Ian Boyne, Contributor
TODAY, JAMAICA says final farewell to one of its most exemplary political leaders, the late former Prime Minister, Most Hon. Hugh Lawson Shearer.
If we ever needed confirmation that the most important things in life the things that really matter are the issues that impinge on human relationships, not merely material or intellectual accomplishments, then listening to all the tributes to Hugh Shearer has certainly provided that. There is something else the Shearer tributes have reinforced: The importance of the critical importance of strong people skills in political leadership.
CHARACTERISTICS
As we pay our last respects to a former Prime Minister, it is as good a time as any to assess the characteristics that our next elected Prime Minister must have. The leaders of our two main political parties have signaled their intention not to lead their parties into the next general elections.
A number of persons have indicated their interest in succeeding the leaders, and while only party delegates will decide the winners, we in civil society must make our voices heard as to the type of leader we would like to see lead this country. Party delegates must realise that they have to reckon with us the non-partisans. We are the ones who will decide which party will win the next general election. Deleates ignore our views, therefore, at their own peril.
What kinds of qualities should the future leader of the People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) possess? What are the issues that must concern them and what should be their priorities? Party delegates need to realise that in choosing someone to lead their party, they can't think in terms of who has served the party's interests best, who has been around the longest, who will advance their narrow interests more and who do they like best. They can't think in terms of sentiment in choosing who the leader will be.
DISTURBING FACTS
Studies done in cognitive psychology over the past decade have increasingly thrown up some disturbing facts about human decision-making. Human decision-making is notoriously problematic and scientific studies show that it is easily swayed by a host of irrational and largely emotional factors. Political campaigners know this and they consciously aim to manipulate people. A major responsibility of the media is to put critical issues before the people and to be rigorously rational and surgical in dissecting the choices and issues facing the country.
In my view, what Jamaica needs most urgently from the next political leader of the PNP and JLP is the ability to engender trust and confidence and to restore credibility to the political project. Jamaica needs a person who is seen as having empathy; a person perceived as genuinely having the people's interest at heart. The next leader will need charisma. Since the Michael Manley era, some have tended to downplay the importance of charisma in favour of the purely technocratic, managerial leader. It is a tragic mistake. People have always needed inspiring, charismatic leaders; leaders whom they want to listen to; leaders who inspire them to action; leaders whom they would sacrifice for and leaders who give them meaning and purpose.
It has been amply demonstrated that in the most difficult of times, when resources have been scarce but hope and inspiration abundant, that various peoples have been known to rise to greatness despite the hardships through inspiring. And it has also been proven again and again that no matter how well things are going economically and otherwise, if people don't have leaders who inspire confidence, trust and a good feeling, they become restless, testy and wary of that leadership. Emotional capital will be the most decisive capital that the next leader of the PNP and the JLP will need. It will not be intellectual capital, finance capital or even social capital (the last is badly depleted in Jamaica today) Emotional capital can give rise to the other types of capital.
I could quote endless studies in psychology, anthropology, political sociology, political science and management to prove the point that in leadership, its is the emotional competencies that are the most decisive. It is a fact that emotional capital and strong social and communication skills by themselves cannot sustain political leadership. If after a time you don't deliver, the talk and good guy/good girl image fades, reality chips in and the people become disillusioned. Those of us who remember the seventies in Jamaica don't have to be convinced of that.
WIN HEARTS AND MINDS
But with the level of disaffection, alienation, disillusionment and mistrust toward the Jamaican political culture , believe me it will take more than impressive highways, towering tourist monuments, humming bauxite/alumina plants, massive net international reserves and a generally booming economy to win hearts and minds. The biggest task of the next political leader of the PNP and the JLP is to win hearts and minds and to capture the imagination of the Jamaican people. This is a major task and as to whether any of the candidates has the wherewithal to do that, I leave for the discussion.
There is no central idea, vision, ideology, nothing, which unites us as a people. Nothing gives us a sense of common purpose. The next leader will have to chart a vision that we all can find credible and which can excite us and put some fire in our stomachs (not just food). Yet the next leader has a major pitfall to avoid: He (or she) must have the ability to connect with people; to emphasise with their life situation and to show genuine commitment to them while at the same time avoiding populism.
Taking populist positions and crafting populist economic policies is the kind of recklessness this country has to avoid. Being an advocate for the downtrodden and oppressed, and marketing yourself as the working class' and the masses' man or woman might get you votes and instant popularity, but it will not be sustainable and will be disastrous to the country.
QUALITIES
There are too many examples in the Third World to prove this sorry case of a good heart but a fuzzy mind. While the next leader must have strong emotional competencies and must be a person who can move and inspire people, that person cannot be wooly-headed or simplistic. Otherwise the most vocal and the most influential in the party or Government can get any hair-brained economic policy enacted because the leader would not have the intellectual competence to judge a bad policy prescription.
The next leader has to be aware of the realities and constraints of globalization; the intricacies of the international economic and political system and has to be au fait with the complexities of geo-politics. These matters affect crucially in this era of globalization'. Fiscal imprudence, populist spending, redistribution without growth have to be avoided. Another major task of the person whom we should elect as Prime Minister is ability to deal with the growing anarchy, lawlessness and normlessness in the society. There is a cultural war going on in Jamaica, not just a criminal war. There is a violent clash of values. Values commonly but mistakenly seen as "middle class, Establishment values" have been rejected by the urban poor who have been empowered in negative ways by the political class as Professor Obika Gray demonstrates in his enlightening book Demeaned But Empowered (which should be read along with Professor Don Robotham's Grace Kennedy Foundation lecture on voluntarism by anyone wanting to better understand the Jamaican society.)
There is a growing level of indiscipline, corruption, coarseness, vulgarity and uncivil behaviour. Notice the many letters to the Press complaining about night noise, the flagrant municipal violations and plain incivility. The economic indices are looking good, but the quality of life as measured by civility and respect for law and order is declining. The next Prime Minister has to address this as a matter of urgency. "Values and attitudes" has to become more than just words. They must be integral to everything the next Government does.
CRIMINAL GANGS
The control of more and more territory by criminal gangs and dons, some of whom we have been painfully reminded, still have deep connections with well-known politicians, is frightening and cannot be ignored by the next Prime Minister we elect.
But, says Gray in his book, Demeaned But Empowered: The Social Power of the Urban Poor: "More worrisome, however, from the standpoint of social renewal is the mobilised poor's rejection of the norm of civility and their repudiation of the state itself. The socially powerful group's withdrawal from society in favour of self-enclosure inside a nihilistically oriented counter-society opposed to public law and conventions of social morality raises serious questions for all social reformers".
There are some intellectuals from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona who are oblivious to this threat, interpreting concerns over it as overreactions from a frightened and increasingly powerless bourgeoisie, nervous about losing social power and contemptuous of the masses.
The country will also need someone who, while not arrogant and responsive to the people, is not a person who plays to the gallery or who is hostage to media power. The person must have the guts and courage to deal firmly with criminal elements in the society without any unpopularity with the media. Decisions cannot be taken or not taken depending on what is being said on the talk-shows and in editorial pages. Courage of convictions must be the hallmark of the next elected Prime Minister, not a leadership characterised by playing to the gallery.
The document put out by the Campaign for Transformation group within the PNP, led by Paul Burke, has some excellent ideas that should be followed by members of both parties if they hope to tackle our serious problems. Tribalism must go; the link with criminal elements must be cut and the influence of criminal money must be stopped.
But significantly, too, as the PNP transformation document recommends a "values and attitude programme needs to be implemented among party members to combat this growing incidence of immediate monetary gain before Party and democratic principles". If this is done now, it might affect the quality of the delegate voting in not just the PNP, but also in the JLP.
