Even true-hearted People’s National Party (PNP) supporters surely must realise that their president, the Opposition Leader Mark Golding, is walking wounded. He has a terrible political gash.

Admittedly, there are no iron laws in politics. But the huge political laceration which Golding has inflicted to himself and the PNP will not heal in the proverbial nine days, as many in the PNP may wish. No amount of deflection will cure Golding’s injury.

Elaborate and/or embarrassingly laughable political inversions by those who are tightly holding their noses, while they tell the country that the huge political scar on Golding’s body is a mere pimple, will not trick the senses of well-thinking Jamaicans. And intellectual sleight of hand, no matter how eloquently spouted, will not fool discerning Jamaicans into thinking that Golding’s political disfigurement is a mere figment of our imagination.

Scientific polls over almost four years have found that the PNP has been carrying Golding and not the reverse, which is the norm in our political culture. Golding’s dual citizenship injury means the PNP is now carrying a veritable political cripple, I believe.

Last Saturday, Golding spoke at a Papine divisional conference of his party. Incidentally, I wonder if the views he expressed were his personal views or those of the PNP. Why?

Recall Golding said it was his personal view, and not that of the PNP, that dual citizens should be eligible to sit as Members of Parliament (MPs). As I see it, having a personal view which is diametrically opposite to that of the party which one leads is an obvious contradiction in terms.

Anyway, at last Saturday’s Papine divisional conference, Golding pulled out an old socialist page from a now crumpled play book. Recall four Sundays ago I noted here that one of the time-worn tactics of socialist parties is to accuse their opponents of that which they are guilty. This tactic featured heavily in Golding’s remarks in Papine.

Consider this from the mentioned meeting: “Golding told Comrades that the party’s performance in the local government elections, coupled with the pending general election, has the ruling [Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)] worried.

“ ‘The PNP is back,’ declared Golding. ‘Dem a try and deflect from the real issues of the day; dem under whole heap of pressure. The local government elections mash up dem vibes because Jamaica show dem that we serious,’ he added.

“According to Golding, the ruling party has run out of ideas. He then added that the mission of his party was to fix Jamaica.” (Jamaica Observer, May 26, 2024)

This sounds like political schizophrenia to me. A smidgen of truth is a symptom of PS. Maybe except for the deliberately blind, the political schizophrenia evidenced in Golding’s fulmination is easy to see. Let me, however, try and help the intentionally blind. So, having sprinkled his grain of truth, Golding conspicuously slides into Anancy-like diversion, deflection, and inversion. Why? These are political defence mechanisms for him. He is severely injured.

One does not need special spectacles to see that Norman Manley’s party attained what I call a ‘decent draw’ — which for me means the PNP came out stronger than it went into the recently held local government elections. I said here many months before the mentioned election that a decent draw “was the only temporary escape route for Golding”.

The outcome of our 17th local government elections was understandably a big wake-up call to the incumbent, especially since a general election is in the offing. That is not rocket science. Golding, in his broadside, unsurprisingly pretended to be oblivious of the fact that the PNP did not win the election.

Recall the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) said: “With all the ballots counted, the result is that the JLP won the election for the control of the local authorities, with seven of the local authorities, and the PNP won six of the local authorities inclusive of the Portmore Municipality.” Three months and counting after the PNP was defeated, Golding has not conceded.

Consider this, too, from the mentioned news item: “They really have nowhere going. They have been unable to deliver high levels of economic growth. Nuff sacrifice the Jamaican people mek for that to happen, good management, good policies. And they have maintained those fiscal policies to keep the debt coming down, but they can’t deliver any kind of growth that can lift our country from where it is now to a place where they really have prosperity,” Golding said.

“ ‘Comrades, we have to fix Jamaica. That is our mission. That is our responsibility,’ Golding added.”

I maintain that those who have the knowledge have a duty to serve up the facts to the public, especially when public figures like Golding broadcast brazen inaccuracies.

In our 62 years of Independence, no PNP Administration has delivered meaningful economic growth. None! I have presented ample evidence previously. Each time the PNP has formed the Administration it has applied a wrecking ball to the economy. There are no ifs, buts, or maybes — the consequences have been near catastrophic for us.

Taking credit for what you did not do is an awful malady, in my estimation. Golding says: “We set the economy on a stable trajectory, a stable path, bringing down the public debt. It started under our watch.” This myth must be continually subjected to the sanitising heat of facts.

I recommend this very insightful article, ‘Sustained debt reduction: The Jamaican exception’, for all who are interested in facts. It was authored by Serkan Arslanalp, an advisor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF); Professor Barry Eichengreen of the University of California, Berkeley; and Peter Blair Henry, senior fellow, Hoover Institution and Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford University.

They said, among other things: “First, Jamaica adopted fiscal rules that highlighted the debt problem, encouraged the formulation of a medium-term plan, and limited slippage from the plan’s targets. The fiscal responsibility framework introduced in 2010 required the minister of finance, by the end of the financial year 2016, to reduce the budget deficit to zero, the debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio to 100 per cent, and public sector wages as a share of GDP to 9 per cent. The framework as augmented in 2014 required the minister, by the end of financial year 2018, to specify a multi-year trajectory to bring the debt-to-GDP ratio down to 60 per cent by 2026. It included an escape clause to be invoked in the event of large economic shocks, which prevented the rule from being so rigid that it lacked credibility, the authors write.

Second, Jamaica’s leaders leveraged the country’s success in sharply reducing political polarisation since the end of the 1970s. The Government, parliamentary Opposition, and other stakeholders in 2013 formed the Partnership for Jamaica Agreement, which fostered a common belief that the burden of debt reduction would be widely and fairly shared. The agreement supported the creation and ensured broad national acceptance of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) to monitor and publicly report on fiscal policies and outcomes, and to provide independent verification that all parties kept to the terms of their agreement.” (Brookings Institute, March 27, 2024)

In 2010 former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, along with Audley Shaw, the then minister of finance and the public service, began decisive actions, including two domestic debt exchanges, to bring Jamaica’s debt trajectory on a more sustainable path. That was the genesis of Jamaica’s economic recovery programme after the PNP set the house ablaze first in the 70s and then the 90s. These facts cannot be cancelled with the repeating of inaccuracies.

Golding is in a cauldron of hot boiling water. He has to find something to try and take off some of the intensity. Diversions, inversions, deflections, and myths are the go-to tactics here. I don’t believe these will cure his self-inflicted political lacerations.

Dual citizenship

Golding needs to answers some very important questions about the fact that he is still a British citizen.

Last Monday, Abe Dabdoub, prominent Jamaican lawyer, noted, among other things on Nationwide News Network: “If you have dual allegiance you should not be sitting in the House.”

Does Golding have dual allegiance? Golding says it should not be a case where Jamaica has “one foot in and one foot out of King Charles’ yard.” Does Golding have one foot in Charles’ yard? Is this a case of “cock mouth, kill cock”, as we say locally?

At the PNP’s Papine divisional conference held at The University of the West Indies last Saturday, and at a similar meeting in Gayle, St Mary, last Sunday, Golding, told Comrades to focus on “the real issues plaguing Jamaicans”. He said these were the cost of living, crime, corruption, unemployment, affordable housing, and education. The public furore over the fact that he is still a British citizen was a distraction being perpetrated by the JLP, he noted. I believe Golding needs to understand that, “You can’t fatten a pig on the way to market.” In the political arena this means much spade work is required way before actual polling day.

1) Where are the PNP’s new and/or better ideas to grow the Jamaican economy faster?

2) Where are the PNP’s new and/or better ideas for fix the choking issue of major crimes, and murder in particular?

I have been intermittently asking these and related questions in this space for nearly three years.

I am yet to see workable and/or fundable answers in the public domain. Does Golding know that to form the Administration in a functional democracy a political party has to have a strong leader who is electable, a good team, and a clear strategy?

I don’t see evidence that the PNP has any of the three. If they did, they would have provided fundable and practical answers to the mentioned and related questions.

The PNP seems to believe it can take back the key to Jamaica House through a deluge of fake news, obfuscation, distraction, and inversions.

It will not work.

Jamaicans are much wiser today having experienced tremendous pain and suffering of previous irresponsible ‘run wid it’ experiments by the PNP.

Recall this: “Speaking at a PNP North West St Andrew constituency conference on Sunday, Dr Davies said the Government made public spending decisions during the election campaign knowing they were financially unsound.

“ ‘Last year, on the road to the fourth term, there was no way I was going to stop any project which we had on the ground,’ Dr Davies said at the conference.

“ ‘Even with the flooding, even with the other things dem…there is no way I was going to stop the projects.’

“ ‘If it was another time I probably would have held back on other things and deal with the flood damage…but there was no time, and I am not going to make any apologies for it,’ he added. ‘The question we face is that now that we have reached, we have to correct it.” (The Gleaner, February 14, 2003)

Jamaicans today have information at the press of button. At the click of a button, I found out that murders had decreased by 11 per cent up to last Monday. Other major crimes are also down.

Capital flight, devaluation, inflation are tamed. Our debt obligations are being met comfortably. Exports are up. Unemployment is the lowest in our history. And our net international reserves (NIR) is over US$5 billion for the first time in our history.

The Administration’s primary strategy of modernising our education system, courts, social infrastructure, roads, water systems, Internet, ports of entry, etc, are bearing good fruits. The regional and international respect which Jamaica lost when we literally could not pay our bills has been restored. Jamaica is no longer the laughing stock of the region.

Golding’s misinformation and disinformation about the state of Jamaica is the real distraction. His continued failure to answer pertinent questions about the fact that he is still a British citizen is frightening. As I see it, Golding needs to convince Jamaicans that he does not have “one foot in King Charles’ yard”, instead of retailing and wholesaling obfuscations, inversions, distractions and myths.

Garfield Higgins

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist and a senior advisor to the minister of education and youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.