When Dr Peter Phillips assumes the leadership of the People’s National Party (PNP) later this year he will do so in a context of defined objectives within, possibly, the shortest time period of any president of the party. By comparison, when Portia Simpson Miller became party president and prime minister in 2006 (at age 60) there was no thought of her having a defined period of being president.

She succeeded P J Patterson, who had served as president and prime minister for 14 years, 1992 to 2006, from the relatively young age of 57 to the mature 71. Prior to Patterson, Michael Manley, who assumed the presidency at age 45, led the party from 1969 to 1992 — all of 23 years. Michael Manley had succeeded his father, Norman, who was born in 1893, and who led the PNP from 1938 – 1969. Both Norman and Michael Manley began their respective roles as party leader at the youthful age of 45.

Thus Phillips’s ascension to the PNP throne, at age 67, makes him the oldest of all the presidents at the time of ascension. This means that in the immediate future, Phillips could be the shortest-serving president of the PNP, though history may throw up surprises after him.

Age is (most times) just a number

The age of Dr Phillips as he assumes the leadership of the PNP, compared to his predecessors, is relevant only in so far as it means that he will have a shorter run as president. There is no evidence to support the contention that one is automatically a better leader when one is younger. Phillips’s intellect and experience are potentially now more valuable, given his maturity. And he is not, in my opinion, at a disadvantage to his future opposite number, Andrew Holness, who turns 44 this year.

The issue with Simpson Miller was not so much her age but, in my view, her lacklustre leadership. That age is just a number is seen for, example, in the vivacity of Ronald Reagan who began his presidency at age 70 and was very effective in pursuing the conservative agenda. Donald Trump, the newly inaugurated US president, is already 70.

While I am not of the view that it should be normative that one assumes leadership of a country at age 70 or older, age should not be an automatic disqualifier. Automatic disqualifiers should include a history of poor judgement, ill-suited temperament, demonstrated ineffectiveness, and proven moral or financial dishonesty.

The meaning of a Phillips presidency

The upshot of the foregoing is that Phillips, at age 67, faces no obvious disadvantage. I believe Dr Peter Phillips is a gifted, intellectually sound, results-driven, and humble man. He led Jamaica’s economic recovery with adeptness and competence, and we are reaping the fruits of the success of his work today. Even his successor and opposing number, Finance Minister Audley Shaw, has acknowledged that Phillips laid a good wicket for him.

Every one of us makes mistakes, and I think that as PNP campaign manager in the last general election, Phillips made a number of tactical errors. While those errors could be partly responsible for the fact that his party is not in Government today, the focus of Phillips and the PNP must be on learning the lessons from the past as he leads the party into a better future, probably over the next eight to 10 years.

In my opinion, a Phillips presidency means at least three things. In the first place, insofar as the future and vibrancy of his predecessor had become the subject of unfavourable commentary, his ascension means that the party has been infused with some measure of new life. Secondly, given his grasp of the socio-economic issues facing the country and his stewardship of the macroeconomy over the period 2012 – 2016, he represents an asset to the democratic process as he is better able to articulate perspectives on the economy and thus offer deep insight in parliamentary debates and public discourse. Thirdly, having been around for as long as he has, in the PNP and in Government, and having served as well as he has across several ministries and portfolios, and thus having earned the respect of his colleagues and a wide cross section of Jamaica, he is poised to become an elder statesman, and thus is likely to be better able to hold the PNP together and to bring a steady and experienced hand to the job of chief executive, should he become prime minister.

The mandate of Peter Phillips

Dr Phillips’s mandate, in my view, has four fundamental components:

(1) Restoring the image of the PNP as an organised party: The PNP under P J Patterson and his predecessors was perceived by many to be well-organised — some would say too well-organised and focused on winning. The contest that led to the election of Patterson over Simpson Miller back in 1992 was tense, but not as nasty as the contest between Simpson Miller and Phillips in 2006 and 2008. The bruising nature of those contests produced a divided party, and some of the wounds had not healed up to recently.

The poorly executed 2016 election campaign and the poor management of party infighting and conflicts before and after the election have also marred the image of the party, and so many thought the PNP was teetering on the edge of self-destruction. It is this looming implosion that has kept alive views of the prospect of a 2017 snap election.

The change of leadership, including the elimination of a bitter contest, given the withdrawal of Bunting, has given the Government pause, but the task of repairing the PNP’s image remains a top priority.

People will not respect leaders who are unable to resolve conflict. Similarly, many people have no time for leaders who tweet their every thought and engage in cussing out those with whom they have issues. While censorship and group think should not be canons by which a political party is governed, self-control and graciousness are virtues that should be present in the DNA of every leader.

Contest of ideas should be welcome and debates and ideological dissent en route to a common platform must be practised within the internal halls of a political party, but public throat-slashing and bellicose and personal attacks should be outlawed and punished, consistently and equitably. Dr Phillips needs to lead the party to being a party which promotes debate as well as personal and organisational discipline. There is no time to wait. He must get onto this task with urgency and zeat. Well organised and disciplined political parties make for vibrant democracies.

(2) Defining a clear, compelling, and attainable vision for Jamaica

The PNP (like the Jamaica Labour Party, JLP) must recognise and affirm that neither the party nor its leadership exists for itself. There needs to be an existential philosophy that embraces a vision that the party is a tool that is designed to advance the interest of the Jamaican people through the processes of governance.

The PNP must guard against falling prey to the view that it can only make a contribution while holding the reins of power, even while it works (as all political parties should) to gain State power. In order for the PNP to make a case that it deserves to be given the reins of power it must articulate a clear, compelling, and attainable vision for the people.

It appears that the PNP has lost confidence in the appeal of the narrative that speaks to the needs of the poor. If it allows itself to be frightened by counter narratives that suggest that to talk about the poor is old-fashioned, it would be making a grave mistake.

While the overall living standards of Jamaicans have improved in the last 25 years when measured using gross domestic product per capita which, according to the World Bank, has moved from $4,774.2 in 1990 to $9,062.5 in 2015, there are many Jamaicans who are still struggling. Poverty remains a living, painful reality for many, despite a modest reduction in the poverty rate from 19.9 per cent in 2012 to an expected 18.7 per cent in 2016, as reported by the World Bank in 2015. With almost 20 per cent of the population still rated as poor, there is a lot of work to be done to end poverty.

An equally alarming statistic is the youth unemployment rate which has averaged 31.79 per cent between 2012 and 2016, and which currently hovers at 30 per cent, contributing to crime which threatens economic stability. If the PNP is to be regarded as a credible alternative to the JLP, it must articulate a clear plan for dealing with the bread and butter issues that arise from the foregoing, and a large part of the answer lies in training (technical skills and re-acculturation), entrepreneurship, and jobs.

A vision is defined by a clear philosophy, and as such Peter Phillips will need to articulate a philosophy informed by the principles that made movements flourish and grow: namely, social justice, inclusivity, educational and economic opportunity, empowerment of the masses, and leadership development.

I agree to some extent with Garfield Higgins, who suggests that the PNP is failing to contribute to national discourse by not advancing ideas on how to tackle various challenges facing Jamaica. The PNP needs to invest in developing big, bold, and implementable ideas, and not worry too much about the JLP stealing those ideas. The country needs to hear revolutionary policy thinking from the party, and the new president must be in the forefront of that.

(3) Building the profile of the PNP as a transparent and accountable entity

The new PNP president must, if he is to earn the respect of disaffected Comrades, refashion the party to be a model of transparency and accountability. Jamaican politicians are perceived by many as being corrupt and untrustworthy, and the consequence of this is seen in the low voter turnout at elections. Phillips is encouraged to place the future of the party over personal friendships, and integrity over individual loyalties.

His predecessor often threatened to take action against those who underperformed or conducted themselves improperly, but there is no evidence that she did. Phillips needs to set high standards of accountability, similar to those which he set in all his ministerial appointments. He transformed the quality of public transportation when he served as minister of transport and works between 1998 and 2001. He earned the respect of the international community for his resoluteness in reducing drug trafficking when he served as minister of national security between 2002 and 2007 and has earned praise, even from his opponents, for his work as minister of finance. In all these portfolios he was accountable and engaging with the public.

(4) Making the party attractive to the youth

I doubt Dr Peter Phillips is a Facebook or twitter fan, but Prime Minister Andrew Holness is, and has a following running into the tens of thousands. Whether or not we like it, and as unfortunate as I think it is that this is the case, social media is the communication tool of choice for most people born after 1990. Dr Phillips had better get with it.

One expects him to traffic in facts and substance and not shallowness. We need not know when he is going to take a shower. More importantly, he needs to create a space in the party for the young, and should undertake a succession planning strategy that provides that the younger leaders of the party have a voice. In the end, however, the attractiveness of the party to the youth will, I believe, be measured by the engagement of youth across the country to communicate in clear ways how the party will create meaningful jobs and facilitate personal development opportunities.

We await the transition.

Dr Canute Thompson is a certified management consultant and lecturer in educational policy, planning, and leadership at the School of Education, The University of the West Indies. He is also co-founder of the Caribbean Leadership Re-Imagination Initiative and author of three books on leadership. Send comments to the Observer or canutethompson1@gmail.com.