Whither the PNP — the next chapter
Kings die alone … and presidents too. In their going out, they take with them no armies, ministers or advisors. Their legacies are forever stamped by the singular decisions they make, without caveats or deference to the advice of others.
Dr Peter Philips, president of the People’s National Party (PNP), perhaps the greatest public servant of our time, will take none with him either. For him there is a lonely defining rendezvous with history at the coming polls. He must win for the sake of the nation; in fact, he can win, but there is unfinished business to make it so.
His fate and that of his party will not be determined by the welcomed loyalty or throne interest of those who fought with him in the recent leadership challenge. Neither will victory be guaranteed by the continuing accusations of the loud, unmerciful group who urged the exclusion of the losing team. Apart from MPs not named in Peter’s shadow cabinet, nowhere is this error more destructively played out than in the post-victory visit to party headquarters of a small, treacherous group from East St Thomas who sought the replacement of Dr Fenton Ferguson, the six-time winning member of parliament (MP) who rose with Peter Bunting.
While defeat has consequences, victory has obligations too. For certain, the Bunting challenge was good for Dr Phillips and the PNP also. It energised not only the party leader, but the party’s base and the slumbering leadership group around his throne. Despite recent instances of cordiality, there is still deep-seated division here. The continued demonisation of Bunting, the creator of the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, with every conceivable sabotage and concocted conspiracy conjured, not only sends unwelcomed signals to the impressive 1,346 mostly young delegates and the thousands of non-delegates islandwide who supported him, but more critically, alienates them from the total effort required to defeat a desperate, well-financed Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
At the same time, those who rose with Bunting must also understand that the campaign is over. The bitterness and pain of defeat must be replaced by enlightened cooperation and party unity under one leader, Dr Peter Phillips.
For his part, Bunting’s unity statement was timely, reflecting the best traditions of the party. It would have been better, however, if a joint statement was issued.
Dr Phillips must now finish the script. The path to victory will be smoother with his unearthed kindness and enlargement of the big tent to include those left out. More than others, he is well aware of the blueprint of magnanimity left by PJ Patterson, who, on his ascension to the presidency, rose above the earlier vitriol and disrespect of senior leaders to heal wounds, enlarge small minds and position his party right; thereafter winning three consecutive general elections and retired undefeated.
But victory will also not be guaranteed by calming internal vicissitudes alone. Salivating at its good fortune in deceiving the voters with fraudulent promises and the PNP’s too early election call in 2016 which gifted the JLP massive infrastructure works now nearing completion, the JLP — complacently unmoved by the swirling corruption defining its tenure — is busy preparing another slick roll-out of glitzy pronouncements for the 2020 election season.
With the greatly heralded ‘5 in 4′ growth target abandoned and now totally discredited, Finance Minister Nigel Clarke is presently crafting a reprieve narrative. He will bring good news of continued macroeconomic stability institutionalised by Dr Phillips’ labour and increased employment bolstered by the low-paying BPO sector, as proof that we are moving in the right direction. Unquestionably sharp, Nigel will also tell us not to worry about the deteriorating value of the Jamaican dollar but rather look to his inflation-targeting remedy.
Not to be outdone, Dr Christopher Tufton, a master of PR, will mask the Cornwall Regional débâcle, the H1N1 horrors, the dengue tragedies and the national disgrace of over 2,000 babies (neonates) dead since 2016. Lest we forget, it is Kamina Johnson Smith who taught our nation how to normalise ingratitude. For sure, she will seek to assure us of the international respect we have garnered, despite abandoning our long-treasured principle of non-alignment with her treatment of Venezuela, whose many concessions undergirded our economy in our time of need.
Ever mindful of political pitfalls, the crafty Andrew Holness, the Most Honourable Bro Gad, has moved to create his own personality cult, to absolve him from the revelations of corruption and disastrous policy omissions. To unravel the plot, Peter and his team must offer a new game-changing agenda that will seize the imagination and give Jamaicans hope everywhere.
As the seminal author of our fiscal consolidation regime and the resultant macroeconomic stability we enjoy, he has tremendous unused credibility. Having prepared the platform for meaningful growth, along with the cerebral Mark Golding, he must now outline the critical steps to get us there. In particular, he should embrace the economic potential of our untapped exceptionalism, stem the ‘brain drain’ keeping our brightest and best at home, to build a truly modern society based on cutting-edge technology. This should be enhanced by a creative programme to foster research and development of value-added software products, leading to breakthrough exponential growth.
On the exploding crime problem, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew has shown us that significant economic growth is impossible without uncompromising law and order. In this, Holness and the JLP have failed the nation. Dr Peter Phillips, the conceptualiser and implementor of the successful Operation King Fish, must once again provide a menu of solutions to score on the crime front, return his party to power, implement his solutions in government and bring peace and stability to a grateful nation.
In the end, it is the leader that must provide that special gravitas to inspire his team to action and propel the nation to the birth of elusive possibilities dreamed of but not yet realised. The spate of unending murders, unconscionable corruption and anaemic growth have pushed us to the edge of a failed state.
The PNP was called upon before. It was such a solemn undertaking of sovereign duty that roused Norman Manley and his band of patriots to form the PNP in 1938 and place Jamaica on the road to nationhood. As with Norman Manley then, the times have found Peter Phillips now. He’s possessed of the temperament and grace to enhance the soul of our nation; promote our love of fair play and decency; just reward for hard work and, above all, our abiding faith in the future. History beckons, the call is his. I am done here.
— Paul Buchanan is a member of the PNP who served as member of parliament for St Andrew West Rural. He recently made an unsuccessful bid to become the party’s representative for Kingston Central.