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MARRIAGECONTINUED FROM F1crucial factor in Phillips reticence to challenge her a second time for the leadership of the PNPBut suppose Peter Phillips, despite his obvious and distasteful self-serving expose to a foreign power, is right in his assessment? The campaigns of the competitors against Simpson Miller for the presidency of the PNP made heavy weather of this very point of her lack of capacity for the office of prime minister.It is not just a Phillips thing. Simpson Miller never enjoyed the majority support of the PNP parliamentary caucus. As the country's best historical journalist, Earl Moxam. allowed us to hear again, last Sunday, on his programme “That’s a Rap, Simpson Miller attributed her triumph over her challengers to the delegates of the party. Grass-roots delegates, the delegates in the vast majority, are the least informed and, perhaps, the least concerned about leadership capacity for governance Who is warmest, and who loves the poor more, and who can handle a political stage better, is far more likely to have a favourable standing w ith the mass of delegates.. Despite the obvious self-serving ego factor, the tfont-seat opinion of Cabinet colleagues and of the party's parliamentary caucus ought, rationally, to carry' more weight in decisions about leadership competence But that's not ‘democratic'. And there is no mechanism iti a ‘democratic’ party for making this happen, although there are plenty of mechanisms available for seeking to steer delegates in particular directions.Phillips - and the party - are caught in the difficult position of him leading the campaign for someone to return to the position of leader of government who, in his frank opinion, does not have the competence for the job and him serving in that Cabinet. And clearly the larger public interest for effective governance can go to hell. This is a massive negative in the nature and character of political parties.The other thing of large consequence which Phillips discussed with American diplomats w;ls Jamaica driftingtowards becoming the English-speaking Haiti of the Caribbean. In fairness, nowhere in the Wikilaraks newspaper reports has Phillips said that his party had spent IK years ninning Jamaica into the ground. Phillips is publicly and consistently on record criticising the political system, in general, of failures in driving secure development. From his perch as minister of national security, he has warned of the potential of transnational organised crime to destabilise the Jamaican state. His extraconstitutional MOUs w ith the government of the United States, the Coke extradition commission of enquiry report was willing to concede, were well-intentioned as steps to help deal with that threat.The WikiLeaked pleadings of officials in this JLP Government to the US government for special under standing since the extradition of Christopher Coke, the strongman of the Tivoli Gardens garrison, could have a social and economic destabilising effect, back Phillips' publicly and privately expressed views on the business of governance for HaitianisationBut Peter Phillips served as a powerful minister of several things in a long-running administration which helped to create and maintain the conditions for the Haitianisation of Jamaica. The fact that he did, and would do so again, just backs up the point being made about political parties and the dangers they pose to effective governance in the general public interest.We are pretty clear what is going to happen next: the PNP unity motorcade will wrap Jamaica this week (hope fully, w ithout violent incident). Differences among “enemies' will be publicly patched over to seek to defeat a larger opponent. Portia wants to keep and win tix much to ditch Peter. Peter wants to, shall we say. advance his political career ttx) much to act upon his convictions about Portia. The next general election w ill, inevitably, arrive, with 'indecisive' Bruce pitted against “disastrous' Portia, as judged by their own people And Jamaica w ill have to choose one or the other and the political party they lead to form a government which may well continue to put party above country, taking us closer to Haiti.■ Martin Henry is a communication specialist. Email feedback to columns(a gleanerjm.com and medhen(a gniail.com.
Newspaper Details
Kingston Gleaner
Kingston, Kingston, JM
Sun, Jul 17, 2011
Page 79
Full Page
Clipped by
Amanda H.
USA 18 Jul 2023
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