COME to think of it, it was not so long ago that Bruce Golding accused his predecessors of gross incompetence and whipped them into schoolboyish submission on the grounds that they had no clue how to govern the affairs of state, let alone guide it to prosperity. To Bruce, all Jamaica needed was smart, honest, and transformational leadership, but as it turned out, his hypothesis was at variance with that of a sizeable bloc of citizens. To them, transformational leadership implies something far more fundamental than convenient honesty or obtaining power by false pretence. It requires commitment and stability of character.

So, in his quest to become prime minister, Bruce Golding kept the political searchlight on the former government with dutiful obligation and charged them with all sorts of things, including gross dereliction of duty, bureaucratic bungling, skylarking and slackness. And when it appeared to Mr Golding that his stratagems were gaining traction, he upped the ante on the People’s National Party in ways unimaginable. It was he, as leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, who let the Trafigura genie out of the box and set it loose across the land and then asked Parliament to approve a vote of no-confidence in the PNP government – talk about rubbing salt in the wound of his political foe.

Well, rightly or wrongly, all this boosted the value of his political shares, so much so that Mr Golding threw a fit when Mrs Simpson Miller did not announce a July date for the 2007 general elections, because he was impatient to attain power. Bruce’s desire for the top job had, up to that time, been punctuated by many twists and turns; least among which was his Damascus-like political rebirth, departure from the Jamaica Labour Party and a truncated dalliance with the National Democratic Movement. To the conscious observer, however, Bruce’s journey to the top has been more than a little interesting. It has been substantially intriguing. The one thing that has remained constant with and about Bruce Golding is his uncanny ability to adapt and conveniently adopt both simultaneously.

While this may seem positive to some, it is dangerously frightening to others, because at the rate at which the prime minister is going, there is no telling what he will become next, or what right royal mess he could cook up and then drag the country along, just to prove a silly point. As far as some people are concerned, he may get up one day and decide to canonise himself Lord Emperor of the Blue Mountains. But then again, this humongous exercise of power might not satisfy him, because upon seeing the promising potential of the pristine pampas of the Pedro Plains, he might also decide to become the chief priest of all the land he surveys. Never mind that the prime minister and orator extraordinaire appears unconcerned about the inflow of benefits to the country if he commits to fulfilling the requirements of one apprenticeship at a time, before forcing his way into other things, however unnecessary.

The prime minister’s leadership makeovers are cause for concern, because inherent in them is an inconsistency of leadership that will not redound to the country’s good and we must not pretend otherwise. When it suits the prime minister he is “head cook and bottle washer”. At other times, he crawls up into his shell, remains there as quiet as a lamb, yet his quietness has nothing to do with being “a coward man trying to keep a sound bone”. This “Now you see me, now you don’t” kind of a leadership is bound to arouse consternation, even among the most ardent supporter. This is the breeding ground for distrust and once it sets in, there’s no telling what could come next.

It has become so unpleasant of late for some, that whenever they hear or see the prime minister, they purposefully block out images and sound waves because the images and sounds remind them so much of a dog chasing after its own tail, round and round it goes in circles until dizziness gets the better of it. Well many Jamaicans are at this point with “Bruce Maximus”. There have been so many permutations of this goodly gentleman, especially during the mid-1990s, but most certainly since his rise to the prime ministership, that it is literally hard to keep up with them these days. Sometimes he is the much revered and self-adulating “new and different” politician, then he suddenly eases back into the posture of the politics of old, only to morph into this uppity role of the “Drivah” when it pleases him.

The prime minister jokingly talked about cooking when he is stressed. He should realise that he is about to spoil a big pot of gungo soup, not because “de salt get weh”, but rather because, as he took his eyes off the pot, others were busy adding all sorts of fats, including the deadly “mosquito-fat”. But, jokes aside, one genuinely hopes that in all his doings, the prime minister finds some private time to pause for serious introspection, because it would be a monumental betrayal of trust were he to allow himself to become this century’s political “pillar of salt”. Acting stubborningly and clinging on to a political paradigm that encourages and supports corruption, cronyism, incompetence, disingenuousness and straight-out lying is neither reasonable nor right.

The prime minister, for whatever reasons best known to him, has obviously decided to spare no efforts in slaughtering and chipping away at his own credibility, much of which he accumulated on his way to Jamaica House. People are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on several issues. But is it a case, though, of “the higher monkey climb the more ‘im tail expose”? The prime minister’s handling of the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips matter makes Mrs Simpson Miller’s handling of the Trafigura affair appear pale in comparison, and sadly the Dudus extradition drama continues. Again, it is not only the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips affair that is devaluing Jamaica’s prestige, there are many other things being done in the name of effective leadership that continue to push us deeper into the dark abyss. We can do without them, and certainly we can do without this kind of leadership.

Burnscg@aol.com