Gordon Robinson | PNP house burning down

All across Jamaica, PNP house burning down.

When Mark Golding was elected PNP President by a small sample of persons labelled “delegates” (some from PNP “Affiliates”) he promised to have PNP’s Constitution amended to allow all registered party members to vote in intra-party elections. That excellent idea was welcomed by most Jamaicans of any political ilk. JLP would do well to begin a similar internal reform.

But, almost three years later, PNP seems no nearer implementing that lofty ideal than when the facile political promise was made. What HAS been accomplished, lickety split, is the revamping of PNP’s candidate selection process. Previously delegates in “recognized constituencies” (with groups exceeding a specified threshold) would vote for the candidate of their choice. Despite promising that all PNP members would eventually be allowed to vote, Mark Golding recently blamed membership verification issues for the delay in that process and PNP promptly made candidate selection more exclusionary of Party members than before.

Now PNP candidate selections begin with commissioning polls among all constituents to find out who would perform best against prospective JLP candidates. Yes, you read right, POLLS. Stupid me, I thought that was the definition of a delegates’ vote. But, instead of asking PNP Delegates who they want as candidate, Rise United instructs a pollster to ask Labourites who they want to be PNP candidate.

Verifying how many on the voters’ list are PNP members and asking THEM to decide would be simply too hard. So, Rise United asked a popular pollster to poll the constituency and, without any method of disaggregating responders’ political affiliation or proving answers to be sincere, anyone polling higher than a particular percentage wins. Delegates be damned!

But the new system retains Party Leader’s right to over-rule polls; over-rule delegates’ votes; and parachute who he wants into constituencies as candidates to represent people regardless of their level of mutual familiarity.

Mark Golding at an NEC meeting in MoBay:

“We have embarked on a slightly modulated or adjusted process for selecting our candidates in the constituencies for the next general election, and we have done so primarily for the reason that we want to ensure that the PNP delivers a victory for the people of Jamaica in the next election. We want to ensure the candidates we select to represent the party are those most suited and able to deliver that victory.”

Slightly modified? DWL! Delegates have been “slightly modified” OUT.

So Alfred Dawes, a good and decent man, is sent to South East St Catherine (SESC) to represent Rise United in the next General Election. This was a safe PNP seat for decades before PNP’s vice like grip was broken in 2020. That PNP misfortune resulted from the rift caused by Rise United’s ill-timed, divisive leadership challenge that motivated too many Comrades to abstain.

Dawes’ candidate selection was opposed by Alric Campbell a sitting Councillor from the Edgewater Division that contains approximately 25 per cent of the constituency’s voters. So you do the math and ask yourself who would be “most suited and able to deliver victory” – the sitting councillor in the constituency’s second largest division or a political neophyte? Maybe math isn’t your best subject in which event how easy would it be to simply ask SESC delegates to do the math for you?

So Alfred is thrust upon SESC Comrades by a Rise United leadership seemingly intent on prioritizing clumsy, insecure Autocracy over intra-party democracy. According to The Gleaner “PNP President Mark Golding used his authority to select Dawes over deputy mayor of Portmore, Alric Campbell… Golding felt Dawes was the better choice because of his national profile.”

Has Mark not consulted Rise United senior colleague Fenton Ferguson? Does Mark not subscribe to the maxim “all politics is local”?

Angst among Comrades was no doubt exacerbated by Alfred’s careless initial statement that he had Mark Golding’s imprimatur (which Mark denied) and by his macabre description of Alric’s campaign as “dead”. Exhibiting more political inexperience than logic, Alfred, in the same breath, ironically pronounced “This campaign is to bring about unity in SESC.” LOL!

So, an apparent Mark Golding flip-flop forced Alfred on SESC Comrades without consultation by way of Delegates’ vote, Comrades took to the streets in numbers exceeding Rise United’s pathetic attempt to protest against Criss Tufftimes outside Spanish Town hospital. They stormed PNP Headquarters. They railed against their own Party. Recently mysterious fires razed PNP’s SESC Constituency office. Alfred said a nuh nutten.

This must be The Guy Lombardo Show!

It gets worse. Alfred, himself a highly educated man, seems not to have the first clue what it is he’s fighting to become. Exposing yet another example of Westminster’s pervasive poisoning of Jamaica’s political mindset, he was quoted by the Observer as describing his purpose as to help make policy. But policy isn’t made by MPs. MPs regulate policy implementation by lawmaking as well as monitoring and supervising government.

In a real Republic, Alfred Dawes oughtn’t to be thrust into the miasma of representational politics in order to be Health Minister (where he can shape policy) in a future Government led by directly elected PM Mark Golding. The system has caused yet another credible policy-making aspirant to be parachuted into a constituency where he’s mostly unknown to oust a candidate who shares values and experiences with constituents.

Why? It must be because this is the preferred path to cabinet which is why Mark relies on Alfred’s “national profile”. But national profile does not a people’s representative make. Yet confused leadership with little political acumen (neither Party Leader nor Chairman have faced a genuine electorate and the GenSec lost the last time he tried) operate on the misconception that fame trumps (ouch!) familiarity.

The bungling is spreading faster than COVID-19 on steroids and infected too many PNP candidate selection processes for Jamaicans to have any faith in PNP’s ability to run a cold supper shop let alone a country. In North East St Elizabeth Comrades seemingly want Zulieka Jess but Rise United apparently prefers the return of Kern. Protests erupted last week. Protests also beset Rise United’s installation of Ian Hayles in Westmoreland and Hugh Graham has taken up his marbles (and his money) and left North West St Catherine.

Even the normally even tempered Morais Guy (an excellent MP and Spokesman) coughed out the bit in Central St Mary where the fight to replace him isn’t a good look.

Then there’s the monumental cock up in South East St Ann (SESA). A Panderson Poll asked some trappy questions to all SESA constituents including Labourites. Responders (including Labourites) overwhelming told PNP Wavell Hinds was the PNP candidate they preferred. So Rise United decided against asking PNP Delegates what they thought. Protests, including from the sitting MP, forced a Delegates vote. Delegates chose Kenneth Russell by a wide margin (46 plus per cent of the vote). Wavell was a distant second.

Immediately Chatty Chatty Dayton told the public that didn’t matter. Rise United President Mark Golding would decide. By the following morning, after howls of protest, we were told SESA candidate selection was referred to an internal Committee to decide the way forward.

Way. Forward?

What happened to democracy? Is that no longer the way forward? When pressed by media regarding his idea of who would be selected, Mark said he would abide by the process.

Abide? ABIDE??

But Chatty Chatty said Mark WAS the process! Meanwhile the sitting MP publicly accepted the Delegates’ votes and pledged unwavering support in the transition. The third placed finisher publicly congratulated Russell for winning the most votes. Wavell has been as silent as a Judy Mowatt river.

Mark says the process is “rule-based.” It seems the new rule provides you must poll 50 per cent of the vote plus one to win. This is virtually impossible in a three person race. Every national “election” has the candidate with the most votes as the winner. If this nonsensical rule was in vogue in 2006 Portia Simpson-Miller, who gained just over 1,700 votes as against her main opponents’ combined 2,025, would never have become PM.

What happen to the once proud PNP? Has it become just a Rise United adjunct? Clearly current leadership has failed miserably in its most fundamental responsibility namely to unify the Party. This is dangerous for a Jamaica in dire need of an Opposition capable of checking and balancing Government’s awesome power under Westminster governance. Government should be constantly looking over its shoulder. Instead PNP seems intent on implosion. P.J. Patterson, PNP’s best ever unifying leader, must be mortified.

This lot seems to offer nothing but political immaturity and tone deafness.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com