As a result of the Manatt Phelps and Philips enquiry, a censure motion against Dr Peter Phillips was introduced in Parliament but was later withdrawn. Two weeks ago, information minister Daryl Vaz complained that the Gleaner targets Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller but does not highlight the WikiLeaks exposure of Dr Peter Phillips. Indeed, the Jamaica Labour Party spokesmen spend more time criticising Dr Peter Phillips than they do Mrs Portia Simpson Miller.

In football and cricket, the planning strategy usually takes into question who will rival whom, or who on the opposing side will do more to prevent a victory. It is the same in politics. Apparently, the JLP is not worried about People’s National Party president Portia Simpson Miller despite the fact that she is the most popular politician in the country. The JLP seems to be worried more about Peter Phillips.

It seems that the real fear of the JLP is the possibility of Phillips becoming PNP president and Opposition leader which means that he would be the PNP’s candidate for the post of prime minister. What the JLP seems to be doing is to see to it that the PNP keeps Portia as its leader so that they can more easily defeat the PNP. It does not follow logically that since Portia is the most popular politician in the county, she best can bring home a PNP victory.

Elections cost big money and from all accounts so far Portia has not succeeded in attracting “big-bucks” campaign money to the PNP. Can Phillips attract the money? But the PNP is in a dilemma. It is hardly likely that its leader will change before the election due next year. This is not the time for any more disunity, as happened in the JLP between the 1990s and early 2000s and in the PNP after PJ Patterson stepped down as prime minister.

It seems that the JLP’s fear is that Philips will win the election for the PNP. The JLP is obviously operating on two fronts. One is to attempt to discredit Phillips and the other is to foment the division in the PNP between Portia’s followers and those of Phillips. And this is all in the game of politics. It is what politicians do. In this respect, the JLP’s politics is dead on target. I believe they understand whom to watch in the PNP, in terms of the political game.

And it reminds me of people whose second toes are longer than their big toes. As this is a gene that runs in my father’s family, one of my aunts on my father’s side advised my mother when we were children that in buying shoes for us and checking if they fit comfortably, she should check the big toe and also the second toe. And it seems as if the JLP is mindful of the “second toe” in the PNP.

This alone should tell the PNP that their best bet is in having Phillips as president, if they want to really ensure a victory at the election. They should bear this in mind, especially as Clive Mullings has been returned to the Cabinet for what seems to be strategic reasons. The JLP cannot afford to lose the popular Clive Mullings in the west. And remember the Jamaican saying that the party that wins the west wins the election.

At the annual general meeting of the Jamaica Co-operative Credit Union League in 1995, I had already served two years as a member of the supervisory committee of the Credit Union League (called the audit committee in some co-operatives). The supervisory or audit committee is the watchdog committee with power to bring to the attention of the board anything that is wrong and to take steps if things are not right with the money and assets.

The system in co-operatives is that there is a nominating committee that nominates people to fill vacant posts each year. If there are no other nominations from the floor, then those named by the nominating committee are elected unopposed, but if there are nominations then there is an election.

The nominating committee decided not to name me again in 1995. This immediately aroused suspicion and delegates asked what is it that they did not want me to see, especially as I tend to be outspoken. I was nominated from the floor. There was no need for voting because there was a motion to expand the supervisory committee, which was passed. So I was re-elected, although the following year a resolution was passed limiting the committee to five. The league board was shocked in 1995 and to this day they might not know how it happened.

Apart from the suspicion that was aroused, they did not know how many delegates from the various credit unions were Roman Catholics and known personally by me (two subsequently became deacons) and how many delegates were Jamaica College past students. This, along with the suspicion caused by not being named by the nominating committee, ensured that I was re-elected. In politics. just as in either war or sports, one has to know who the rivals are to effectively win, even if they have to engage in “second-toe politics”.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com