The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilised society. — Mark Skousen

Recall that some months ago I said, inter alia: “Our history shows time and time again that when the majority of Jamaicans have had enough pain and experienced enough hardships, a critical mass responds with fiery social and/or political actions admittedly tantamount only to a quasi-revolution. I believe we are at that point again.” (Sunday Observer, December 13, 2015)

The outcome of our 17th general election last Thursday buttresses my statements.

The People’s National Party (PNP), one would hope, has learned that no political party owns the electorate in 21st century Jamaica. Increasing political maturity among a critical mass, who refuses to be bought or sold, is taking place through the conduits of new media and other channels of political diffusion.

This intellectually aware and politically savvy critical mass has the spirit of American folk hero Davy Crockett, who said, “I will never come and go, and fetch and carry, at the whistle of the great man in the White House; no matter who he is.”

They also have the persona of National Hero Marcus Garvey, who said: “Lift up yourselves, men, take yourselves out of the mire and hitch your hopes to the very stars themselves. Let no man pull you down, let no man destroy your ambition, because man is but your companion, your equal; man is your brother, he is not your Lord, he is not your sovereign master.”

Earlier this month I said, among other things: “The majority of us are tired of a politics that is a veritable black hole. We are ready for a politics which gives us something sustainable that we can feel in our pockets and see on our dinner tables long after the final ballot is counted on election night and the victor and vanquished are announced.” (Sunday Observer, February 14, 2016)

That encapsulates why the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won and the PNP lost.

The PNP, in its moments of post-election defeat, need to understand that a majority of ordinary folk is no longer prepared to suffer the fate of Boxer [worked himself to bare bones for a cause he believed, died heartbroken, and was ignominiously sent to the horse slaughter], in George Orwell’s classic allegoryAnimal Farm.

The People’s National Party during eight months of campaigning played an amateurish game of checkers, while the Jamaica Labour Party played first-degree chess. Eight months, yes; recall, that on July 19, 2015 Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips, fresh from his political junket in Addis Ababa, while speaking in York Town, Clarendon, placed Comrades in the ‘stand-behind-your-blocks’ election mode.

Now that the election dust is beginning to settle, the Jamaica Labour Party must quickly begin to build fences, soothe ruffled feathers, and vicariously — but preferably directly —massage bruised egos among private and public sector interests. The vitriol of this campaign has left many with raw wounds.

I am careful here to point out that I am not referring to matters that are now before the court. All citizens have a right to their good name which must be vigorously protected and defended. The immortal words of William Shakespeare come to mind here, “Good name in man and woman, dear, my lord, is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing’, ’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands. But he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.” (Othello, Act 3, Scene 3)

The country must quickly be set on a path of reconstruction. The PNP has damaged Jamaica socially and economically.

Since the start of the year 137 Jamaicans have been slaughtered.

The economy is in tatters; notwithstanding the ‘parroted’ inventions of the erstwhile super powerful mind managers who failed to convince the electorate that Saul was now Paul. Exports are down by seven per cent, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. Last time I checked, our dollar had plunged to $121.71 to US$1. The actual value of the Jamaican dollar is US$0.008. Youth unemployment, at 34 per cent, is one of the highest in the world. There is a 26 per cent increase in homelessness across the country. (

Jamaica Observer, January 14, 2016) and one of the best resources — our teachers — are leaving in droves: “Five hundred of our best science and mathematics teachers migrated last year.” (RJR News, January 30, 2016)

The JLP needs to quickly fine-tune and set in motion its policy commitments to further solidify and reinforce trust among those who placed it in power. Bustamante’s party would do well to re-baptise itself with an understanding of the local adage “puss and dog nuh have the same luck”.

My sources — those reliable Black-Bellied Plovers, John Chewits and Banana Quits — are saying that some among the defeated are already mouthing strategies to give the soon-to-be-installed JLP Administration; what outgoing Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller once described as “nightmares”. The JLP cannot afford failures even remotely resembling those of the outgoing Administration.

Some in traditional media, whose journalistic flashlights were weak and or near dead — maybe because of low batteries — doubtless will in short order acquire Duracell-like replacements at their local hardware. I sense the country is not in a mood to stomach a repeat of the ministerial failures of the likes of Dr Fenton Fergsuon, A J Nichalson, Richard Azan, Dr Omar Davies, Anthony Hylton, Phillip Paulwell, Robert Pickersgill, Noel Arscott, and Portia Simspon Miller. That’s a good sign.

I hail from rural St Mary. I have a great love for the natural environment, like most rustic folk. The JLP would do well to quickly craft policies and implement programmes that will facilitate economic growth, job creation alongside environmental protection. In this respect, the JLP would also do well to remember the words of John Hollow Horn, of the Oglala Lakota People [one of seven ethnic group of the Lakota Peoples]:

“Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die.”

Chief Seattle, in his famous letter to President Franklin Pierce, in 1854, when the United States Government aggressively offered to buy two million acres of land settled by Indians in the north-west, similarly warned of human annihilation as an inevitable consequence if we ignore our symbiotic relationship with the environment.

“We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.” Jamaica cannot afford to damage her environment in the ways China and India have.

Human rights must be high on the agenda of the incoming Administration. Peter Tosh, one of our great philosophers, told us in song, there can be no peace without justice. Equal rights and justice for all are not just words. These are urgent priorities.

Justice is still largely apportioned locally according to considerations of education, class, and financial state. As a matter of urgency, the JLP needs to strengthen the institutions that facilitate and safeguard what the late Professor Rex Nettleford, of the University of the West Indies, called “smaddisation”.

The JLP, if nothing else, has a tremendous amount of work to do and a short time to do it. They should be careful not to become drunk on the addictive wine of power. Henry Kissinger, who served as national security advisor and later concurrently as US secretary of state in the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, once remarked that: “Power was the ultimate aphrodisiac.”

If the JLP becomes drunk on power, like the PNP did, they will suffer a similar fate — but quicker. Country people posit, “Same knife weh stick sheep, stick goat”. Rustic folk also maintain — and I agree — “a word to the wise is sufficient”.

I believe incoming prime minister, Andrew Holness, is wise and has learned many lessons that, if applied for the good of the country, will remove Jamaica from the ‘sick man of the Caribbean’ category and place us back on the road to once again being the Pearl of the Caribbean. I am supremely optimistic that we still have it within us to become the Singapore — minus authoritarian rule — of the West Indies.

On December 27, 2015 I suggested what a JLP Cabinet might look like. In response to the piece I received many e-mail suggestions for reconfiguration. I have incorporated some of those recommendations below.

1. Andrew Holness: prime minister, defence, development

2. Audley Shaw: finance, planning

3. Fayval Williams: public service, worker innovation and productivity

4. Ruel Reid: education, human development

5. Derrick Smith: foreign affairs, foreign trade

6. Dr Horace Chang: national security

7. Marlene Malahoo-Forte: health

8. Dr Christopher Tufton: employment, investment, industry, commerce

9. Dr Andrew Wheatley: science, technology, energy and mining

10. Pearnel Charles: local government, labour, social welfare

11. Kamina Johnson Smith: environment, land, water, climate change

12. Mike Henry: housing, works, transportation

13. Robert Montague: agriculture, fisheries, rural development

15. Floyd Green: minister without portfolio

16. Olivia Grange: sports, youth, culture, creative industries

17. Delroy Chuck: justice, reparation, repatriation, public good

18. Karl Samuda: small businesses and start-ups

19. Daryl Vaz: media

20. Edmund Bartlett: tourism, entertainment

The incoming Government needs to take careful note of the deterioration of our key institutions. The 2015/16 Global Competitiveness Index ranks our institutions among some of the worst in the world. “The Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The report remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.” (GCI, 2015/16)

How are Jamaica’s institutions ranked vis-à-vis 140 economies of the GCI?

Property rights, 49; Intellectual property protection, 53; Diversion of public funds, 80; Public trust of politicians, 106; Irregular payments of bribes, 82; Judicial independence, 40; Favouritism in decisions of government spending, 102; Wastefulness of government spending, 122; Burden of government regulations, 106; Efficiency of legal framework in settling disputes, 84; Transparency of government policymaking, 91; Business costs of crime and violence, 139; Business costs of terrorism, 57; Organised crime, 137; Reliability of police services, 104; Ethical behaviour of firms, 67; Strength of auditing and reporting standards, 45; Efficiency of corporate boards, 51; Protection of minority shareholders’ interests, 48; Strength of investor protection, 69. *(0-10-[best])

The incoming Government has several unique opportunities and challenges. It will sink or swim based on its successes, or lack thereof. I sense the majority of ordinary folk are impatient, very impatient, to see their lives improve in a sustainable way — meaning improvement must be felt in the pocket/purse and seen on their dinner tables. The absence of this reality is one of the key reasons the JLP was elected last Thursday.

I sense we are now in the season of the one-term syndrome. Country people say, “If yuh cyaah hear, yuh will feel,” negative consequences follow failure to learn from the mistakes of others.

Jamaica’s next prime minister would do well to examine some of the approaches to leadership and governance of presidents John Magufuli, Tanzania; Paul Kagame, Rwanda; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia; Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria; Mauricio Macri, Argentina; Jimmy Morales, Guatemala; and the late Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew.

These leaders are by no means perfect models; no human is. I recommend them because they have practically challenged the status quo of their territories. Their societies have many cultural, economic and historical similarities with ours. They have also demonstrated a practical commitment to the primary functions of good government. These are to secure order, liberty and economic growth and development.

Again, I am not advocating that we ape, mindlessly, these leaders and their country’s templates. Instead, we should draw the best of what they and other countries have done, and tailor these to our unique needs and circumstances.

John Magufuli banned nonessential travel for politicians and instituted business-class flight for all but the most senior figures. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the Iron Lady of Liberia; Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria; Mauricio Macri, Argentina, Jimmy Morales of Guatemala have all adopted strident anti-corruption strategies in an effort to rebrand their countries and facilitate and promote meaningful economic growth.

Paul Kagame found a human and social adhesive to unite different ethnic groups, amidst decades of ethnic and cultural distrust rooted in the foundations of reciprocal hatred planted by Rwanda’s former colonisers that resulted in the slaughter of one in 10 Rwandans in the 1994 genocide. Rwandans by and large are now focused on a single cause: national development.

Andrew Holness has a second chance to become our best prime minister to date. He cannot fail to shine like Portia Simpson Miller did.

Always do what you say you are going to do. It is the glue and fibre that binds successful relationships. — Jeffrey Timmons

Garfield Higgins in an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Observer or higgins160@ yahoo.com