Recent developments in the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) have left the country convinced that the 82-year-old movement has not been able to even begin the process of healing that it so badly needs to make it a viable alternative to the Government.

The leaked recording of a phone conversation between Vice-President Mr Damion Crawford and two Comrades, the subsequent posts on social media triggered by that discussion, the underlying bitterness that coloured last month’s election for a new president, and now the Senate débâcle involving Mr Norman Horne have all widened the already gaping chasm in the party.

New PNP President Mr Mark Golding definitely has a difficult task to unite the party, especially given his own role in last year’s challenge by Mr Peter Bunting for the presidency, which then President Dr Peter Phillips won by a mere 76 votes.

The fact that Mr Bunting’s chief attack dog in that divisive contest, Dr Dayton Campbell, was elected general secretary of the party two weeks ago will make the effort of uniting the PNP even more arduous, for already we are hearing Comrades who supported Dr Phillips pouring cold water on the declarations of a commitment to unity made by Mr Golding and Dr Campbell.

Both men, we hold, should not be surprised by the posture of Dr Phillips’s supporters because both played a leading role in disrespecting and portraying Dr Phillips as incapable of winning a national election.

The irony of Dr Campbell’s and Mr Bunting’s defeat in the September 3 General Election, compared to the fact that Dr Phillips won his seat, has not been lost on Jamaicans.

Additionally, there seems to be little respect being given to Mr Golding’s caution to Comrades at the PNP’s National Executive Council meeting on November 29 that the proper place to challenge his authority as president is “at a party conference”.

Given the lingering bitterness in the party, we would not be surprised if Mr Golding is made to face a challenge in the not-too-distant future. And while that, based on the party’s constitution, would be the right of any member, it certainly won’t help the PNP to settle down.

Unfortunately, the problem plaguing the PNP today is personal ambition. No longer is the party driven by ideology and a desire to “serve the masses of the country” as articulated by its first President Norman Manley at the launch in 1938.

What we are seeing now are people who regard the movement as an opportunity for self-aggrandisement. For what else can explain the comments made public in recent times by members of the party about their own Comrades and, indeed, some of the shameless self-promoting advertisements aired in the campaign for the September 3 General Election?

As it now stands, the party has a lot of work to do if it intends to honour the memory of its founder, Mr Osmond T Fairclough, as well as that of National Hero Mr Norman Manley, and return the movement to the policies that guided its formation.