Mark Wignal | A case for political agility, Dr Phillips

Many of us may feel right at this minute that in the same way the 19th-century American poet Edgar Allan Poe painted it in his tortured poem, The Conqueror Worm, we are sitting in a theatre, watching a play of hopes and fears “While the orchestra breathes fitfully, the music of the spheres”.’

History tells us that we are active players in the action on that stage. Globally, we have recovered from the ultimate horrors of two World Wars and the civilian rapes, deprivations, and diseases that followed naturally.

We have had the world’s economy fall into horrid disrepair over many frequencies of our lives, and small countries like Jamaica have been used, abused, spat out, and tossed into rough seas when it suited big powers, especially as they were pulling the strings of malleable politicians right here at home, sweet-mouthing us that we, the people, had power.

We are now in 2020, and even though we have no accurate timelines as to when we will escape the present nightmare of the COVID-19 pandemic, history is our best friend and has the capacity to embrace us even as the creation of it makes it seem that our lifeblood is being squeezed out of us. On that basis, we know that we will return to normalcy, but we have not quite figured out what the new normal will be.

But we must return to that normalcy as sure as one day follows the other.

That normalcy speaks to the revisiting of our political realities.

In January of this year, before the bad dreams became a reality, most of the concerns of this country were focused on perennial murders and an election that pundits like me figured would be called in the first half of the year. Then came COVID-19.

Political realities

We cannot say at what stage this year or, most likely, next year, we may rediscover a social landscape that is workable with our political realities. Those political realities speak to PNP and JLP activists and diehard supporters working the small towns and main road areas throughout rural parishes while the machinery of both political parties skilfully weaves through the inner-city communities in the Kingston Metropolitan Area and Montego Bay.

A few months ago, it was the consensus that the JLP was setting up the PNP for a social, economic, and electoral reality that would hand to the PNP one of the most severe floggings that it has ever had. Truth is, outside of October 1980, there has not been any instance that the JLP has flogged the PNP.

Most of the embarrassing and seemingly one-sided victories have been carved out by the PNP over the hapless JLP over many years. The main reasons for this have been that while the JLP, a conservative party, has been able to convince itself that a Government must tilt the economy in favour of empowering capital, the PNP, especially under Michael Manley, convinced most of the voting population that an economy must bow to the will and dictates of the people even if coherence of message was never considered important.

Political leadership is very hard work.

A few weeks ago, Dr Peter Philips, president of the PNP and leader of the Opposition, underwent surgery to treat stage 3 colon cancer.

Given the development, to me, the main considerations were these.

Leadership in question

The reality of what the opposition leader will go through for the next six months ought to be the concern of many in this country, and the PNP as an entity must show the nearly half of the country’s voters, who see it as a party belonging to them.

The basic humanity inside all of us begs us to respect the realities facing the family of Peter Phillips. That we accept at quite the same time as the leadership of the PNP comes into question.

And that question is, will the opposition leader, in close contact with 70 years, be able to summon the energy needed to deal with a bruising election campaign either at the end of this year or in early 2021?

Will the campaign strengthen him or do the opposite – debilitate him?

PNP needs this time to find leadership talent.

We have been told that Dr Peter Phillips has returned to work, and we have seen the staged clips of him walking up the stairs. All of that I can appreciate from a political party that knows it must start to identify the best person in the PNP to lead the party in the next elections against an Andrew Holness who has skilfully stolen the PNP’s people-centric message once articulated best by Michael Manley.

Andrew Holness is not spouting socialism as much as he is carrying out many of its dictates while cozying up to capital. If Jamaica is given a COVID-19 window of opportunity at the end of this year, the PNP needs a fit and able leader to jump into the fray and race off with Holness.

Last week, one PNP MP told me: “We in the PNP know Holness. We know that he has learnt the politics and is not just a resourceful leader, but politically ruthless when it suits him. We need to be ready just at the time when our leadership will not be able to answer that call.”

When I asked him about new leadership, he said, ‘The problem with that is that Phillips has not signalled to the party hierarchy that we should begin the task of looking at the various factions.”

It is obvious to me that Bunting would be lifting his head again. Lisa Hanna’s name is also being mentioned, but I see her as a non-starter. That I will explain later.

- Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.