WHEN Audley Shaw fumbled, rambled for about 30 seconds, stopped and asked that the Jamaica Observer’s business writer Al Edwards’ question be repeated during the debate against Dr Peter Phillips last week, this must have caused the heart of many Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters to miss several beats.

The question was, what would his party do in response to the heavy tax burden on pay as you earn (PAYE) workers and how soon could this response be expected? For the brash and self-assured ‘man-a-yard’, the sudden interruption to his delivery was incongruous and totally out of character.

Similar jitters would have gripped all Jamaicans when new Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in responding to the Bloomberg correspondent in New York, went to sea in extolling Jamaica’s gratitude to and policy expectation of China without a word of gratitude or policy expectations of the United States.

I have seen no comment in the local media on Mr Shaw’s gaffe and precious little on that of Mr Holness. Those occurrences led me to wonder: if the leader of the People’s National Party (PNP), Mrs Portia Simpson Miller, were in those positions, what would be the nature of subsequent media conversations? I suspect that on each occasion such a response by her would make the ‘bite of the week’ on the electronic media, and be referenced in several column inches of newspaper space. Also, more likely than not, she would have been a target of derision by this newspaper’s cartoonist.

These and similar occurrences have led me to wonder about the real reasons for some of the hostilities towards Mrs Simpson Miller. Clearly adored by many in the dominant working-class population, she has not managed to capture anywhere near that level of affection from the middle-class from whence her party traditionally draws its

main support.

Indeed, many middle class Jamaicans had openly questioned what they regarded as her lack of preparedness when she first duelled with PJ Patterson and later with Peter Phillips for the position of party leader. Then, when she set her sights on the post of prime minster, her academics and personality ‘defects’ were mercilessly highlighted by her opponents in the election campaign of 2007.

Even before then, she had been treated contemptuously by some of our columnists and cartoonists, although she had by then proved her competence as a Cabinet member for several years.

One of the more widely publicised issues about which she has been heavily criticised concerns the Trafigura case. I was still based overseas when I first heard about the statement she allegedly made in response to a question by a reporter about whether the PNP had returned the funds given to them by Trafigura, the Dutch oil trader company.

The ring of her reported response, “Ask the PNP,” is as loud today on the campaign trail and in the media as then. The fact that her statement seemed to have been taken out of context since she had not ended it there but had continued to say: “in fact I have instructed them (the PNP) to repay the money” has made no difference. Naturally that full response would not have had the sound-bite effect as what was reported.

But despite the media criticisms, she seems to have retained the affection of the masses along with their often unrealistic expectations.

However, by any fair assessment, Portia Simpson Miller has come a long way in emerging as a true heavyweight in politics. There is no doubt that her personality has mellowed since the 2007 election campaign. I recall the inauspicious start to her political career at the national level as a councillor in the then South St Andrew constituency and her subsequent 1976 victory in the parliamentary vote for the South West St Andrew constituency, where she is beloved.

Who could have believed, in those early days, that this gangly, unlettered, unpretentious lass from Wood Hall, St Catherine, would rise to the leadership of the nation’s oldest political party and from there to prime minister of Jamaica?

The PNP has long been regarded as the party of the middle class, and traditionally, before Portia, no one could dream that someone, without the backing of wealth or recognised family connections, and who had not come through the traditional education system with at least a first degree, would be even considered for its leadership.

But a courageous woman by any criteria, Portia seemed undaunted by class and education limitations. Many have conceded that perhaps her greatest strength is that she sees no limits to her ability to lead. It is to her credit that she worked to address these educational shortfalls while serving as MP.

Mrs Simpson Miller has also endured some gender disadvantages. I cannot recall either the JLP or the PNP even remotely considering a woman for the post of party leader before she emerged on the scene. MP and minister… yes. But leader? Hell no! Interestingly, despite its highlighting the superiority in numbers of female representatives in the campaign, the JLP does not appear to have one woman on its list of potential successors.

When one assesses the obstacles that confronted Portia over the years since her emergence on the political landscape, the conclusion is inescapable; here is a woman who commands respect and one who deserves her place in history. Sadly, she has never been given a fraction of the respect she has earned from the class that is the bedrock of her party’s support.

The PNP’s election advertising campaign is, for the first time, attempting to correct the negative image by packaging her as an accomplished and respected leader. Judging from the recent unflattering television advertisements run by her opponents, I rather suspect that this newly projected image by her own team may be having some traction.

If she managed to avoid the media-induced preoccupation with diction when she debated Andrew Holness last night and just be herself, spoke from her experience of the problems afflicting Jamaica and her commonsense approach to fixing them, then she would have underlined her leadership credentials and perhaps even won over some of those coveted independent voters.

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