I strongly believe all who aspire for and all who occupy high and low political office in this country would do well to read Common Sense by renowned philosopher Thomas Paine.

In his famed book, Paine goes to great lengths to repeatedly warn against giving power to men who feel they have a divine right to rule. Paine says, for example: “Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the Government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”

In his masterpiece, Paine also warns that men — only men could vote at the time — who suffer with what Shakespeare decades earlier called “vaulting ambition” in Macbeth — a nearly corrosive desire to gain and retain power and a belief that power is more important than anything else — should not be trusted with power, and certainly not State power.

MULTI-FACED TOMFOOLERY

Jamaica in the 70s went through a most horrible period. Many were fooled into believing that Michael Manley was the supreme deliverer of milk and honey. Thousands were hypnotised by Manley’s charisma and many thousands more by his promise of a socialist utopia in Jamaica.

Manley promised “Betta Must Come”; worse came.

By the time Manley was booted from office in a landslide defeat by Edward Seaga, on October 30, 1980, the country was almost bankrupt; social decline had skyrocketed; respect for Jamaica locally, regionally and internationally was stunted; our major foreign exchange earners were dead and/or on life support; and our major democratic institutions were teetering on the brink of total disintegration.

One of the foundational lessons we need to learn from Manley’s tragic mismanagement is this: No politician, no matter how eloquent, and no matter how well credentialed, has any magic wand to solve our problems.

Anyway, shortly after the opium of Manley’s charisma lost its potency, a new political drug was injected into the veins of our national politics. Colour was then presented as the panacea to all our problems.

Jamaicans were told it was “Black Man Time Now”. Again, thousands of Jamaicans were duped. By the time they woke from their political drug-induced sleep the country was in shambles. The black business class was nearly incinerated. The country was desperately indebted, social decline was spiralling, Jamaica’s respect which was rebuilt in the 80s was wobbling, unemployment was strangling the life chances of especially the youth population, crime in particular murders were rampant, corruption especially money scandals had reached unprecedented levels, capital flight was the order of the day; and Jamaica was on the brink of failed State designation.

In the early naughties, the People’s National Party (PNP) created yet another politically addictive drug called “Woman Time Now”. By then Jamaica had almost flat-lined. Under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we were saved.

Today the PNP finds itself in a quandary. In our political culture, and in many other Western liberal democracies, the leader carries his/her party on his/her shoulders. PNP president and Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding has been at the helm of Norman Manley’s party for nearly four years. In those years all credible scientific polls have consistently shown that the PNP is more popular than Golding. How has the PNP dealt with its dilemma?

One does not need a degree in political science to figure it. They have invented another political drug. They can no longer credibly present charisma as the panacea. They can no longer convincingly present colour, specifically blackness, as the abracadabra to our worries. One does not need spectacles to see that Golding is a white man. And, conspicuously, they cannot definitively present ‘woman time now’ as the silver bullet to our problems. As I understand it, a coterie — meaning a clique of uniquely wise people who have the answers to Jamaica’s economic, social and political problems is the party’s newest drug. ‘Tapanaris’ is Golding’s pet name for them.

What is their strategy? Well, in the absence of a fundable set of new and/or better ideas to grow and develop Jamaica faster, I can only conclude that the Tapanaris will simply shout, “Open, sesame,” and all our problems will disappear into oblivion. Like the political sedatives which the PNP sold in the 70s, 90s and early 2000s, its newest drug is designed to create an aversion to political critique, as I see it.

I believe all Jamaicans who have the knowledge have a duty to warn about the PNP’s latest political drug. The many faces of tomfoolery must not be allowed to find any safe habour or be given any place of refuge in the consciousness of our people.

The Cambridge Dictionary tells us that a fool’s errand is a task that is futile. It is an activity that has little hope of being successful. A fool’s errand is a waste of one’s time. And fool’s gold is any flashy but ultimately worthless investment. Jamaica’s growth and development over the last 62 years has been severely dwarfed by leaders, most of them belonging to the PNP, who have conned the majority of our population with political drugs. The deleterious results have set us back for decades. Enough of these types of misleaders, I say.

Performative Theatre

Life and Fate, by celebrated Soviet author and journalist Vasily Grossman, is another classic work which all who seek high and low political office in Jamaica need to read.

“Tell me what you accuse the Jews of and I will tell you what you are guilty of,” writes Grossman in Life and Fate. “Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty,” said Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister. He was a reprobate. I hate to quote wretches like him. I did for accuracy’s sake. This sinister strategy is employed especially by socialist and related parties.

I believe the PNP, among other things, is utilising elements of the mentioned ‘tactic’ in its bid to retake Jamaica House. I provided ample examples previously. They will fail. Why? There is now a critical mass in Jamaica who will not succumb to mass deflection, resurrected and/or new political drugs which will plunge us into political stupor. We will not swallow those poisons. And there is something else. The PNP continues to insult the intelligence of Jamaicans with its unrelenting arrogance.

Consider this: ‘Jamaica will become Haiti if PNP doesn’t form next Gov’t’ says MP aspirant’. The Jamaica Observer news item of last Monday said among other things: “People’s National Party (PNP) aspirant for St Ann North Eastern Dr Ryan Simpson says Jamaica is at risk of becoming like Haiti if the Opposition doesn’t form the next Government.

“Simpson in addressing the party’s Bellefield Divisional Conference in Manchester on Sunday night suggested that Jamaica is at risk of descending into unrest.

“ ‘The problem is there is money in Jamaica, but only a few people are benefiting from the money. Only a handful of people are actually experiencing or beneficiaries of the wealth that is in Jamaica,” he said.

“ ‘What you have is a big disparity between the rich and the poor. I feel that Jamaica, if the People’s National Party don’t win the next general election, Jamaica is going to be the next Haiti. Mark my words,’ he added.”

Where has the PNP used this rotten ploy before?

Recall this: ‘Peter disliked Portia’. The July 6, 2011 Jamaica Observer news item revealed these and related details, “Just under a year after the People’s National Party (PNP) lost power to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Dr Peter Phillips agreed with a United States official that Jamaica risked becoming like Haiti if the Government failed in its reform efforts and if Portia Simpson Miller, whom he called a ‘disaster’ for the country, was returned to power, according to a US diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks.

“The cable, dated July 8, 2008, also said that when the US officer asked Phillips if he would ever serve in another Simpson Miller-led Government the former national security minister stated that he never says never, but his answer is ‘No, it would simply be too distasteful.’ ”

Doubtless this kind of political conceit is a manifestation of the Pickersgillian dictum. The former PNP Chairman Robert Pickersgill, now chairman emeritus, said on radio in the 90s: “We believe that it is best for the People’s National Party to form the Government; therefore, anything that will lead or cause us to be in power is best for the PNP and best for the country.”

Here is another emblem of antiquated delusion and putrid political entitlement. “Jamaica is PNP country.” The PNP, despite being defeated in the general elections of February 25, 2016, September 3, 2020; and the local government election of February 26, 2024, still figures Jamaica was bequeathed to it by the Tainos. Laughable!

This sordid divine right to rule is what Thomas Paine warned us about hundreds of years ago in his classic work Common Sense. We need to take heed.

What fuels the PNP’s obstinate belief that it has a God-given right govern? Kern Spencer, former state minister in the Ministry of Energy, gave us an answer: “If the PNP should lose a next election dog nyam our supper.” (Jamaica Observer, January 14, 2022). The ‘we’ there is not a reference to the people of Jamaica. I believe the ‘we’ he made reference to is Spencer, fellow PNP supporters, and their funders. It’s personal aggrandisement for them.

WHY THE MORTAL FEAR?

The PNP is morbidly fearful of losing the next general election for primarily three reasons, as I see it.

First, many noted political scholars agree that for a political party to make structural and cultural shifts in the political ecosystem of a nation it needs at least three consecutive parliamentary cycles in office. That is about 15 years depending on the jurisdiction. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will complete its second term next year. According to renowned political scholars, once an Administration concretises structural and cultural shifts, these have generational consequences.

Second, the PNP is mortally afraid that if it does not win the next general election it will effectively be relegated to a pressure group. Political parties exist to gain and retain State power. Many in the inner sanctum of the PNP fear that the political bloodbaths, especially post the departure of former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, will come back if the PNP loses next year.

Third, there is the small matter of the personal bacon of Golding and those who belong to his faction of the PNP. Golding’s political hide has been spared, temporarily so. If Golding does win the next general election, like Dr Peter Phillip, his predecessor, he will have to tender his resignation with great haste. No ‘decent draw’ (coming out stronger than you go in) — which I predicted would have been Golding’s only life jacket in the recently held local government election — will be available in a parliamentary contest.

The political stakes are very high. The Jamaican economy is in a very good state. The JLP’s strategy of modernisation of our roads, education system, courts, heath facilities, social institutions, public sector, country-wide high-speed Internet, etc, are all bearing considerable fruits. What does an Opposition like the PNP, fresh out of new and/or better ideas, do? They invent and disseminate phantoms. Fake news becomes its main crutch.

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist, and a senior advisor to the minister of education and youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.