Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, in their celebrated book How Democracies Die, among other things, posit that a key warning sign of democratic disintegration is the enfeebling of venerated social and political norms which produce mutual toleration and institutional forbearance.
When those norms dwindle and/or degenerate, people begin to see their rivals not as legitimate opponents, but as dangerous threats — enemies. It then becomes easier for actors to justify authoritarian measures and democracy becomes harder to sustain, Levitsky and Ziblatt submit.
The professors further put forward that the collapse of democracies seldom start with violent street demonstrations and coups. That is usually the end stage manifestations of serious deterioration they propound. Often, instead, subtle and gradual chipping away at the pillars of time-honoured political traditions and institutions are the geneses of the demise of democracies, Levitsky and Ziblatt advance.
I read their insightful book last October. I highly recommend it to my readers. I reflected and revisited their work last week. Why?

Political no-ball
Consider this: “North West Manchester Member of Parliament (MP), Mikael Phillips says the people of Westmoreland erred in electing three JLP candidates to Parliament at the last general election in 2020.
“He said the Central Westmoreland MP, George Wright, put effort into his attire for Parliament, but did nothing to advocate on behalf of his constituents.” (Nationwide News Network, January 6, 2024)
“Each and every one of you from Westmoreland made a mistake in 2020,” said Phillips.
There is stony silence by some usually vociferous ‘rights advocates’.
Doubtless some are going to say, “This is just idle jiving on the political hustings.” I disagree.
Phillips’s statement is no laughing matter. Why? It is the democratic right of the people of Westmoreland to elect who they want to manage their affairs in Parliament. Phillips is a former vice-president of the People’s National Party (PNP), he is a legislator and spokesperson on transport and mining, and the reliable Black-Bellied Plovers, Bananaquits and John Chewits tweet that he harbours ambitions to become president of the PNP, and prime minister in the future.
I don’t believe Phillips’s questioning the scared and democratic right of electors to choose their political representatives resembles prime ministerial fabric.
Criticisms of the performance, or lack thereof, of the three MPs — George Wright (Westmoreland Central), Moreland Wilson (Westmoreland Western) and Daniel Lawrence (Westmoreland Eastern) — who won on the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) ticket is par for the course on the political stump. But leaping from that normal stage to the frightening diatribe of seemingly stomping on the constitutional right of Jamaicans is inexcusable, as I see it.
Phillips, in his tirade, castigated the three mentioned MPs for “mashing up Westmoreland”. He said what they “mash up, the PNP will have to fix”. But, in his broadside against the three MPs, Phillips did not utter a single solitary word as to how he and the PNP would repair what they claim has been smashed to pieces by Messrs Wilson, Lawrence and Wright. Why?

More voices now crying in the wilderness
Consider this from The Gleaner’s insightful editorial of January 19, 2024:
“Mikael Phillips, the Opposition spokesman on transport, is proceeding on the same path as most aspirants to Government, which usually sets them for failure if they became ministers.
“He might have a mish-mash of ideas, mostly focused on the small-bore stuff, but no large, strategic plans or policies for the sector of which he hopes to be in charge should the People’s National Party (PNP) win the next general election, due in 18 months.
“ ‘I am making you this promise,’ Mr Phillips told his party’s supporters in the western parish of Westmoreland this week. ‘When the People’s National Party is re-elected, give me six months as minister of transport and we will have a national transport plan.’
“That plan, he suggested, would cover the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which operates primarily in the Kingston Metropolitan Region, as well as the island’s route taxes. He also airily mentioned the prospects for light rail between Spanish Town, the capital of the southern parish of St Catherine, and Kingston, the coastal capital further south. And since Mr Phillips spoke in Westmoreland, he, for good measure, threw in a better, more comfortable transport hub of Savanna-la-Mar, that parish’s capital town.
“Mr Phillips’s vagueness on policy prescriptions for public transportation is inexcusable, having shadowed the portfolio for seven years. That is largely emblematic of how the PNP has approached its time in seeming strategy to return to Government: Wait on the Administration to implode under the weight of missteps and scandals, rather than being tested on ideas and policies.
“People who enter government without concrete policies or clear sense of mission tend to get little done.”
I am glad I am no longer the only voice crying in the wilderness. I said here two Sundays ago that I have been asking intermittently in this space for the last five years for the PNP to present its new and/or better fundable policies to address our major and long-standing problems. The PNP has yet to do so.

Is the PNP reneging on democracy?
Levitsky and Ziblatt, in the mentioned book and their more recent publication Tyranny of the Minority: How American Democracy Came to the Breaking Point, noted that: “Parties which are committed to democracy must do three things: First of all they must unambiguously accept the result of elections were they to lose. Second, must unambiguously reject the use of violence. And third, must break completely from anti-democratic extremists.”
Phillips has not been reprimanded by his leader. I think it is reasonable to locate a nexus between Phillips’s outburst and these utterances. According to The Gleaner, July 25, 2023, Golding said this while speaking during a St Andrew East Rural constituency conference at Donald Quarrie High School: “Everybody, mek up unnu mind! Work has to be done. It not going happen [just] so. We have to mek sure seh every Comrade who voted for the People’s National Party in 2011 and delivered the victory, if they’re still alive, dem haffi go vote fi Comrade Patrick Peterkin when the election call, and even some who not alive, you know if dem can deal with it, no problem.”
Is the PNP reneging on democracy?
Unlike some, I do not interpret Phillips’s tirade and Golding’s blow-up as mere slip of the tongue. I have said repeatedly in this space for many years that Jamaica cannot afford to backslide with regard her democratic advances. I stand by that position.
For emphasis, Levitsky and Ziblatt posit — and I agree — that threats to the viability of democracies seldom start with violent streets demonstrations and coups. For this and related reasons it is crucial that we do not ignore Phillips’s utterance which seemingly questions the will of electors; and Golding’s, which seemingly suggest a return to a time in our politics which was extremely deadly, especially for ordinary Jamaicans. Jamaica’s reputation was massively stained in the period too. We are still recovering.
Several well-thinking Jamaicans, including former prime ministers Michael Manley and Edward Seaga who came to their sense after our country was brought to the brink, showed great commitment in spearheading the implementation of measures to prevent Jamaica from falling deeper into an abyss, which some countries have never escaped.
Patriots like the late Professor Gladstone E Mills, the first chairman of the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC), and former chairman of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) Professor Errol Miller expended a tremendous amount of personal time and energy to ensure that Jamaica’s electoral process, which is regarded as one of the finest in the world today, was fit for purpose.
The selfless work of individuals like the late former chairman of the JLP, Ryan Peralto, who was invested with the Order of Distinction, commander class (CD) for more than 20 years of service to the EAC, cannot be treated lightly. Peralto played a pivotal role in the electoral reform process.
Whether we agree or not, electors have a sacred right to vote for the political representatives of their choice at election time. Anyone who seemingly inveighs against that sacred right should be called out and asked to explain their actions. The stony silence of some civil society groups as regard Phillips’s ebullition and Golding’s alarming tirade is cause for big concerns. What is joke to you is death to me.

Guard our democracy jealously
Levitsky and Ziblatt posit that, “Democracy requires that parties know how to lose. When a major party cannot accept defeat democracy is in trouble.” I agree.
We are not there, but it does not take a degree in political science and or related studies to understand that we could conceivably get there if we allow irresponsible statements from our leaders to escape the sanitising light of public scrutiny.
We have seen the awful results of silence in the midst of statements which threaten long-held democratic traditions. Those of us who have the knowledge have a duty to raise an alarm when we see danger lurking, whether it is dressed in grand eloquence or disguised in beggarly clothes.
There are still some among us who take a giant sip of every drop which comes out of the mouths of especially our political and religious leaders. Their every utterance is a call to action.
I believe that certain inflammatory remarks on the political hustings are meant for the itchy ears of those who are amenable to action minus prior and necessary mental rigour. We must jealousy guard democracy.

Not prime ministerial
“As Comrade Small said: All PNP, any little issue, any likkle fliction, just low that man, until we win the election, if you want tek it up after that, mi nuh business, but between now and election, we ah one family and we nah deal with dem likkle petty thing deh, ‘cause we want to move forward together. Togetherness and unity is gonna drive the victory.”
I heard a great deal of surprise being expressed by some in relation to this recent utterance by Golding. I am not surprised in the least. This is yet another un-prime ministerial utterance by Golding.
We really have to jealously guarding our democracy.
Last Sunday I said, among other things, here: “All well-thinking Jamaicans must keep a close eye on the actions of our national political leaders in the run-up to the local government election, and Golding’s actions especially.
Why Golding in particular? He was the one who made the damning statements mentioned.”
Statement here is a direct reference to Golding’s utterance in The Gleaner of July, 25, 2023.
This latest rant by Golding is another confirmation of what the reliable birds have been tweeting for many months.
The lacerations from the divisive leadership battles between Dr Peter Phillips and Peter Bunting, and shortly after the bitter leadership joust better Lisa Hanna and Mark Golding, have evidently not healed. The PNP is still united in division. These are not unreasonable interpretations based on Golding’s latest outburst.
But, there is something else. Golding seems to suggest that he does not object to a pretence of a united PNP, providing it will facilitate victory at the polls.
‘Win by any means necessary’ is a recurring theme in Golding’s public pronouncements. This is a harbinger.
Recall that many Sundays ago I noted that the birds had tweeted that if Golding does not bring home the beacon for the PNP in the upcoming local government elections, and/or at a minimum secure a decent draw, he would have to mount the wings of the morning and fly away from his presidential lofty perch at 89 Old Hope Road and his safe seat in St Andrew Southern.
Recall, too, that the birds also warbled that Golding would also have to take with him Dr Angela Brown Burke, PNP Chairman; and Dr Dayton Campbell, PNP general secretary.
Dr Campbell recently told the country that he was in possession of poll findings which show: “A landslide win for the PNP.” (Jamaica Observer, January 16, 2024)
Not so long ago, Dr Campbell told the country that he had poll findings which showed that Peter Bunting would comfortably defeat Dr Peter Phillips. When the political dust settled in the acrid leadership battle, Bunting was convincingly defeated on his 59th birthday. I believe Dr Campbell will be proved wrong again when the votes are counted in the upcoming local government elections. More anon!