer is there 'One Love'. Now, it is 'One Hate'.

Since its inception, the PNP has thrived on a philosophy of the clash of ideas. Members have differed, and have argued their views passionately. It has also been an accepted tradition that any member can contest any office in the party.

No office is sacrosanct. Paul Burke contested the post of chairman against P.J. Patterson every year between 1984 and 1987.

He knew he would lose, but no one, he told me, should ever believe that any office in the party was theirs by right.

A political party is bigger than any individual member's conceit. That Norman Manley, Michael Manley and P.J. Patterson could be returned to the office of president, uncontested, year after year, was a tribute to the confidence members had in their leadership.They did not have to thump their chests to establish their authority.

In the many years I worked with them, officially as a civil servant and subsequently in the political arena, I never heard them trumpet their authority as a One Don.

It was clear from Simpson Miller's comments last Saturday that Peter Phillips and his team would have no place in her new administration.

The honourable thing

These views had been fanned by advisers in her inner sanctum, many of them not holding any elected or paid office. Hangers-on, they are, who will run with an umbrella to cover the heads of another leader from sun and rain if the political weather changes.

The Phillips group had two choices. One was to offer to resign, the other was to resign without any qualification. They chose the second alternative, which was accepted. They probably knew the first choice was a polite convention which would not mean anything.

In the meanwhile, demonstrations against Arise and Renew members of parliament are being organised, demanding their resignation. They had better be careful. A snap election could result. A golden opportunity.