Political parties are not monolithic entities. They are organic and essentially people-centred. As such, they are subject to the predilections — intrigue, envy, hate, self-absorption, narcissistic search for power, and we could go on ad infinitum — that plague human beings and the organisations of which they are members.

Political parties in Jamaica are not spared from these predilections. With the present troubles facing the People’s National Party (PNP), some seem to have forgotten the woes that had plagued the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), especially under the leadership of the late Eddie Seaga. Now it is the PNP’s time and one can be sure, as June follows May, that there will be eruptions in the JLP in the future. This is just the nature of Jamaican politics, so stay tuned.

This time around, the problems in the PNP seem more intractable than they have been in recent memory. Eighteen years of uninterrupted rule gave the party leadership the mistaken notion that the party was impregnable at the polls. It was the redoubtable “chairman for life”, Bobby Pickersgill, who inelegantly boasted that Jamaica needed the PNP and it was, in fact, best suited to represent the aspirations of the Jamaican people. Beliefs like these reveal a party drunk on State power.

The party settled into a false sense of complacency, which prevented it from seeing the rot that was setting in. When PJ Patterson rode off into the sunset, there were already clear signs of this rot.

With her charisma, Portia was able to hold the disparate elements together until that fateful evening in Hatfield, Manchester, when she lamented the shabby treatment she had received from certain elements in the party who wanted to see her exit. Not long after that she departed the scene when she clearly was not ready to go. With the ascendancy of Peter “The Great” Phillips, the wounds festered; factional aggression became more entrenched and personal hatred and bitterness became determinative social principles in the party.

These came to a head in the bruising contest for leadership of the party between Phillips and Peter Bunting. The latter felt that he had waited long enough to contest for the leadership. He had sacrificed enough and thought the Comrades were ready to reward his patience. But he had a rude awakening when he lost.

There was an even ruder awakening when he lost the constituency of Manchester Central to the young and feisty political neophyte Rhoda Moy Crawford. One of the political consequences of this defeat was the ending — at least for the time being — of his ambition to become party leader. He had to settle for a seat in the Senate to keep himself politically relevant. He was definitely the strength behind his friend and business partner, Mark Golding, when he challenged Lisa Hannah for the presidency after Phillips relinquished the office. In losing the last general election in abysmal fashion, Phillips had suffered one defeat too many.

Enter Golding and the present dilemma. When Golding won the presidency, the party was in shambles. Its collective psyche had been shattered by the loss to the JLP. Blames piled up like maggots on rotted fish as to who was to blame for the loss. What was not readily admitted were the true reasons for the defeat — the lack of cohesion in the party which resulted in deep fissures and the inability to formulate a sound platform of policies around which Jamaicans could coalesce. The people saw that the PNP was a family in crisis and in need of deep healing. The electorate was in no mood to reward the social dysfunctions that had long festered in the party.

It is clear that, today, deep fissures remain in the party. Golding is trying his best, with what little influence he has, to bring some order out of the chaos that exists, but his task is akin to a gnat swallowing a camel. Functionaries in the party are not making this task any easier. There are lessons that should be learnt that are not being learnt, such as how to treat with women politicians on the opposite side of the political fence.

Much has been said and written about the ill-fated and despicable attack of two of the vice-presidential candidates of the party, Ian Hayles and Richard Azan, on Manchester Central’s Member of Parliament Rhoda Moy Crawford of the JLP. An apology has been issued on their behalf by the party’s secretariat, which Moy Crawford has accepted. Good for her, but I have grave reservations about an apology that does not come from the pen or the mouth of the apologist. When he was asked about the matter, candidate Azan asserted that the party had issued a press release and so he had nothing further to say.

That said it all. We can only assume that Azan and Hayles agreed with the sentiments in the release, but there is no way of knowing that the apology is sincere when it had to come through a third voice or halfway house and not out of the mouths of the offenders. One is left to doubt the sincerity of the apology or whether there was any apology at all. But, is half a loaf better than no bread?

There is urgent need for healing and reconciliation in the party. This is not easy to accomplish, but must be pursued with great vigour if the soul of the party is not to be further hollowed. Jamaicans deserve a strong Opposition that can counter any tendency on the part of the ruling party towards arrogant leadership and dictatorship. The corrupting influence of prolonged political power is insidious and must be resisted at every level.

Emancipendence?

The country has just celebrated Emancipation Day and will on Friday celebrate its 59th Independence anniversary. I hesitate to use the word “celebrate” to describe our Independence from mother Britain, especially since we continue the farce of having the British monarch as our titular head of State. We will not be truly independent until we remove every vestige of colonialism from our national life. Paying obeisance to the Queen of England rings with hollowness and insincerity. Having the British Privy Council as our final court of appeal is galling. Yet, 59 years after, we continue to boast that we are free while our judicial consciousness is still held hostage by a foreign power. Until we become serious about constitutional reform, we will never be the truly independent people that we can become.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books: Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storm and Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com