Pressure on Phillips as PNP in decline - Burke likens party, ground game to wrecked vehicle; Robinson questions whether there’s a clear successor

As the country digests political neophyte Ann-Marie Vaz’s historic by-election win in Eastern Portland last Thursday over Damion Crawford, the People’s National Party’s (PNP) most popular politician, calls have intensified for its president, Dr Peter Phillips, to be removed, having now lost two parliamentary seats to the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

However, former general secretary of the party, Paul Burke, said the myriad problems bogging down the party extend beyond Phillips.

“The PNP’s problems are deeper and we have been in denial. We have had a defective vehicle for years and we don’t want to admit the truth,” Burke, a political high-flyer in the PNP’s powerful Region Three, told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, even as he lauded Crawford for his effort in the contest.

He says the party’s machinery has fallen into disarray and has been in steady decline over the past two decades.

“But because we had a strong election organisation, because we were able to have achievements that we could market and sell, because we had strong leaders, the organisation had broken down,” Burke stressed, likening the PNP to “a six-cylinder engine firing on one cylinder and going uphill in many instances”.

“There are some disruptive truths that I don’t know if this present PNP leadership can deal with. Certainly, the membership can’t deal with,” he added, refusing to divulge the finer details before writing first to the members of the party’s National Executive Council.

Burke said that while the leadership of the party performed well in Eastern Portland, given Crawford’s quick-fire campaign after the murder of then incumbent MP Dr Lynvale Bloomfield in February, the fundamental flaws of the PNP were on full display.

“Today’s PNP is not clear about its philosophy, and many of the messengers cannot credibly carry the party’s message, whatever that may be,” the former general secretary and Simpson Miller loyalist said.

Burke made it clear that while Phillips has introspection to do, he should not shoulder all the blame for the loss of a PNP safe seat. He also placed on record that he does not support calls for the party president to resign.

“If you have a vehicle with four bad tyres, a little gas, faulty steering, poor shock absorbers, the driver will not make a difference … the vehicle is defective.”

At the same time, long-time campaigner for the PNP and former member of parliament, Heather Robinson, agreed that Phillips will have to review his leadership.

“At this point, any leader would have to do that. Political parties are there to win elections, and as the president of the party and all the various things people are saying, he couldn’t just ignore what people are saying. He has to look at what is best for Jamaica, best for the party, and best for himself,” Robinson, who had been on the ground in Eastern Portland, told The Sunday Gleaner.

She said the party president has to assess the state of the PNP’s ground game and organsisation with a general election constitutionally due by 2021.

The former MP said she would not join the calls for Phillips to quit but questioned who would replace him should he step down from the post.

“If not Dr Phillips, who? You can just say, ‘Oh, let’s just get rid of him,’ but if he leaves, who do you replace him with?

“If there are people who have been positioning themselves, and while doing that did not fulfil their political responsibilities in East Portland, then they won’t have my support,” the straight-talking campaigner charged.

She said those who oppose Phillips’ continued leadership of the PNP should openly say so and not plot a takeover behind his back.

“They must come forward and state their reasons. They must show us who is better. All of the people who been saying this and that, why they weren’t saying it to his face before?

“Me nuh like backbiter, conniver and backstabber. Me nuh like dem … .” Robinson further stated, decrying hypocrisy in the 80-year-old party.

romario.scott@gleanerjm.com