IN the wake of last Thursday’s 48-15 seat trouncing of the People’s National Party (PNP), former General Secretary Paul Burke acknowledges his party’s weaknesses and mistakes and plots a way forward for party recovery and return to office.

Burke also declared Sunday in the latest edition of his SundaySun e-newspaper that there were no PNP safe seats in today’s Jamaica and stressed the need to “eliminate self-aggrandisement, arrogance and authoritarian behaviour, practised by too many of our leaders”.

“Over the last two decades, the PNP has increasingly become a party of personalities and political opportunists with rushed ambitions, rather than a party of principles, progressive policies and people-centric programmes,” he lamented.

Following are excerpts from Burke’s critique:

Our campaign leadership worked hard. We had a fairly good slate of new candidates. We were always at a disadvantage — the COVID-19 pandemic which diminished our ground work, our community meetings and our election workers training sessions.

While there is strong support for the people’s party in some constituencies, there are no absolutely safe PNP seats in today’s Jamaica.

Once upon a time, we used to be able to credibly boast about our party organisation. We have been in denial about the strength of our ground organisation for years, certainly for over the last 20 years.

The vast majority of our party groups are plastic groups, established as personal power bases to give personal delegate strength, often for bartering in our internal contests. The vast majority of our party groups do not meet; members do not pay their own subscription of less than $500 per year, paid in most cases by MPs [Members of Parliament], councillors and constituency leadership.

The party groups for the most part are not carrying out the tasks of the party, the main ones being recruitment, political education, community outreach and electoral work.

The PNP groups in their present form and state of functionality are now, in essence, relics of history. In the failure of active and consistent recruitment, active membership of the PNP is not only aging, but declining in real numbers.

The people’s party does not have effective and meaningful political and public education programmes. Many members including MPs, councillors and NEC [National Executive Council] members do not even have working knowledge of the party’s constitution, party history, or what the PNP, the people’s party, really stands for…

Indeed, we have a number of good and hard-working elected representatives and leaders at all levels of the party, many of whom have made yeoman sacrifices over the years. However, we have real challenges with others.

Former party President Comrade Portia Simpson Miller used to speak repeatedly to the importance of treating all Jamaicans properly. PNP leaders at all levels need to practise respect for all, civility, tolerance, humility and people skills. Some of them will have to undergo special courses. In short, they will have to be taught and resocialised, if they are to lead.

There is need to minimise, if not eliminate self-aggrandisement, arrogance and authoritarian behaviour, practised by too many of our leaders. Over the last two decades, the PNP has increasingly become a party of personalities and political opportunists with rushed ambitions, rather than a party of principles, progressive policies and people-centric programmes.

Real unity needs to be forged, not around personalities and popularity or their purchasing power, but solely and only around the party’s principles and policies.

Communication is critical in today’s world. The Jamaica Labour Party had far more resources, significantly more than the People’s National Party, to enable more exposure in mainstream and social media.

We need to develop and communicate clear, consistent and credible messages. In too many instances, the rescue operation by the party’s communications firm was pathetically poor. The pop-up ads depicting PNP candidates in parishes under the theme of ‘Building your New Jamaica’ could only amuse children and would not convince any discerning voters to support the People’s National Party.

We cannot and will never be able to compete with the JLP with their money power and mobilisation of voters, a generous terminology. We cannot win this contest. It is wrong, unethical, immoral and goes against everything the party stands for.

We must stop the practice of buying, giving monetary inducements and influencing of our own party members in our internal elections. We all know that this happens far too frequently and we are reaping what we have sowed, with many of our own members and supporters becoming mercenary-minded.

What needs to be done

The PNP needs to transform itself into a patriotic, progressive and people’s movement, first under the theme, ‘We Put People First’. The people’s party need to establish its philosophical direction – who we are. The party’s objectives needs to be relevant.

The outgoing President Comrade Peter Phillips, who led the 21st century mission, should ensure than a working draft is left as part of his legacy for the People’s National Party.

The PNP needs to truly and genuinely embrace Garveyism, not just academically, but enshrined in all our policies and programmes of work, aimed at empowering the African people of Jamaica, starting with rebuilding of pride and dignity and economic empowerment with land distribution and ownership. Re-establish the Vernon Arnett Party Schools in each and every parish, commencing with virtual sessions as of October 2020. The people’s party should have long established mediation committees, long approved by annual conference, nationally and regionally, to mitigate the internal conflicts, most of which could have been early resolved instead of growing into sores, such as in Western Hanover, a constituency long dogged by disputes and bickering.

Future candidates at all levels must undergo a leadership training course as that which used to happen 30 years ago and now long abandoned. We must improve volunteerism which can only increase with political education and commitment to the cause, while understanding the economic reality of many of our canvassers and election day workers, thereby paying stipends to support their work and their motivation.

The party needs a vibrant and dynamic youth organisation. Within the existing party structures, appoint two vice-chairs in each division, one each to be responsible for women and youth affairs.

We need more committed and capable young persons and women as leaders at all levels in the people’s party, as well as annual independent and impartial evaluation of all elected representatives and candidates.

There must be good and compelling reasons, based mainly on performance and ground support, to allow elected representatives serving more than four consecutive terms to continue in their respective constituencies, and an absolute maximum of six terms for highly performing elected representatives. As a rule, we don’t need any more seven-star generals.

The PNP also needs to develop its own capacity for impartial polling. Implement the party constitutional rule that incumbents must receive an endorsement of two-thirds in a secret vote of their registered group and direct members, along with polls and sounding, before being allowed to contest their divisions or constituencies. This should occur annually after the first two years in office.

Suspend the annual direct membership registration fees of all persons under age 35 wanting to join the party for their first two years of membership and implement the payment of the $6,000 annual subscription in Year Three.

Fast-track the constitutional provision that all registered party members of a two-year standing should be allowed direct votes in all vice-presidential and presidential elections, with polling stations in each parish and Portmore, the number and positioning of which to be determined by the number of registered party members in the respective parishes.

The people’s party must offer Jamaica responsible radicalism, and not a choice between Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola. Let’s build the People’s National Party as the people’s party once again.