Labourites line up - Battered Bruce takes centre stage; Chang's supporters to stay away

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

THE STAGE is set for an explosive public session at the 67th Annual Conference of the Jamaica Labour Party today, with party leader and Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, trying to recapture diminishing popularity, and with inescapable agenda items like the allegations of murder plots surrounding James Robertson, minister of mining and energy, and an economy for which the forecast is less than inspiring.

However, the conference will be without delegates of North West St James, the constituency held by Dr Horace Chang. He told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday afternoon that he had taken the decision to withdraw his constituents "to reduce aggravation" and to facilitate restoration of the party's integrity.

"Now is not a good time to go. Emotions are running high, and if they go to conference and should anything unfortunate happen, it would be difficult to control, and we don't want that. The primary reason is not that we are upset with the party, but if arguments develop, we can't control a crowd of 10,000 people. This could aggravate the wounds, which we need to heal," said Chang.

Tension has been mounting in the St James constituency since last week when Chang was unseated as deputy leader of the party by Dr Christopher Tufton.

Asked whether he would be attending the conference, Chang said, "I have not made up my mind fully."

Private session

The mass turnout expected for the conference at the National Arena follows last week's departure from the norm when the private session of the annual conference was held in four different locations to stave off a potential flare-up among fired-up delegates of Area Council Four.

The feature item will be the presentation by Golding in what is expected to be an attempt to bolster his waning popularity.

The party has had very little to cheer about, dogged as it has been by an obdurate Manatt, Phelps & Phillips controversy that will not go away.

But the party can take some comfort in keeping to a minimum flare-ups and threats of violence in last week's internal election involving Dr Christopher Tufton, Dr Horace Chang, and Arnold Foote.

In a historic, if politically shrewd, move, the leadership of the JLP convened four separate private sessions of the four area councils in the lead-up to today's confab.

In so doing, the party confined the acrimony that marred internal elections in the JLP to the past.

The 1992 physical assaults on journalists and JLP supporters during a deputy-leadership election that year, as well as the tainted money scandal during another deputy-leadership election in 2004, are classic cases in point.

A prominent insider told The Sunday Gleaner that the leadership is quite satisfied with its success in achieving comparative peace going into the public session.

JLP insiders told The Sunday Gleaner that Prime Minister Bruce Golding sought to shore up his flagging public image at the private session of Area Council One that was held in his western Kingston constituency.

The spraying of People's National Party-flavoured graffiti in Golding's heavily policed stronghold by unknown persons has not done anything for Golding's weakening political image coming into the conference.

To facilitate Golding's apparent search for political capital, the JLP this year discarded the usual first-day format for the private session of conference which, in the past, was held at the National Arena.

In its place were four separate private sessions in each area council to culminate in today's mass confab.

But JLP General Secretary Karl Samuda was adamantly dismissive of the suggestion that the JLP's latest move was akin to clutching at the proverbial straw.

Watered-down version

If Samuda's pronouncements are anything to go by, the seemingly watered-down version of the annual conference created by the splintered private session is a superior forum for serious discussions.

The JLP, still reeling from the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips controversy and talks of resignation and removal and fallout from within, could ill afford to flaunt another divisive conference, with only two years to go before a general election is constitutionally due.

While conceding that the changes have been designed to prevent fallout and distractions among Labourites, Samuda argued that they were long in coming.

"The idea is not to war," asserted Samuda when pressed about the real reasons for the changes. "We are able to cope better than a few years ago as the process is more manageable."

Samuda argued that the new structure provided for internal elections to be held at which new leaders could be elected in a democratic way.

"Under this structure, there is no room for renegade voting," Samuda declared in a clear reference to the nomination of Paul Burke for vice-president on the floor of the People's National Party's annual conference.

Special provisions

Unprepared for an election, the party had to make special provisions to facilitate the election after the conference.

"We are much more structured," argued Samuda. "You could never have a man on the floor nominating someone. You can't change leadership from the floor without due notice," he argued.

"We guard that provision jealously," said Samuda. "No self-respecting party or organisation can operate that way."

But what about those area councils whose members wanted to push through motions on the conference floor?

Samuda argues that the format provides a better forum to carry out this function.

He said the constitution of the JLP stipulates that motions are not approved or disapproved on the conference floor, but are referred to the standing committee to be discussed and ratified and then sent to the Central Executive.

"This structure is more penetrative and offers greater opportunity for the broad base of the party to operate from and provides a forum to make proposals from the floor," Samuda told The Sunday Gleaner.

"They (delegates) have a better opportunity to have dialogue with the leaders."