Golding at left, Phillips at rightTHE DISCUSSION is intensifying as to who will succeed our present political leaders and this issue is so critical and momentous for Jamaica that we cannot leave it to party delegates to decide.
Civil society must send a very clear message to the party leadership and delegates that our political parties are not private members' clubs, about whose activities we are mere spectators. Civil society, including the very influential media, must make it very clear the qualities, assets and agenda which our future leaders must have. And we must signal forcefully to the tribalised political delegates that we will resoundingly reject whomever they throw up who fail to meet our demands. We must give them a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum. Because the parties are fiercely competitive, the one will try to outdo the other in pandering to us and this competitive bidding will serve our democratic interests.
Especially now that the illusion of any near-term viability of the third party option has been decisively shattered, we had better fix our attention on how we can influence the two main political parties to engage our concerns and requirements. The aspirants to political power must know that we are their bosses and that we are not easily manipulable. The fact that the majority of Jamaicans are uncommitted to any of the parties and are revolted by our decadent, tribalised political culture of spoils, scarce benefits and victimisation, provides a great hope for the transformation of our politics.
CALLING THE SHOTS
The aspirants to political power must know that it is not a matter of who controls which constituencies or delegates, or who can form and expedite alliances with whom to get the maximum votes. They need to know that it is not the most skilful manipulator of tribal sentiments; the one who can buy out the most delegates and the one who controls the most political dons and criminals, or who can give out the most contracts who will win the prize. Indeed, we must send the signal that the one with that kind of power and largesse is precisely the one we will reject if put up by the delegates for general elections. We must start calling the shots.
Let the key civil society organisations start putting on various fora to discuss these issues. Let the service club speakers, the church leaders and the various opinion leaders in the society start enunciating the kinds of values and attitudes which our future leaders must have. Let us build a groundswell against the type of political culture which has held sway in this country for far too long. Let the tribalists feel the power they are coming up against. Let the editorial writers, the columnists, the talk show hosts and the news writers start highlighting certain matters and pushing certain common values and a public morality which can help guide the party delegates in choosing their next set of leaders.
We have allowed self-centred, corrupt and Machiavellian people to influence the political system for too long, let's take back Jamaica. We can do it. The politicians realise that we in civil society have the power. But if they feel we don't know what is in our real interests and that they can engage in emotional and symbolic manipulation for political gain, then they will do that. The more informed and sophisticated the citizenry, the better outcomes there will be in the political process. Politicians are nothing if not very pragmatic people. They can read the signs.
NO COMMON MISSION
We have won many victories over the years and have not spent enough time reciting those victories as a means of bolstering ourselves for further advances. There were things which were part of the common "runnings" a few years ago that politicians cannot get away with today. The political culture is changing, however slowly. We must press ahead. As Bob Marley says, "them soft". We mustcontinue to chant down the political Babylon. Now the politicians must know who are the true revolutionaries!
Gone are the days, we must signal to the political parties, when a person feels he or she has legitimacy to be Prime Minister just because "I am a good Comrade" who has done a lot of work great work for the party or because of "years in the struggle". Nor should it matter to us as citizens whether a person is a "Rock stone Labourite" from the Bustamante stock. Keep that for your internal party games and group-speak. Back weh wid dat.
Our discussion on the succession issue must take place squarely in the context of contemporary Jamaican and global realities and the emerging challenges. These relate to the fact that a frighteningly large section of our people is cynical about, and turned off from, the political system.
Politicians are not trusted. Indeed, there is a general lack of trust in the society and our social capital is monstrously low. There is nothing which really pulls us together, which gives us a sense of common bonding and purpose, or a sense of common mission.
We are a fractious, divisive and tribalised people. We have also become a nation of hedonists and a people for whom money is the greatest value. We are largely crude materialists, willing to do almost anything for the Almighty Dollar. We believe morality is expendable once money, status, and Bling Bling can be acquired. We have no ideological passions not even a commitment to capitalism, for we will shirk genuine work and entrepreneurship for short cuts to wealth. Corruption has become a way of life for many because money is our arbiter of the Good Life.
ZERO-SUM PEOPLE
We are a people willing to believe the worst about one another, all too willing to tear down one another and see co-operation, compromise and trade-offs as a "sell-out". We are a zero-sum people. Our economic structures are also gravely lopsided. We have a serious and fundamental production crisis in the real-goods sector. Our inter-sectoral linkages are weak and backward. We are uncompetitive in many areas. Generally, we are ill-prepared for globalisation and the demands of a discriminating global marketplace.
We also have a tremendous, gnawing social deficit which threatens any incipient economic growth we are experiencing. Our poverty levels are deeply worrying. It is unlikely that we are going to be able to satisfy the demands of our increasingly impatient population for economic advancement and social justice any time soon. A way has to be found to contain the frustrations, anger and resentment of the people at the failure of our political and economic project. This will be one of the gravest challenges for post-Patterson, post-Seaga political leadership.
NEEDED: CREDIBLE LEADERS
Our political successors will have to be people who can pull the country together, who can energise us toward a common vision, who can imbue us with a sense of mission. And not just a mission impossible but a mission believable and achievable. These leaders have to be credible. Their first and overarching task is to build trust. This will be the Mother of All Challenges.
In choosing a successor I would have to choose the person most likely to pull off these Herculean tasks. It will be a given that the successors will have to be people who not just rhetorically, but practically, credibly and tangibly renounce garrison politics and the garrison mentality.
Not just that. The successors must also be people who set as a major objective the closing of the gap between the people of the two parties. And, incidentally, while it is good to talk about the qualities we need to see in the new leaders, we must never pretend that our present leaders have no virtues or strengths or have contributed nothing in terms of leadership skills.
CURRENT LEADERSHIP
P.J. Patterson has a major leadership strength which has stood this country in far better stead than perhaps anybody has realised, and that is his ability to build consensus and to generally maintain a non-confrontational, peaceful style. He has promoted peace in a political culture nurtured on hostilities. P.J. Patterson has exhibited humility and a willingness to make concessions to the Opposition and other critics which is a noteworthy display of his emotional strength. We have to build on these strengths. The successors in both parties will need to adopt this Pattersonian style. Arrogance and one-upmanship are traits we need to avoid in the creation of the New Jamaica.
Critically, too, Edward Seaga has brought a level of sensitivity and articulation to the issues of poverty, marginalisation and cultural alienation which will be absolutely required for the new leaders. They dare not fail on this one. Seaga's understanding of the "two Jamaicas"; his deep grounding with the Jamaican black masses, his abiding and genuine love for them, against him, is one of the cardinal features of his more than 40 years of distinguished service to this country. No successor to leaders of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) or the People's National Party (PNP), no matter how intellectually brilliant, technically competent or morally pure, will have a chance of success unless he or she has this understanding of the poor and the commitment to uplift them.
THE CONTENDERS
We in the media corps seem to have largely settled on Peter Phillips and Bruce Golding as the best of the contenders for leadership of the two main political parties. And we will have a major influence over the electorate, however much some of us feign a lack of influence. We have become far more powerful I use the word advisedly than we care to admit. And the politicians know it!
Portia Simpson Miller, however, has a connection with the people; a kind of psychic bonding that is remarkable and should never be lightly dismissed. Portia has heart, and don't you ever underestimate the power of the "heartical" connection. Passion and compassion are crucially important. We must not over-value the intellectual to the minimising of the affective and the passional. Believe me, Jamaica will need more than intellectual and technical skills to see us through.
The first order of business for the next Prime Minister, I suggest, will not be intellectual. It will be emotional: Winning back the trust of the people, convincing them that you really care, making them feel that you are genuinely working in their interests, not just yours. That takes more than head. It takes heart. You can't fool all the people all the time not this New Jamaican.
But heart alone can't do it. Having an empathetic spirit is not enough. And herein lies some of the dilemmas which the political parties face. For, quite frankly, none of the contenders in the two parties has the evenly balanced mix of qualities and strengths which are really needed to move Jamaica forward. Together they come near.
If you could combine the intellectual brilliance and sophistication of Peter Phillips with the grassroots communicative skills and emotional intelligence of Portia Simpson Miller; or the intellectual forcefulness and freshness of ideas of Bruce Golding with the passion, incomparable political savvy and rhetorical skills of Audley Shaw, then what a difference that would make. They would be foolish to so burn out and injure themselves emotionally and politically in the contest for party selection that they end up not working together after the selection is finally made.
Let us start by judging them as to how they conduct the campaign. Let us watch for the dirty leaks, the dirty tricks campaign, and the smear tactics, the blindsiding. Then we will know who is not acceptable for the New Jamaica. Let them deal with ideas rather than dirt. Let them demonstrate to us that they can forge win-win alliances in the contest for the succession and meet that important pre-qualifier.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. You can e-mail your comments to
ianboyne@yahoo.com.
