IF nothing else, Dr Karl Blythe has proved himself a man of resilience, climbing determinedly to the top of the vice presidential heap in the People’s National Party at the last party conference, and doing so despite being the only contender without a Cabinet portfolio.

He has demonstrated his ability to rebound, even when it seemed that he was destined to fade into oblivion.

Arguably, the most independent thinker among those seeking leadership of the People’s National Party, Blythe has been known to break ranks, eschewing party and the administration rhetoric, to put forward his own views about issues such as the Caribbean Court of Justice and most recently education policy.

On the CCJ, he has said it is the people who should decide, even after Prime Minister PJ Patterson told the country to ‘forget’ any thought of having one.

And on education, in what seemed as a rap on the PNP, Blythe promised free education to high school level if he were to lead Jamaica.

Patterson in the 2002 election campaign had promised the same thing, but reneged. His administration now offers partial subsidy of fees and school texts, amounting to some $3,000 to $4,000 per high school student.

Blythe’s vice presidential performance, if nothing else, signaled that the PNP delegates, if not his former Cabinet colleagues, had forgiven him for the NHDC/Operation Pride housing scandal, where loose oversight has resulted in alleged fraudulent use of funds.

Seven persons are still before the courts in a $450 million fraud case.

Blythe, who resigned as water and housing minister when the scandal broke, on allegations of ministerial interference, has since been cleared by the Rattray report, commissioned by his boss, Patterson.

But, two years later, his rivals for party leadership were still shell-shocked when the Member of Parliament for the Central Westmoreland constituency bested even the populist Portia Simpson Miller at the January 2005 conference, where he took 1,443 of the votes.

But Blythe, once nicknamed the ‘rapid response’ minister, has always been able to grab the headlines, either through controversial speeches or utterings.

Just last week, he fended off an intruder with shots in his hotel room at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel where he frequently stays while in the capital, according to official police reports.

The intruder escaped, but rumours persist as to why Blythe might have been targeted.

The PNP vice president, following that incident, postponed an interview for this story, saying he would not be able to speak until the next week.

His ‘I never tell a lie’ press conference still resounds in news rooms – earning him the moniker ‘Father Theresa’ conferred on him by talkshow Wilmot ‘Mutty’ Perkins – and his capers such as distributing bottled water at PNP conference at the time he was water minister, are remembered.

And poor Jamaicans are not wont to forget his ‘let the paperwork catch up’ demand in his distribution of housing, though such a policy had implications for a raiding of the system, as happened at the NHDC.

The Rapid Response water unit, to deliver emergency supplies to communities without, was also his brainchild, and though that programme too has been dogged by fraud, many rural communities have become dependent on its service.

In fact, Blythe has proven that he can be as populist as Simpson Miller, but a lot less strident.

Armed with his victory in the VP race, Blythe quickly made it public that he was no longer prepared to enter into an alliance with other leadership contenders, and has said confidently that when Patterson steps down, he is confident of repeating his performance in the presidential vote.

At the time he made the declaration, on August 28, he spoke directly to ‘the media’, suggesting that there was collusion to downplay his political advancements and stymie his ambitions.

Patterson has already announced that a special delegates conference will be convened to select his successor sometime after this conference, which ends today.

Political watcher Shalman Scott, a former mayor of Montego Bay, believes that while Blythe has been cleared by Rattray, the presidential hopeful’s non-reinstatement in a Cabinet position will “create a further political difficulty” for him, and hurt his chances to become the next PNP president and prime minister.

“Indeed, the delegates clearly understand that while it is within their power and their power alone to elect the leader of the party, it is not within their power alone come 2007 to elect the prime minister of the country,” said Scott.

“It is the Jamaican electorate in the wider political context, outside the cadre of PNP delegates, who will do that.”

Scott noted that even as many would not question the integrity of the former water and housing minister, the NHDC/Operation Pride scandal remains a taint on his performance.

“Now, even while many people believe that whatever went down, Dr Blythe was not a personal beneficiary, the greater consideration of ultimate responsibility of his being a minister was a separate matter all together,” said the former politician, now businessman and college lecturer.

“One gets the impression (that) in his crusade to extricate himself from what he perceives to be an injustice against him, he sometimes come across as if he is seeking to extricate himself from that responsibility as minister of water and housing.”

Notwithstanding, Blythe’s mode of operation resonates with some Jamaicans, many of whom would of benefited from his policy of ignoring procedure to cut back on the turnaround time for housing delivery.

“There is . a soft spot for Dr Blythe in the hearts of many PNP delegates who among other persons were recipients of his beneficence through the Ministry of Water and Housing,” said Scott.

“Many people today who own a lot of land and who have been able to own their own homes in a number of these Operation Pride projects – some of which, unfortunately, went sour – has been as a result of Dr. Blythe’s help and assistance. And so he has secured a place in the hearts of many Jamaicans, undoubtedly.”

On a swing through Blythe’s constituency last week by the Sunday Observer, he was highly praised for his initiatives as Cabinet minister.

“When Dr Blythe was minister, he was the one who saw to it that we have a water supply and we have to be thankful for that,” said a Frome resident.

Another young man recalled Dr Blythe coming to the rescue of the Reno football club in the constituency, at a time when they were undergoing serious financial challenges during a Premier League season.

A Llandilo resident and supporter lauded Blythe as a good MP and lashed out at persons who claimed that the MP was rarely seen in the constituency, explaining that a community channel had been broadcasting for days that Blythe was available in his office in Savanna-la-Mar.

But, one top member of the PNP in the constituency, who admitted that he was supporting another candidate in the race for party president, bluntly insisted that Blythe was the wrong man for the top job.

“I certainly don’t see him fitting the mold and the statute of the leader of the PNP, both in terms of style and substance. His style is more of a maverick and rhetorical style of leadership – I don’t like that approach,” he said.

“Voting for the party at a general election is a different consideration from voting for a member of the party to be leader of the party; it is two different considerations.”

He too insists that Dr Blythe does not maintain enough of a presence in the constituency. “His engagements are just political . You don’t see him around.”

Blythe believes, however, that he has the “political will, energy, determination and ability to lead the team that is needed to create a better quality of life for Jamaicans.”

His major task, he says, “is to move the have-nots and the dispossessed from the margin to the centre.”

He believes that a leader should move beyond partisan politics, believe in participatory governance, be a good listener with the ability to communicate, have managerial capabilities, be proactive and responsive to change, and, most importantly, must be a protector of the weak.

Blythe’s vision for the party includes:

. a widening of the democratic process in the party to include all bona fide members voting for president and having an equal say in positions taken by the party;

. the establishment of an endowment fund to run the party;

. the appointment of a general secretary, with specific responsibilities to ensure that comrades are aware of and have access to government programmes, whether or not the party forms the Government;

. poverty alleviation;

. economic empowerment of party workers, especially women and youth;

. deepening the comradeship and unity and the creation of the Jamaican dream, where basic rights for all Jamaican are protected.

Blythe is the son of reverends Enoch and Ivy Blythe who were both ardent supporters of the PNP.

Blythe started his political career in 1959 when he joined many motorcades along miles of dirt road and observed the counting of ballots at Whithorn Courthouse in Westmoreland.

He was educated at Haddo Primary in the parish and at Cornwall College, in Montego Bay, where he was head boy. At Southern University in the United States, where he did pre-medical studies, he was a civil rights activist.

He came home to complete his medical degree at the University of the West Indies (Mona), graduating in 1980.

Blythe is married to Dr Norma Reynolds-Blythe and they have two daughters, Nicole and Selena.

He has been the MP for Central Westmoreland since 1989; was minister of water from 1998-2000 and minister of water and housing from 2000-2002.

hinesh@jamaicaobserver.com