THE five-member Independent Strategic Review Commission, which assessed the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) strengths and weaknesses, says that the Christopher “Dudus” Coke extradition issue played a primary role in the party’s loss of the December 2011 General Election.

In addressing the party’s inability to win the election, the report concluded that this was due essentially to weaknesses in political conduct during its term of office, of which the Coke extradition fiasco was the prime example.

“It also had to do, to a lesser extent, with an element of unpreparedness for a general election that the party leadership had itself called,” the commission reported.

The report said that four unmistakable lessons learnt, or which should have been learned, emerged from the commission’s various interviews and conversations:

• The party should have demonstrated more humility in the period of time the electorate had given it to temporarily hold the reins of power;

• The party, while in government, had not sufficiently demonstrated, if at all, a sense of connectedness with people’s real pain; neither did prime ministers Bruce Golding and Andrew Holness explain to them how the short-term pain (as short as ‘we in government can make it’) will bring long-term gain;

• Party leader Bruce Golding should have been astute enough to recognise, and then avoid, an undertaking that ended up inflicting the kind of gratuitous political damage that the Christopher Coke extradition matter did. “If while in government the party is faced again with a situation similar to Coke’s it should move as quickly as feasible [to take] the matter from the executive to the judiciary. Let the constitutional court(s) decide; or, as put to the commission by a former justice ministry legal expert: Just let the court deal with it.”

• Even though it had already formed the government, the party ought still to have painstakingly attended, in an ongoing way, to groundwork matters relating to campaign strategy and campaign readiness. “The internal process of reviewing the party’s structures, with a view toward rebuilding and/or reshaping ground level (or branch-type) systems must therefore continue.”

On the issue of the leadership of the party, the report said current leader, Andrew Holness, “is liked and respected and has a high degree of trust from the party’s base”, as it was felt that his leadership, while at the Ministry of Education, “spoke to an organised, knowledgeable and fearless leadership personality”.

Despite this, the commissioners felt that Holness needed to work to prove himself worthy of that trust, and that some members feared that his “conservative nature” could be a major weakness.

“There are concerns that the party leader is too soft and needed to be more assertive, and a suggestion was made that he needed to follow the leadership style of Edward Seaga…,” the report stated.

However, it said that the consensus among stalwarts of varying persuasions, and across generations, was that Holness has the legitimacy and, more importantly, the credibility to act.

The commission was created by the JLP after the election defeat to provide answers to explain the loss, which made the party the first to serve one term in government in Jamaica.

It was chaired by Professor Bernard Headley, retired professor of criminology in the Department of Sociology, Psychology & Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona; Rev Dr Maitland Evans, president of the International University of the Caribbean; Dr Marcia Forbes, executive chairman, Phase 3 Productions Ltd and media consultant; Professor Neville Swaby, executive director, University of Technology/JIM School of Advanced Management and vice-dean, College of Business and Management; and Dr Lloyd Waller, behavioural research and development specialist lecturer in the Department of Government and director of the Centre for Leadership and Governance, University of the West Indies, Mona. Kay Ann Henry was research assistant.

The commission said it reviewed the terms of reference and deemed it practical to focus on key areas such as the historical development of the JLP; reasons for the unexpected loss at the polls in 2011; strengths and weaknesses of the JLP, both in government and Opposition; and the party’s image and perceptions.

The full report will be released to the officers of the JLP this week, as the party prepares for its 70th annual conference, scheduled for Sunday at the National Arena, which will be highlighted by a challenge to Holness’ leadership by deputy leader and finance spokesman, Audley Shaw.