JAMAICA’S political history is fraught with convincing evidence that it is a graveyard for third parties. But Betty Ann Blaine, convener of the recently launched New Nation Coalition (NNC), is undaunted by that.

“… Cynics come a dime a dozen. Pundits too. We are not deterred or daunted by anything that anybody might say about third parties, Blaine said at the Observer Press Club last Thursday.

“We are describing ourselves as the new movement or the new party… We are not daunted by the cynics. The cynics said that (Barack) Obama couldn’t win, apartheid would never be dismantled, the Berlin Wall would never come down in their lifetime, and slavery, they said it would be around forever and ever amen,” said the woman who heads the country’s 46th third party since Independence in 1962.

Blaine thinks Jamaica is ripe for another and believes divine guidance leading the NNC will give it immunity from an early death.

“Our brand is Christianity but we invite everybody on board,” she said. “We are saying who we are, we are not telling you who you are. Christianity is our brand, but our product is open to everyone. I want everybody on board.”

The National Democratic Movement (NDM), the last major third party of repute, was officially launched October 29, 1995. It is now creeping towards 15 years, with an uncertain future, declining membership, very little traction, and no financial support.

In fact, just last week the party’s president, Earl Delisser, announced the dissolution of its Council of Spokespersons with immediate effect.

A news release from the party reported Delisser as saying that the NDM is now undergoing a process of fundamental transformation which, though long overdue, will culminate in a more focused and vibrant political organisation.

Delisser said that a new Council of Spokespersons will be appointed after the party’s 15th anniversary dinner on October 29.

The NDM’s decline started after the party failed to win a seat in the 1997 general elections. Its founding president, Bruce Golding — who is now the prime minister — threw in the towel and returned to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), where he was chairman for 27 years, on the eve of the 2002 elections.

After Golding, another talk show host, Antoinette Haughton, formed the United People’s Party (UPP). That party contested the 2002 general elections and received 548 votes, but its fortunes faltered shortly after and it died with the limited fanfare it received at its launch.

The Imperial Ethiopian World Federation Incorporated Political Party (IEWFIPP) also contested those elections and received 162 votes.

Also in 2002, the New Jamaica Alliance (NJA) — a merger of the NDM, the Republican Party of Jamaica and the Rev Al Miller-led Jamaica Alliance for National Unity — contested the elections. It received 2,895 votes and then died suddenly.

Since then, the NDM fielded candidates in the 2007 general elections although not much is heard about the party.

All this, however, has not shaken Blaine’s confidence.

“I think the reason why third parties have not done as well as they could is that you have to understand how the two parties have been entrenched in this country,” she said of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party and the Opposition People’s National Party which have held power at different periods over the 48 years since Jamaica secured political independence from Britain.

“I call it structural entrenchment and how difficult it is. I know that. The two parties were born out of the labour movement and I understand that kind of connection. There are lots of older Jamaicans who will not change. We know that.”

She explained how that entrenchment has virtually strangled all other parties.

“I think, tough, the real problem about why they haven’t survived is about party financing and this marriage between special interests (the people who back political parties) and the parties. I think it has been very difficult for smaller parties coming up, new ones to break into that culture of nepotism and cronyism and who gets contracts,” she said.

According to Blaine, third parties often do not have access to how party financing apparatus is set up. They often do not know who are on the boards of companies, who are the contributors, who support who. In addition, she said political “garrisonisation” of constituencies, resulting in almost 100 per cent vote in favour of one side, political intimidation and vote-buying, are factors against third parties achieving success.

But third parties, she insisted, have to help themselves, and the people who have put themselves up for office must be examined.

“Who are the people who have stepped up to the plate?” she asked. “Were they able to win the hearts and minds of the Jamaican people, did they work hard, did they stick to it long enough? I mean, you have to really give the NDM credit, still a fledgling party after 15 years, for staying course.”

While that respect for the NDM may not have influenced the NNC’s views as expressed on its flyer, political pundits could not help but notice a bit of similarity between the two.

“We hold firm to the belief that Jamaica is a nation of talented, powerful, positive people with the capacity to fully maximise our God-given potential to achieve justice, peace and prosperity for every Jamaican,” says the NNC document.

Compare that to Golding’s address at the launch of the NDM at the Jamaica Conference Centre.

“The Jamaican people do not have to suffer like this,” he said. “Time and time again we have demonstrated our capacity for excellence. …Politics ought to be about the means by which the people of Jamaica are mobilised and organised and their energies harnessed to achieve broad national objectives.”