EDITORIAL - The JLP's wheels within wheels

We confess that the recent elections within the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the fluid alliances they seem to suggest have left us confused about the direction of the party and the ultimate strength of its leader, Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

Perhaps the most ironic result for a party that, ostensibly, is looking towards the future was the unchallenged run by the septuagenarian, Mike Henry, for the chairmanship of the party, to succeed a man six years his junior, Dr Ken Baugh.

For notwithstanding Mr Henry's self-declared championship of reform and modernity and his endorsement by the JLP's young people's affiliate, G2K, it seems an indictment that the party couldn't find someone younger than 75 to bear the banner of renewal.

The outcome that is perhaps most surprising to Jamaicans, however, was the defeat of the prime ministerial factotum and politically omnipresent Daryl Vaz for the general secretary's post by the clunky former deputy general secretary, Mr Aundré Franklin.

Mr Franklin, notably, was backed for the job by his former boss, Karl Samuda, who Mr Vaz challenged at a time when, at least from the outside, it appeared that Mr Samuda's relationship with the prime minister was stressed.

Nor would it have escaped attention that Mr Franklin's declared campaign manager was Bobby Montague, who is now the deputy chairman, having run unopposed.

Mr Montague and Mr Vaz, according to conventional wisdom, were two-thirds of a triumvirate that included the now embattled James Robertson, whose agitation undermined the former JLP leader, Edward Seaga, thus paving the way for the ascendancy of Mr Golding. It is the organisational skills and hard work of this triumvirate, based on the prevailing lore, that primarily propelled the JLP to victory in the 2007 general election.

Until Mr Vaz's emergence as Mr Golding's apparent Talleyrand or éminence grise, there were those who questioned where the individual and collective loyalty of the triumvirate lay.

The vacancy that led to Mike Henry's elevation was a direct result of Dr Baugh's decision against seeking re-election, to create space in the central party after the challenge and defeat of Horace Chang by Christopher Tufton for the leadership of the JLP's western region.

Dr Chang, however, did not, as Dr Baugh had hoped, seek the chairman's post.

Murky affair

So what of this affair? It remains murky.

Dr Tufton, who Mr Golding brought to the JLP from the National Democratic Movement, is, on the face of it, a loyalist of the prime minister, who made a big gain in the internal elections. But while the ambitious Dr Tufton remains very respectful of the prime minister, many would argue, he is also measured in his public embrace of the prime minister.

Andrew Holness, who leads in opinion polls as the successor to Mr Golding, is, at best, publicly opaque.

Mr Audley Shaw, the finance minister, is the likely choice of prime minister should Mr Golding have to go, but is not seen as a long-term leader.

We had hoped that Mr Golding's tenure would mean a reasonably orderly renewal of the party, rather than what now appears to be aimless lurches, driven more by personality and opportunities than principle and ideas.

It is important, more than ever, that Mr Golding sets a clear and moral course for the country along which, hopefully, he can drag his party.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.