Starting this week, the Sunday Observer will be putting the candidates for presidency of the People’s National Party under the microscope. This week, Observer writer Erica Virtue reviews Dr Peter Phillips.

PETER David Phillips, 55, had crafted himself in the image of ‘performer’ and so had become one of the yardsticks by which the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) government was judged up to 2002.

His hands-on approach to solving some seemingly insurmountable tasks, like turning poor roads into drivable thoroughfares and restructuring the ramshackle transport system, as minister of transport and works, showed he was not afraid of challenges.

No other Cabinet minister came close in the public’s eyes as someone who knew how to get the job done – certainly not Dr Omar Davies nor Portia Simpson Miller, now his closest rivals. He was ‘Mr Fix-it’.

That is, until he took up the ministry of national security in 2002. Jamaica wanted a man of action to fix the crime problem, and some thought that, if no one else, Dr Phillips could do it.

But, like K D Knight before him, Phillips, who holds a doctorate in international politics, has met upon a murder problem so complex that few initiatives have dented it, and in fact, a new record was set last year.

Since then, although the police have stopped issuing murder statistics, at a guess, more than a thousand persons have been killed already, and Jamaica again appears headed for a new record.

It is against this fresher background of unchecked murders,

and 11 years after he was handed his first ministry, that Phillips has entered the race for president of the 67-year-old People’s National Party (PNP) – his goal, like the four other contenders, to become Prime Minister of Jamaica, after P J Patterson steps down.

Phillips will square off against the populist Simpson Miller, finance minister Davies, transport and works minister Robert Pickersgill, and Dr Karl Blythe, a former minister and central Westmoreland Member of Parliament.

All except Davies are PNP vice presidents.

Phillips, who continues to trail Simpson Miller as a favourite of delegates in recent opinion surveys, could run headlong into a political roadblock if he fails to take the party leadership.

He must win the presidential elections and up the ante with an electoral victory, otherwise, having served in every other sphere of the party, there won’t be a respectable spot left for him to fill.

Since Phillips took over the ministry of national security, murders have peaked at 1,467.

His campaign, however, focuses on a return to family values and community spirit, seemingly sidestepping the challenges of his national security portfolio.

K D Knight can boast 40 or more pieces of legislation to strengthen crime policy, new and better vehicles for the police force, new policy direction for the police and a revitalised victim support programme, among other performance indicators.

Phillips can make no such claim.

But he can point to successes under Operation Kingfish, which has began the onerous task of dismantling some gangs, the arraignment of suspected drug smugglers and money launderers, and the arrest and charge of men like Joel Andem and Donald ‘Zeeks’ Phipps.

The question now for Phillips is whether he can sell himself as a winner when his current portfolio seems to be a dismal failure.

Lawyer and political commentator Paul Ashley argues that “winning” has to be the objective of any future leader of the PNP.

“The critical question the PNP must answer is, who will ensure a fifth political term?” he says.

Phillips is a good comrade who has paid his dues, adds Ashley.

He has also held more offices within the party and served on more party committees than most, if not all, members of Parliament combined. And he is well known among the delegates.

But his top party post – that of general secretary – was clouded by claims that then party leader Michael Manley ordered the party’s establishment to vote for Phillips against Michael Peart in 1991.

Even then, he managed only a 19-vote majority among National Executive Council (NEC) members.

However, Phillips crashed to a nearly 3-1 thrashing among NEC members against Robert Pickersgill when he ran for party chairmanship, though his supporters make light of that fact, saying so was Patterson when he finished last in the race for vice president in the 1960s.

Today, Phillips goes into the leadership race with some advantages. Critically, he has the party’s establishment behind him, if not the bulk also the delegates.

The police have been given a free hand to investigate crime and the recruitment of foreign police officers is part of his legacy.

He has as campaign managers Maxine Henry-Wilson and Paul Robertson who have been critical components of Patterson’s electoral victories since 1993.

But the disadvantages include the nagging question that the delegates and the wider public are asking – what will the aspirants, including Dr Phillips, bring to the fight against crime, that they are not now doing as a government?

Political historian Tony Myers says Phillips remains a main contender for the presidency, but external events have made a big blow to his leadership bid.

“Prior to him taking over the ministry of national security, he was one of the very serious contenders to Jamaica House. But forces internal and external which have affected his ministry have done tremendous damage to his leadership bid,” Myers argues.

Among the external factors Myers listed are demands by the Bush administration that have forced small nation states like Jamaica to divert scarce resources to immigration and security issues, since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Countries like Jamaica have also been told to fight drug trafficking on their shores, and sea and airport security have become paramount.

Phillips’ minuses include his government’s inability to persuade the police force to accept single digit salary increases.

While the portly MP has retained the solid support of his East Central St Andrew constituents – he garnered a margin of victory of more than 3,000 in the last general elections – questions are asked openly about a seeming lack of development in the constituency.

Myers can’t recall anything tangible. Ashley says his constituency performance was not good enough, while one PNP insider who asked not to be named, says she cannot recall “one damn thing” he has done for his constituents.

Ashley also gives Phillips a poor mark on personality.

“Having a political personality is important for unifying, motivating, solving conflicts and nation building. It is not absolutely clear how he relates to the party itself,” he adds.

“He is not inspirational. He cannot be described as charismatic, and he is not Patterson who can ‘come off a stage, stand or sit with the populace and be one of them’,” he argues.

“He is not known to be a top bureaucrat, and not known to be an inspirational leader. Maybe he is the severe, extreme and resolute leader,” said Ashley.

But supporters insist that Phillips makes up for his lack of charisma and unengaging persona with the winning team members in his motorcade.

His backers believe he now has at least 50 per cent of the party’s elected representatives behind his candidacy.

Phillips is an academic who became widely known as a member of the Rastafarian Twelve Tribes of Israel group in the late 60s to early 70s. Having thrown off his radical past, he is now husband and father of four sons and two daughters, and beside religious affiliation he now writes ‘Anglican’.

His current campaign slogan ‘Solid as a Rock’, may be a throwback to that period of spirituality.

Recall that the biblical Peter was the disciple of whom Jesus said “on this rock I will build my church.”

Phillips has been part of the PNP since 1989. He became a Member of Parliament in 1994 when Arthur Jones retired because of illness, and he won the ensuing by-election.

Since then his rise up the party heirarchy appeared headed straight for the top.

“Three years ago, the presidency was his to lose,” said Ashley.

“Had Patterson said he was leaving, Phillips would have wrapped up the leadership and another electoral victory. But the tides have turned, and I am afraid there is quicksand under his feet,” the political commentator said.