The disgraceful truth about the St Andrew SW run-off
Proverb: Yuh neva see smoke widout fiyah
Translation: You never see smoke without fire.
Explanation: Sometimes, actions that appear to be trivial are actually indications of some deep-rooted resentment, or of trouble or romance brewing.
Turmoil in the People’s National Party (PNP) is now a recurring decimal. Months after Dr Peter Phillips ascended to the throne of Norman Manley’s party, political implosions have continued unabated. It seems that political Brutuses and Benedict Arnolds have taken full control of 89 Hope Road.
The latest PNP brouhaha centres on the fight for scarce benefits and spoils as it relates to the constituency of St Andrew South Western. This seat was made vacant by the exodus of ex-Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller from representational politics. Simpson Miller was unceremoniously pushed from the presidential perch of the PNP.
Those with eyes and ears to the political ground and reliable sources like the ubiquitous John Chewits, Banana Quits and Black-bellied Plovers know that the PNP’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Hatfield, Manchester, on Sunday, February 5, 2017, witnessed a bitter and toxic explosion from Simpson Miller. In her rage, she went off script and emptied her political soul.
Simpson Miller did berate the meeting, inter alia, “Like how you glad fi si mi out, don’t be glad to call mi when you need mi to win election.” She scolded the NEC. The ex-prime minister criticised the inner sanctum of the PNP and angrily told them that she was pushed and nobody had to tell her to leave. Simpson Miller, at the Hatfield ‘hanging’ meeting, did castigate Comrades, saying, “I worked like a donkey for this movement.” At the Hatfield political OK Corral, Simpson Miller fumed that some in the PNP were party to leaks of internal PNP information. The ex-prime minister also fired salvos at men in the PNP who, she said, “don’t like female leadership”.
The Nicodemus-like endorsement by Simpson Miller of former Mayor of Kingston Angela Brown Burke, a little under two weeks ago, might seem ironic to some. I am not surprised. Simpson Miller simply played true to form. I believe she followed the instructions of the upper echelons of the PNP — hook, line and sinker.
I have long argued in this space that Simpson Miller suffered with a morbid fear of those she concluded were her intellectual betters. That phobia and her penchant to depend on advice from certain low-voltage thinkers and political journeymen, who were always willing to tell her what she wanted to hear, sealed her political coffin. I believe her choice of endorsement in the succession race has once again proven me right.
Audrey Smith Facey, we are told, has been a political foot soldier in St Andrew South Western for nearly 50 years. Simpson Miller was first elected to represent the seat in Parliament in 1976. As the Americans say, you can do the math.
The PNP’s history shows a strong propensity to apportion rewards along a Methuselah continuum. Have they abandoned that long-cherished principle? Or is Smith Facey an exception to that rule?
Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition Dr Peter Phillips says the party has re-embraced socialism:
“The new president of the People’s National Party Dr Peter Phillips has told Comrades that this generation of the organisation will have to fix and eliminate poverty.
“It is for that reason Phillips says he will not apologise for embracing democratic socialism, which he insists still has a place in developing 21st-century Jamaica.
“Phillips was speaking at the National Arena minutes after taking the oath of office as the fifth PNP president of the party.
“ ‘I say without reservation that Michael Manley broke down the walls of plantation society once and for all in Jamaica.’ “ ( The Sunday Gleaner, March 26, 2017)
For decades Jamaicans were told that Manley’s socialism was about “small man upliftment”. Has this changed? Why then is Smith Facey said to be unworthy to rise above her current political office as councillor for the Payne Land Division by some ‘top rankings’ in the ‘socialist’ PNP?
The answer was explained to us recently by an unnamed veteran of the PNP in an article written by Jamaica Observer Editor-at-Large H G Helps, entitled ‘Audrey set to replace Portia — Councillor for Payne Land Division a safe bet in upcoming run-off’.
The insightful piece said, inter alia: “ ‘Capital is going to be vital in the running of the constituency because, remember, it is one of those poverty-stricken ones and unemployment is high. Portia, for example, could get 3,000 buns to give to her people at Eastertime. But can any of the candidates who have come forward carry the same weight in continuing such a programme? I don’t think so. Running that constituency will take more than having someone in charge who earns just a simple salary. That person will have to dig deep in getting the necessary funds to support the people who cannot afford certain basic things,’ the executive stated.” ( Sunday Observer, June 25, 2017)
I believe the real reason that Smith Facey is being pushed to the political kerb is because strong men in the PNP’s top brass have concluded that she will not be able to continually secure and supply St Andrew South Western with the 3,000 literal and metaphorical Easter buns. This is truly disgraceful.
The PNP is once again demonstrating that one of its key preoccupations is the propagation of poverty. Recall that Ronald Thwaites told us that the “PNP has presided over the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich since slavery”.
Recall also that Venesha Phillips, councillor for the Papine Division, told us, among other things:
“ ‘We have not really been true to the cause, because self-worth and pride have been gutted from our people, and deliberately so.
“ ‘Our people today are not recipients of empowerment, but instead they have become pawns used in the games by those who wish to create the PNP that they want to exist in,’ she said.
“Phillips claimed that the party has used money to control and manipulate the people.
“ ‘… So Comrades, we have moved away from when Michael Manley (former party leader and prime minister) gave us that sense of purpose that we are not for sale, and today we are for sale because today every man have them price.’
“Phillips charged that money has been used to manipulate the people because they have not been able to afford some basic items.
“ ‘… Instead of empowering them… we use money as a weapon, and we have brought our people to their knees just so we can establish our own cause,’ said Phillips.
“She added: ‘We have not been true to the cause because we have allowed those who would want to break our people so that they can exalt themselves, we have allowed them that space to do it.’ “ ( Observer, April 25, 2016)
I am not surprised at the rapid political disintegration of the PNP. Recall not long after the Jamaican people rejected the PNP in the general election of February 25, 2016, former part-time Agriculture Minister Derrick Kellier chided his party, inter alia:
“ ‘Our political machinery has broken down badly, and that’s why we are where we are today… We will have to climb Mount Everest to get back to where we were,’ Kellier told delegates at the party’s regional executive council of Region Six meeting at John Rollins Success Primary School in Rose Hall, St James.
“ ‘Going forward is not going to be easy… we are in a state of flux, we are all about power, personal power, and personal aggrandisement and one-upmanship, that is what we are about. We are no longer a cohesive force that can deliver the knockout punch to the Opposition and can spread the word of hope and progress to the people,’ he said.
“ ‘We have to be baptised again. We need a refresher so that we can ‘wheel and come again’ in the true sense, because you should not take this Labour Party in power lightly. If you take them lightly you are making a very serious mistake,’ he stressed.” ( Observer, May 30, 2016)
Norman Manley, the founding president of the PNP, must be turning in his grave. The PNP has become a ‘samfie’ movement. In this scenario, it must drown out dissenting voices and silence those it now has the power to gag. This is a most dangerous development in what is still a developing democracy.
Mark death
The content of this news item should concern all right-thinking Jamaicans: “A resolution adopted at Saturday’s meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the People’s National Party (PNP) requires that members of the party must seek approval of the general secretary, Julian Robinson, to comment on internal party matters in the media.
“The resolution also recommended suspension for a first offence and expulsion for a second breach of the rule.
“The resolution stated: ‘Be it further resolved that members are prohibited from, without the expressed permission of the general secretary, commenting on internal party matters in the public media (traditional or otherwise) without exhausting all available channels in the party.
“ ‘And be it further resolved that the party empowers the NEC (and its subcommittee, the executive) to recommend, approve and codify clear and swift sanctions for breach of such actions which bring the party into disrepute. These sanctions should consider suspension for 1st and 2nd breach and expulsion for a third breach.
“ ‘And be it further resolved that these codified rules must be approved and ready for implementation within three months of this annual conference.’
“Robinson, however, did not comment on the passing of the resolution when asked by Observer online, but confirmed receipt of our request.” ( Observer, July 24, 2017)
The PNP has placed a gag order on its own membership. We should all shudder with fear at what it will do to those who oppose its corrupt and tyrannical tendencies. Rural folks in their philosophical genius warn that we need to “tek sleep and mark death”.
Former Chairman of the PNP’s Human Rights Commission attorney Clyde Williams says, “The PNP is heading in the wrong direction.” He says, “Muzzling members is not the answer, fixing the party is the answer. Poor leadership is what is bringing the PNP into disrepute.” ( Nationwide News Network, July 25, 2017)
British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker Edmund Burke told us that, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” We should take the tyranny alerts emanating from the PNP with great seriousness. To do otherwise is irresponsible at a minimum.
Proverb: Wen mawga plantin wan’ fi dead, ‘im shoot
Translation: When a meagre plantain wants to die, it shoots.
Explanation: After a plantain tree shoots and bears a bunch of the familiar fruit, it has ended its useful life, and dies thereafter. When we are no longer concerned about the safety of our persons, the preservation of our good character of job, or family, then we are to apt to behave stupidly.
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.