If you’re going to grow tall your legs will get thin. — Yoruba proverb, Nigeria

The birds, those ubiquitous and reliable Black-bellied Plovers, Bananaquits, and John Chewits are singing that significant numbers of People’s National Party (PNP) supporters in Portland Eastern are very upset with the helicopter choice of Senator Damion Crawford as the party’s standard-bearer. The birds also sing that some in the inner sanctum of the PNP frown on Crawford’s habit of taking up his political accoutrements and dashing for personal cover and protection when the going gets tough.

Many at 89 Old Hope Road, the birds shriek, are asking why the PNP selected another helicopter standard-bearer for a rural seat after the losing lessons of St Mary South Eastern.

The birds sing of dissatisfaction for the leadership’s grasp of the unique dynamics of rural politics as compared to urban politics. They sing of a possible revolt at 89 Old Hope Road, which could have implications well beyond PNP President Dr Peter Phillips.

We need one of us

Last Sunday I visited sections of the following areas — Prospect, Port Antonio, Fairy Hill, Fellowship, and Manchioneal. I wanted to hear from citizens how they intended to vote and why? Folks broadly gave two major reasons Ann-Marie Vaz will get their vote. Here are snippets.

1. Ann-Marie Vaz has been working in the community. A small bar owner in Prospect, who has lived in Portland Eastern all her life, said she has got to know Vaz over the last several months and, “No body cyaan tell mi ’bout Portland.” In a matter-of-fact voice she continued, “I see whole heap a MP (Members of Parliament). Bloomfield, him dead and gone, was a nice man… We want somebody who live here, who we see day in, day out,” she insisted as she broke away from the conversation to answer the phone.

2. A retired sugar cane worker said he moved from St Mary to Fairy Hill after Gray’s Inn closed operations. He told me that he was tired of people who talked and did nothing beyond talk. “Smooth talk can’t eat, my friend, tired of that now,” he said rather upset. “I going to take a chance with the lady, Miss Vaz, ’cause she work genuine,” he said. “I see her more times than I see [former MP the late] Dr [Lynvale] Bloomfield,” he said, rather angrily.

3. A mother of two who lives in Fairy Hill said she was not going to vote for any import. “Dem don’t respect wi,” she said. I pressed her to explain. “You want to tell me dem could not find one Portlander to run; no outsiders,” she bemoaned. “Ms Vaz up and down Fairy Hill and mi love that. I will work with har for now,” she said very assuredly.

4. A tourism worker who lives in Port Antonio said she was excited that a woman was vying to become the Member of Parliament. A graduate of Titchfield High, she told me she was tired of men “running things”. “Time for us women take charge,” she opined. “Give a woman a chance this time,” she said with a massive smile. “The young people need work and training. I have six CXCs (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examination passes) and it took me nearly two years to get a job, even after training at HEART,” she said with much consternation. “Mr Crawford cannot help us much at this time, ’cause his party is out of power,” she reasoned.

5. A fisherman who lives in Fellowship said he just wanted a change: “Mi boss, is 30 years PNP deh yah and look pon the [unprintable] place.” He pointed at the potholes in the main road and a derelict building nearby. “Tired of the same [unprintable] ting I born come see, mi boss. Dem get 30 years and mi nuh see weh dem do; time fi smaddy else, mi boss,” he said.

6. Another Fellowship resident told me he voted in two elections for the late Dr Bloomfield and he did not see the improvements he expected. “Mi have fi try somethin’ new; ah just suh,” he quickened. “Nothin’ try, nothin done,” he quipped. “We just cyaan continue fi live suh,” he said.

7. An unemployed, middle-aged lady who resides in Manchioneal did not mince words, “Look, wi know Vaz, but we only see Crawford pon TV; is as simple as dat, not buying nuh puss inna bag,” she said.

More political miscalculation

Some in the PNP have been back-patting, pointing to the reception that Senator Damion Crawford received when he arrived just over an hour late for the funeral of the late MP Dr Lynvale Bloomfield as evidence that he will win the upcoming by-election in Portland Eastern. Crawford has political charisma, and that charisma is amplified before a PNP concentrated gathering. That’s not rocket science. The million-dollar question is whether Crawford’s charisma is having the electrifying effect among the voters in Portland Eastern?

It seems the PNP has again hitched its fortunes to a wagon of fool’s gold.

The PNP seems to have fine-tuned the art of political miscalculation. Recall that after former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller declared she was “touched by the master” the PNP had a rally in Half-Way-Tree on Sunday, January 31, 2016 to announce the date for our 17th parliamentary election. I remember watching the spectacle on television. Songs such as Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, Popcaan’s My God, and Alkaline’s Champion Boy got many ‘forwards’. Popular soca song Differentology by Bunji Garlin was played several times.

The PNP ‘higher-ups’ left the meeting titillated with the false belief that the massive crowd meant certain victory at the polls. The crowd might have just been simply enamoured with the antics of the music selector. Credible political commentators said he was the star of their show.

They did not learn from former Prime Minister Michael Manley’s famous political gaffe in Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay, St James, prior to the October 30, 1980 General Election. Manley famously declared, “150,000 strong cannot be wrong.” When the votes were counted, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won 51 of the then 60 seats in Parliament, and Edward Seaga became Jamaica’s fifth prime minister.

Recall also that on July 19, 2015, then 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. The PNP, then worked overtime to brand the election campaign as one of ‘ray ray’, standpipe brawls, fluff, and amateurish pyrotechnic stunts. The PNP outspent the JLP by millions. Notably, for every JLP advertisement in the electronic media, the PNP had four. Their strategy failed dismally.

I picked up a powerful current against Crawford’s ‘outsider-ness’ in the communities in Portland Eastern that I visited last Sunday. Folks are resentful of the fact that someone from among them, who has worked with them, who lives among them, was not seen fit to be the standard-bearer for the PNP. Citizens with whom I spoke expressed the view that Crawford was being imposed on them. They expressed the view that Crawford is a stranger who did not know the issues of Portland Eastern. I heard a near-replica of the concerns and complaints similar to those expressed by the people of St Mary South Eastern when Dr Shane Alexis was parachuted there.

Something else

Senator Crawford said on a radio programme last Monday, and another on Tuesday, that he wants to become president of the PNP and prime minister of Jamaica. I think this is admirable. All Jamaicans must, as rural folks put it, “have ambition”. On one of the two programmes Crawford said, were he to lose the Portland Eastern by-election he might very well hang up his political boots. In other words, he might quit representational politics.

I found his response puzzling. Why might he be willing to give up on as big a dream so easily? Are you a quitter? I was waiting to hear the host of the programme ask Senator Crawford that direct question, but he did not. I believe someone who wants to occupy, at some point, two of the highest seats of power and responsibility in this country should be made of “sterner stuff” [from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar].

It is not a secret that many inside the halls of Norman Manley’s party have strong and lingering doubts about Crawford’s commitment to political representation. The birds sing that some in Norman Manley’s party view Crawford as a comedy act, others see him like a bamboo fire.

Recall when it was noised abroad that Crawford was heading to Trelawny Northern in 2015. The announcement was not welcomed with anything near opened arms by the constituents, as borne out in this explosive account:

“Retired Northern Trelawny Member of Parliament (MP) Dr Patrick Harris says there is no place in the constituency for Damion Crawford and has suggested that the People’s National Party (PNP) remove John-Paul White as the standard-bearer, replacing him instead with hometown boy, the Reverend Devere Nugent.

“ ‘A person like a Damion Crawford is disrespectful of the political process, disrespect[ful] to Comrades in general, and, at worst, he is either stupid or fool-fool, and he should be put in the Ity and Fancy Cat Show, where you don’t have anybody asking about democracy and such things to be in that,’ Harris said.” ( The Gleaner, November 19, 2015)

The birds sing that many at PNP Headquarters see Crawford as a man with, as we say in local parlance, ‘no abiding city’ [no particular commitment to any particular cause, constituency or political values].

His last stint as Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Rural earned him numerous political enemies. He was booted as their standard-bearer as the delegates argued that Crawford was too autocratic in his leadership style.

Crawford was vilified by many in his own party and the public at large because he told the constituency that he was not interested in running again, but at the eleventh hour he made a 180-degree turn.

Since then the birds sing that Crawford has been branded a political carpetbagger [a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections] by some in the PNP. In the past 20 months, according to reports in the media, Crawford has reportedly explored a political foothold in the constituencies of Kingston Central, St Mary South Eastern and St James Southern.

In an apparent jab at Crawford, former Trelawny Northern MP Dr Patrick Harris said inter alia: “ ‘We need to have a person with a track record of decency, honesty and fair play. I don’t believe that this is too much to ask for. I believe that when a person enters a constituency, they must have a plan for the development of the constituency. You cannot spend 20 years to recognise what the people want and then expect to implement it in your lifetime,’ he said.” ( The Gleaner, November 19, 2015)

The birds are chirping that many in the Portland Eastern PNP executive are asking how Crawford will even begin to devise a plan when he does not even know the constituents. More Anon!

Oh, happy day

Note this Jamaica Observer headline of February 27, 2019: ‘Jamaica in a good place to operate on its own — Duncan’ The story said, among other things: “Co-chair of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Keith Duncan reckons that Jamaica is in a ‘good place’ to operate on its own when the Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement (PSBA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) comes to an end in June.

“ ‘Our debt levels are down, we have sufficient reserves, tax revenues are buoyant, and we will continue to run primary surplus so that our debt-to-GDP [gross domestic product] ratio can be reduced as in our fiscal rules to 60 per cent in 2025/2026,’ the co-chair told journalists during an update on the three-year PSBA yesterday.”

Jamaica is about to jump a major hurdle, all right-thinking folks should be happy for our country.

Jamaica’s best days are ahead. I am betting on Jamaica, full stop!

A crown, if it hurts us, is not worth wearing. —Pearl Bailey

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.