The People’s National Party HAS imploded, as it should! This is the DEATH. There can be no reconciliation or healing at this moment. The wound is too raw; the defeat too heavy; the consequence of not attaining the renewal agenda too catastrophic.
The healing did not take place after the last internal election either. There could never be with a so-called ‘lumpen’ in power; This is no ordinary lumpen albeit – but one whom after 25 years had proved to herself and the nation that she was not PREPARED for the mantle of leadership. Portia – The ‘failed experiment’, the nation conceded.
This precipitated a challenge – a challenge which did not derive from personal ambition by Comrade Peter Phillips – but which had become mandatory – if the Party was to regain any political ground, respect and standing as a force in the society. Portia is important to this process, indeed; but many KNEW she could not lead/head the renewal.
To recast her in the same position is NOT to be seen as a VOTE OF CONFIDENCE in her leadership. It is, rather, a personal vindication for those who felt, on solely personal grounds, that a challenge should not have been effected, albeit indispensable. Portia FAILED miserably to UNITE the party post general election 2007. She arguabley COULD NOT as she, herself, represented (and continues to represent) the GREATEST SOURCE of discontent, division, and angst withinbher own party. Her personality is NOT made for leadership, not of the kind that the PNP is historically known for, and surely not of the kind that renders politcal healing or political settlment of the kind required to reunite the first nationalist party in Jamaica. For Portia to simply PRAY for healing is, not only to mock GOD, but proof of her totally out of touch, and out of place she is!
What we are left with is a party without footing. A party which today (September 20) after 70 years in existence – voted against real renewal, real progress and areal opportunity for rebirth and regeneration. It is like having a car which has been worn down, having done its time on the road and you refuse to take it in for servicing and/or repair. This is the kind of death that the JLP experienced with SEAGA when he failed to concede leadership. And the consequence of that attachment to power was there for all to see in the JLP”s absolute failure to win at the polls and the total lack of confidence in the party as a structure from which to pin the hopes of the Jamaican people.This lasted for some 18 years.
Portia’s personal ambition became her ultimate driving force and motivator over and above a restoration of the PNP, and a commitment to governing. A political party’s chief goal is to win elections. Everything else comes after that. Can Portia’s PNP win an election under her leadership against a STRONG more united than they ever were JLP? Can POrtia really contest man to woman, Bruce Golding? Does Portia really have the confidence of the Jamaican electorate? Will die-hard PNP voters turn out to vote for Portia? Will the monied class support a PNP with Portia at the helm? These are the questions that Portia MUST ask herself? Why am I doing this? Do I fear becoming anachronistic, obsolete and insignificant were I to let go of the desire to lead the PNP?
Those who want power, in and of itself, are some of the greatest tyrants in history. A tyrant is not a leader make. But many tyrants are in positions of leadership. So the party cannot and will not unite simply on the basis that it should. It MUST out of necessity purge itself.
At this moment in history, all Portia’s PNP will do is PURGE itself of those who contested and challenged it. It will, sadly, only PURGE itself of some its most able leaders, its historical stalwarts who had brought wisdom, intellect and ability to governance. It will PURGE itself of those who contributed time and effort to its successes over the years. It will PURGE itself of those who had rendered the party a respected and time-honoured institution that had served the Jamaican nation.
It will PURGE itself of its true mission, and replace it with a ‘lumpen’ agenda, and with folks who neither know government or governing (but ‘politics’ ); nor have the capacity to manage a society crumbling under the force of inaction, and lack of politial will. SADLY, Portia’s PNP will not PURGE itself of its OWN LEADER, a leadership that inspires conflict, discontent, and un-confidence – all issues with form the basis of the Party’s problems.
