Rebranded Mark Golding struggles to find footing

Ditching his '70s-era bush jackets, donning Kangol caps, and manicuring his scruffy beard, Opposition Leader Mark Golding's handlers have sought to rebrand the dour commercial lawyer in the way young Labourites flipped the script in transforming a staid Andrew Holness into 'BroGad'.

But Golding's plunging performance rating, dropping from 16 per cent to 11 per cent since last year, according to an RJRGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll, suggests that the People's National Party (PNP) president needs more than a change in wardrobe to fire up his reimaging.

Criticisms of Golding strengthened a week ago after a viral video showing him berating members of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) amid the unfolding of several scandals.

Golding's use of the Jamaican dialect, urging Comrades “to get wicked”, was castigated as “cringeworthy” and “pretentious”, with scores of social-media users questioning the need for Patois while addressing councillors and caretakers ahead of local government elections due by February 2022.

Social commenter Jaevion Nelson has warned that the opposition leader must play to his strengths, including positioning his perceived sobriety and cerebral thinking to his advantage.

“We've not seen him in the spotlight, and so a lot of what he does is going to appear new to us and so he has to be careful that he doesn't come off performative and that he's trying to pander into certain sensibilities, because it may not necessarily work in his favour,” Nelson told The Gleaner.

He said Prime Minister Holness' ability to sway crowds and appear relevant has improved “remarkably” since he first assumed leadership of the JLP in 2011.

But deputy general secretary of the PNP, Nekeisha Burchell, who heads the party's communications portfolio, has argued that Golding has maintained his authenticity since his defeat of Lisa Hanna in an internal election in November 2020.

“He has been very clear from day one that his image must always be authentically Mark Golding, and what that means is that he has a clean heart and he's honest,” Burchell said in a Gleaner interview.

She said Golding's wardrobe revamp - with a more casual and relatable feel – has been well received by Comrades.

“Persons may comment on the way he speaks, but the Kangol-wearing Mark Golding is who we know. It's who the people in Jungle and all of South St Andrew know,” said Burchell.

Holness, she argued, has spent a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources into creating an image that has appeased young voters. But she warned its impact won't last.

But Ryan Strachan, president of Generation 2000, the young professionals' arm of the JLP, said following a tumultuous challenge to Holness' leadership in 2013, he and his team took a decision to make the then opposition leader more accessible.

“That's one of the things that I think, perhaps, have been overlooked. I think a lot of time people are led to believe it's contrived, but why I think it resonated widely is because it's authentic. That is why it has lasted that long,” said Strachan, adding that Holness' youth played a critical role in his popularity.

The Clarks, he said, was a bonus, noting that Holness became even more relatable when he donned the popular shoe brand ahead of the 2016 general election.

As it relates to Golding, Strachan said enough time has not been spent playing to his strengths.

“More could be done. The numbers that we've seen in the polls tell that story and numbers don't lie,” he said.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com