Leroy Dixon | Phillips missed golden opportunity

Like many Jamaicans, I watched keenly to see the outcome of the People’s National Party (PNP) internal election on Saturday, September 7, 2019. Admittedly not a huge Peter Bunting fan prior to the start of his campaign, I must admit to having bought hook, line and sinker into ‘Bunting Fever’ and became a believer in the message he preached and the straightforward, honest and heartfelt manner in which he did so.

Additionally, Bunting earned my respect for having dared to challenge the status quo and never appeared daunted by the odds of his challenge, which increased significantly when the PNP hierarchy rallied behind their unmarketable Comrade Leader, Dr Peter Phillips.

Simply put, Bunting convinced me that, had he won the internal election, the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) days in office would have been numbered, a view supported by anecdotal evidence that big businesses supporting the JLP were heavily backing Phillips’ internal campaign knowing fully well that a Phillips victory would all but secure the JLP maintaining state power for the forseeable future.

While it is said that Bunting mounted a challenge with his personal political ambitions in mind, I tend to disagree, as I feel his challenge was a genuine attempt to improve the viability of the PNP and to ultimately dethrone what he perceived as the corrupt JLP administration in the next general election.

His Rise United movement, therefore, was, in my view, a ­genuine attempt to rescue the PNP from political obscurity and the country from the runaway corruption that many believe has become ­synonymous with the Holness administration, notwithstanding undeniable gains in the economy.

NO CHANCE

Ironically, I believe that the ones who put their political leadership aspirations above their love for both party and country are not the Risers but includes the likes of Phillips himself, who must know he has no chance in a future general election, and young aspirants such as Damion Crawford and Lisa Hanna, who clearly felt that a Phillips win would pave the way for their succeeding him after his obvious and inevitable loss in the next general election.

Fast-forward to approximately 5:35 p.m. last Saturday when a clearly satisfied, and some would say elated, Julian Robinson made the announcement that Phillips had, in fact, secured the majority of the votes. Peter Phillips had the perfect opportunity to be magnanimous in victory and to invite Bunting, Golding, Campbell et al on stage as an important part of the PNP family going forward.

Imagine the message that would have been sent to not only Bunting and his supporters, but to the wider PNP and general public, had Phillips insisted that no celebration would commence until Comrade Bunting joined him on stage. Imagine the optics of Phillips on camera walking into the Rise United area of the National Arena to physically embrace and escort Comrade Bunting on to the stage. Opportunity presented, ­opportunity lost!

Like with most ageing dinosaurs, however, Phillips’ disastrous speech confirmed to all who would listen that he has become so out of touch with the political temperature and had clearly misinterpreted the slim majority he obtained – despite the support of all his VPs and the PNP machinery – as somehow being a ringing endorsement of his leadership. His failure to even acknowledge Bunting, his efforts or those of his team, in his victory speech, showed that Phillips will never be the man to unite and ultimately lead the PNP to victory at the polls, and that Bunting’s challenge was, in fact, a necessary one to try to save the party.

Phillips aside, the PNP lost a golden opportunity last weekend. Think of it this way. Had 39 more delegates voted for Bunting, the JLP would now be in a frenzy, glancing over their shoulders, watching a Bunting-led PNP breathing down their necks akin to a prep-school athlete seeing Usain Bolt closing on him with every step he took.

Instead, Holness and the Labourites now must be licking their chops knowing fully well that it is in fact Phillips, in his wheelchair, who is trying to run them down with the likes of Hanna and Crawford, supposedly pushing him along half-heartedly simply waiting for their turn to enter the race when he is ultimately forced into the political abyss after the PNP ‘s next inevitable general election defeat.

When the dust has settled, the only real winners, therefore, will be Holness and the JLP, and – believe it or not – Peter Murcott Bunting himself. History will be kind to Bunting, despite the fact that his Rise United campaign fell just painfully short, and despite the fact that the all-important delegates voted more so for tradition than for true progress, relevance and a realistic chance of election victory.

Improbable as I accept it to be, Peter Phillips should consider tendering his immediate resignation as party leader and leader of the Opposition if, in fact, he understands what his razor-thin majority as the incumbent candidate represents, and if he wishes not to be remembered as the albatross hanging around the neck of Norman Washington Manley’s once-great party.

Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and leroy.dixon651@gmail.com.