He who fears the sun will not become a chief. — Malawian proverb

‘Phillips appointed Opposition leader; promises to secure a better future for Jamaica,’ hollered the old lady of North Street last Monday. The rickety political ship that is the People’s National Party (PNP), with its sexagenarian captain, has docked. Its arrival, understandably, was greeted with little fanfare by a more discerning clientele. The portly skipper should quickly offload severely damaged cargo. Many of his crew are scuttlers.

Dr Peter Phillips will soon discover the meaning of the Namibian proverb which declares that “a large chair does not make a king”.

The birds, those politically ever-present John Chewits, Banana Quits and Black-bellied Plovers, are already tweeting that many of ex-Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s 31-member shadow council of spokespersons are already extremely uneasy about their political futures.

Recall this banner headline in The Gleaner of March 18, 2016: ‘Simpson Miller names 31-member council of spokespersons’.

The story said, among other things: “The Opposition has announced a 31-member council of spokespersons including nine deputies.

“The Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller says she has sought to include the vast majority of parliamentarians to adequately cover and give effective oversight to all subject areas,” and importantly, to provide experience to our younger Parliamentarians.

“ ‘The spokespersons council is not intended to shadow precisely the Cabinet as structured, and the council is not a Shadow Cabinet,’ she said.

“Simpson Miller said Dr Omar Davies, Robert Pickersgill and Derrick Kellier have opted not to be included in the spokespersons council but they will provide guidance and mentorship to the council and will concentrate on political matters.

“She also said Fitz Jackson has, for personal reasons, asked to be permitted to concentrate on his parliamentary duties and personal business.

“ ‘I have mandated each spokesperson to establish a task force for their subject area. The task forces will support the spokespersons and encourage wide participation in their work. Each task force will be chaired by a person who is not a parliamentarian,’ Simpson Miller said.”

See full council:

1. &empmargin;Leader of the Opposition, defence, social transformation, community development and gender affairs: Portia Simpson Miller; Colin Fagan (deputy)

2. &empmargin;Finance and planning: Dr Peter Phillips

3. &empmargin;Public service and public sector modernisation: Senator Lambert Brown

4. &empmargin;Foreign affairs and foreign trade: Dr Morais Guy

5. &empmargin;National security: Peter Bunting

6. &empmargin;Energy and Mining (and Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives): Phillip Paulwell

7. Industry, investment and commerce: Anthony Hylton

8. &empmargin;Justice and governance (and Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate): Senator Mark Golding

9. &empmargin;Education and training: Ronald Thwaites; Michael Stewart (deputy)

10. &empmargin;Tourism: Dr Wykeham McNeill

11. &empmargin;Health: Horace Dalley; Dr Lynvale Bloomfield (deputy)

12. &empmargin;Information and the knowledge economy: Julian Robinson; Dwayne Vaz (deputy)

13. &empmargin;Land and the environment: Senator Sophia Frazer-Binns

14. &empmargin;Agriculture: Dr Dayton Campbell; Victor Wright (deputy)

15. Transport: Mikael Phillips

16. &empmargin;Works: Richard Azan; Dr Winston Green (deputy)

17. &empmargin;Housing and rural development: Luther Buchanan

18. &empmargin;Labour and social security: Dr Fenton Ferguson; Senator Floyd Morris (deputy)

19. &empmargin;Youth and culture: Lisa Hanna

20. &empmargin;Sport and entertainment: Natalie Neita

21. &empmargin;Local government: Noel Arscott; Denise Daley (deputy)

22. &empmargin;Water and climate change: Ian Hayles; Evon Redman (deputy)

Ex-Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller was so busy merely watching — not fighting — fires set by internal political arsonists that she had little time to make any meaningful contribution as leader of the Opposition, or make any sensible pronouncements on defence, social transformation, community development, or gender affairs. Like Emperor Nero, Simpson Miller fiddled while Norman Manley’s party burned.

Colin Fagan must be the best kept secret since the Manhattan Project. I don’t recollect hearing a single, solitary word from him on any of the shadow portfolio responsibilities he was supposedly co-sharing with the erstwhile People’s National Party president and Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. Maybe the Mighty Penguin from Trinidad and Tobago was misguided when he sang about a “deputy being essential”.

Dr Peter Phillips spent much of the last 365 days as shadow spokesperson on finance and planning reminiscing about giant imaginary political windmills. Phillips was a drum major of the failed election strategy of the PNP’s defeat. He is also the public face of the predictable and failing ‘red-yeye’ political strategy of 89 Old Hope Road in Opposition.

The Gleaner of December 23, 2016 noted, among other things: “Phillips has declared that all the investments and projects that have so far materialised this year were birthed under the PNP.

“ ‘It is not that they have done anything spectacular since they took up office. All of what is happening is a continuation of what we had started in our Administration; and that is the truth,’ Phillips argued.”

Dr Phillips still does not get it. Bad mind is not a winning political strategy in Jamaica.

I predicted the trump card strategy of the PNP in Opposition. I wrote, among other things, on April 24, 2016: “Last Tuesday, the Opposition PNP, led by ex-Prime Minister Simpson Miller, hosted its second press conference since being rejected in the general election of February 25, 2016. Its message was twofold and predictable: gloom, doom, hellfire, damnation, and pestilence will befall Jamaica and her people because of the change in Administration. Second, any positive which the country is experiencing, and/or might experience, is because of the policies and programmes of the previous Administration.” (Sunday Observer, April 24, 2016)

Phillips and the PNP have yet to realise that the country has progressed beyond gaining attention through mechanisms of dislocation.

Public service and public sector modernisation spokesperson Senator Lambert Brown is a very dull political pencil. But, then again, maybe the absence of political graphite is in large part the explanation for the loud silence on this assignment.

I believe Dr Morais Guy, handling foreign affairs and foreign trade, is one of the few points of hope in an otherwise low-voltage team. He at least does some research before he speaks.

Peter Bunting’s strategy in national security seems to be to scream and shout and do the political hokey-pokey, but it has not worked, given his own failures as the previous minister.

Energy and mining spokesperson and Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives Phillip Paulwell has been relegated to the category of political uselessness.

Industry, Investment and Commerce spokesperson Anthony Hylton’s negative political shadow walks miles ahead of him. Few consider his utterances with any great degree of seriousness.

Justice and gov ernance spokesperson and Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate Senator Mark Golding, once a bright star, seems to have been infected with political bad mind. His continual support for Phillips’s mantra that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is reaping what it did not sow detracts from the real contribution which he has the potential to deliver.

In education and training, Ronald Thwaites nowadays is on the periphery of facts. I wonder if he was the one who told Phillips to say in his budget presentation and at a PNP post-budget press conference that no school had been taken off the shift system since the JLP took office. The process of taking the following schools off the shift system was achieved during the last 12 months: Duhaney Park Primary, Tacky High School, Discovery Bay All-Age, Old Harbour Primary, Hazard Primary, Linstead Primary and Junior High, and St Mary’s All-Age.

Michael Stewart, Thwaites’s deputy, is another case where a deputy has proved unessential.

For tourism, Dr Wykeham McNeill has done a good job of making suggestions in a largely non-confrontational manner. He is, however, shadowing an exceptionally hard-working, creative and knowledgeable Edmund Bartlett, who scores a century on most occasions he goes to the wicket.

In the health portfoloio there is Horace Dalley, with Dr Lynvale Bloomfield as deputy. Dalley needs a political calculator. He knew about many of the problems in the health sector, like those at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, from when he was minister, but what good has he made of it?

The Gleaner’s news story of February 22, 2017 gave the country this revelation:

“Last week, Dalley accused Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton of being negligent for failing to act with alacrity to assuage the problem causing displacement and chaos at the St James-based facility. Tufton has said the problem has been ongoing for some 20 years and would now take millions of dollars to rectify.

“The Opposition spokesman stated that Tufton’s pronouncements that it could take up to six months to have the problem rectified was unacceptable and slammed him for not moving swiftly enough to have the air-conditioning system repaired.

“However, in 2007, during Dalley’s stint as minister of health in the first term of the Portia Simpson Miller Administration, Dr Ruth Potopsingh, then group managing director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, wrote the health ministry seeking additional funds to overhaul and replace the central air-conditioning unit at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.”

The year was 2007.

Deputy Bloomfield is enraptured in ‘silent night’.

Information and the knowledge economy spokesman Julian Robinson seems to recognise the shift in the political temperature of the country and, like a sensible politician, he responds accordingly.

Deputy “Montego Bay, load up di gu…!” Vaz seems to be preoccupied with something else — maybe that accounts for his dead silence.

Land and the environment spokesperson Senator Sophia Frazer-Binns impresses me as a political diamond in the rough. If cut properly, she could make a sensible contribution in Gordon House.

Agriculture spokesman Dr Dayton Campbell seems obsessed with resurrecting D K Duncan’s national mobilisation 1970s-type persona. Up to now I have seen little evidence that he researches his shadow portfolio. For his deputy, Victor who?

Transport council member Mikael Phillips continues to make useful contributions to the parliament in shadow portfolio and committees of Gordon House.

Richard Azan is a non-starter in works. Dr Winston Green (deputy), Azan’s political jockey, seems not able to chew gum and ride at the same time. Maybe that is why St Mary South Eastern has some of the worst roads in the country.

Housing and rural development: Luther Buchanan should stick to matters related to vintage cars. He got it right a few weeks ago when he said: “You can’t look at renewal and renewal if you are going for a 1980 model Benz… Of fundamental importance, if we are to go to an election in 2020 or 2021, the age difference is that a 70-odd-year-old leader of the People’s National Party will have to be sold against a 50-year-old [Andrew] Holness.” (

The Star, December 9, 2016)

Labour and Social Security spokesman Dr Fenton Ferguson, a ‘six-star’ general, has been demoted to private by public opinion. Floyd Morris, his deputy, is a political weakling.

In youth and culture, Lisa Hanna seemingly lacks real political talent. The continual rifts in her constituency and large question signs about her performance while she was a minister do not sponsor confidence.

Sport and entertainment spokesperson Natalie Neita is MIA.

Honestly, local government’s Noel Arscott is a political deadbeat. It seems that his deputy, Denise Daley, is being stifled under his deadweight.

Water and climate change spokesperson Ian Hayles and his deputy, Evon Redman, are two political blind mice.

Newly installed Leader of the Opposition Dr Peter Phillips does not have much to choose from in terms of a credible shadow cabinet. The birds tweet that he aims to name a shadow cabinet one fewer than a baker’s dozen.

The birds quaver that 19 are to be sent into the political vineyards — a favourite word of Phillips — to tend to their political flock. Black-bellied Plovers chirp that Fitz Jackson will shadow finance and planning, but something else will be put on his political plate. John Chewits trill that Damion Crawford and Raymond Pryce may soon be back at Gordon House.

Before the political halo disappears from Phillips’s head he will have to send some genuine signal that he is more than a political bench-warmer.

When the cock is drunk, he forgets about the hawk. — Zambian proverb

Garfield Higgins is an educator; journalist; and advisor to the minister of education, youth and information. Send comments to the Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.