Peter Espeut | It’s not apathy, it’s rejection!

I did the field research for my undergraduate long paper (a poverty study) in the foothills of the Blue Mountains in Portland, and for my master’s thesis on rural (under)development I took up residence in the foothills of the John Crow Mountains in St Thomas.

Many (if not most) of the residents thought I worked for the government (“You must work for the government! How else do you get paid?”)

“I have a scholarship,” I answered. “How did you get your scholarship?” they enquired.

As much as I was seeking information (I interviewed everyone in the community four times with different questionnaires) the residents pumped me for information, particularly about my political affiliation. “But you must support one of the parties!” they insisted. “How could you survive? How will you get a job?”

That small rural community of 74 households was politically divided, with an active People’s National Party (PNP) group and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) branch. I learnt much during my sojourn – about rural underdevelopment and poverty – and about how politics has divided our people and created a binary mindset. Mental slavery has several drivers, and one set of slave masters is rooted in our tribal political system.

In days gone by, defining oneself as green or orange was part of our socialisation, our personal identity as Jamaicans. But it had an ugly side! At any particular time the colour of your politics can determine whether you get a job, or a house, or a farm work ticket. Our system of patronage politics has made Jamaicans clients of one political party or the other.

The mental slavery rooted in binary party politics rears its ugly head all the time. A recent case is how the tribalists have sought to interpret the recent Don Anderson political opinion poll commissioned by the PNP. The data show a fall-off in the positive ratings of both Prime Minister Holness and Opposition Leader Mark Golding, and an increase in their negative ratings.

LOSING INTEREST

They tribalists have concluded that the data show an increase in political apathy, that Jamaicans are losing interest in things political, that they do not care about this aspect of Jamaican life with which they, the tribalists, are preoccupied. Since it is normal and natural to support one party or the other – their binary way of thinking contends – if the ratings of the JLP leader plunges, the ratings of the PNP leader must correspondingly increase. Otherwise the public is somehow mentally ill or challenged.

It seems to me that the pathology is on the other side. Rather than showing apathy, the data show an active rejection of both the PNP and the JLP. The Jamaican public very much cares about things political, and have rejected what the two parties have on offer.

The turnout at each general election continues to decline, as disillusionment among the electorate increases. The government presently in power enjoyed the support of only 21.3 per cent of registered voters in the 2020 general election. Only the “die-hearted” (I like that malapropism: it indicates a death of real caring for Jamaica) continue to support the PNP and the JLP, as a surrogate for self-interest and self-aggrandisement.

The burden now falls on the tribalists to explain why they continue to support the JLP and the PNP in the face of credible accusations of nepotism, cronyism, and corruption, first by one side and then the other when in government. It is the tribalists who are now “abnormal”, as those who reject both are now in the vast majority.

DIVIDED US

Politics has so divided us that the tribalists claim to see politics at work even when it may not be there. As teachers resist government bullyism as they agitate for a more favourable positioning in the compensation classification scale, JLP activists in the media and elsewhere accuse the teachers of playing politics. I have no doubt that elements among the teachers still support the PNP (as does a remnant support the JLP). This reclassification exercise will determine where teachers will be placed relative to others in the government service, and will determine their relative remuneration for decades to come. It is more reasonable to conclude that the tens of thousands of teachers feel that their very future is at stake in these agitations, rather than the tribalist view that they are simply playing someone else’s political game.

It seems to me that the people playing politics are the ones accusing the teachers of playing politics.

The Don Anderson political opinion polls now slowly being fed through the media to the public were commissioned by the PNP. I pick up the subtle innuendo from JLP tribalists that because the PNP commissioned the poll, the results are somehow tainted. I hold no brief for Don Anderson, but I don’t think he would risk his professional credibility just to suit one of the tribes. Such innuendo is itself playing politics.

A word of advice to Mark Golding and the PNP. If you want to win an election with the support of more than 21.3 per cent of the electorate, you have to be new and different. Announce that if you win the next election you will pass effective anti-corruption legislation requiring transparency with government contracts, with income and asset declarations, and with political donations. Hundreds of years from now, Jamaicans (nay, the world) will remember Mark Golding as the prime minister who led Jamaica out of the darkness of corruption into the light. That is national hero stuff!

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a rural development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com