Mark Jefferson Golding of the People’s National Party (PNP) will have to wait another five years or so to once again pursue his dream to become prime minister, or president, of the republic (hopefully) of Jamaica.

A current reading of the tea leaves, based on the utterances of the newly minted Prime Minister (for the fourth time) Dr Andrew Michael Holness, would suggest that he will have to walk a long and winding road to achieve that objective. After all, jubilant Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters have already been chanting “fourth term!”

Indeed, the prime minister and JLP leader has been very emphatic and explicit that he is in it for the long haul, so much so that he has dispelled the observations of critics such as myself that he should use his historic third term to solidify and define his legacy. Instead, he has dug in and has signalled rather forcefully that he does intend to be a “long distance stulla”. For many successful politicians such as himself, power becomes an aphrodisiac that inflames the mind as they seek to consummate a marriage that extends into perpetuity (president for life?)

In a reverse of history, the Opposition leader has found himself being the victim of the playbook used by his PNP predecessors to keep former prime minister and JLP Leader Edward Seaga out of the winner’s circle: that of tarring and feathering him as being a “white man” and not “born ya”. Notwithstanding him exposing his original birth certificate on national television for all to see that he was, in fact, born here and is a a full-fledged Jamaican, many Jamaicans continue to remain sceptical of his true origins, still perceiving him to be British and, therefore, a descendant of the former slave owners who oppressed our forefathers. So while Comrades hug him up and affectionately call him “Markie G”, Labourites and other detractors have labelled him “Markie British”, a nickname they hope will stick with him for his political life.

This is indeed one baggage that Golding will have to continue to wrestle with, whether he and the PNP like it or not. To put it bluntly, there are still PNP supporters and uncommitted individuals who are not comfortable with what they perceive as a white man wanting to rule over a country that is over 80 per cent black. And there are those who have opined emphatically, like that cryptic line from a television advertisement, “That will never happen!”

On the other hand, many enlightened Jamaicans do not see anything wrong with a white man running things. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that many Jamaicans in the lower socio-economic sector of the country “love brown man”, which explains the overwhelming popularity of former prime minister and PNP President Michael Manley. Isn’t Holness a brown man? Tut, tut! And there is the converse of Jamaican black men loving their “browning”.

Interestingly, self-styled Rastafarian entertainer Buju Banton was recently taken to task in a social media post for supporting Golding, in that he had been in attendance at the public session of the PNP’s last annual conference at the National Arena. This is the same artiste who also sang that he loves his car and other things, but most of all “him love him browning”. What a mix-up! To put it bluntly, this racial slur against Golding will not go away that easily, so the PNP needs to come up with a plan to effectively “mash down that lie”; otherwise, Golding’s long and winding road to the door of Jamaica House will instead lead him into the political wilderness in perpetuity.

Then again there is a well-known Jamaican saying which goes, “When black people don’t like you, dem give you basket to carry water.” Those who are opposed to Golding have come up with several accusations, including that he does not carry himself well, in terms of his dress code; that his attempts at speaking patois (the dialect) comes across as overly affected; that he has a problem with being truthful; et cetera, et cetera. But the bottom line is that, for the most part and in comparison to many of the current crop of politicians, he comes across as squeaky clean, has very little baggage, has an astute legal mind, is patriotic, a devoted family man, and a successful professional whose heart is in the right place. In other words, despite him heading a socialist party, for all intents and purposes, he is a compassionate capitalist.

But whether the PNP likes it or not, one of the main reasons it lost the 2025 General Election is that, outside of PJ Patterson, Holness has emerged as a master political strategist, using his chess-playing skills to outsmart and outplay Comrades in the political arena. Golding, in real terms, is not really a politician at heart. He was thrust into the position of leadership by fate and attrition, and to his credit he rose to the occasion, taking back the party from the depths of defeat and placing it in a formidable position as a strong force in Parliament. Indeed, his was a victory, although the PNP lost.

So whither Golding, now that the die has been cast? Will he be eventually challenged, especially by those who remain uncomfortable that the PNP is being led by a white man and thus will remain unwinnable? Or will the party take the bull by the horns and set out to shape his image in such a way that most Jamaicans will look past his ethnicity and embrace him as truly one of us?

Golding, in my opinion, has so far succeeded as a leader given the parlous circumstances the party was in when he became president. The PNP now owes it to him to fashion him into a winnable candidate for Jamaica House. There should be no “night of long knives”, no vacillation, or useless wring of hands in desperation and hopelessness. Victory can be plucked out of the jaws of defeat, ultimately. Politics, it is said, is the art of the possible. Even as the third term unfolds, it must be remembered that one hand cannot clap. If our democracy is to remain intact and viable, then the stage must always be set for the people to have an alternative option.

Fortune favours the brave, cowards die many times before their deaths, this could be Golding’s golden hour, but he must earn it and not see it as an entitlement. Prime Minister Holness has earned his third term. Golding must now set out to earn the trust and love of the Jamaican people so that when the right time comes he can step up to the plate. “A so di ting set!”

Lloyd B Smith has been involved full-time in Jamaican media for the past 49 years. He has also served as a People’s National Party Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. He hails from western Jamaica where he is popularly known as the Governor. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or lbsmith4@gmail.com.

Andrew HolnessNaphtali Junior

PJ Pattersona

Edward Seaga.

online