Some high and low figures in the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) appear overly preoccupied with measuring the curtains for a fourth-consecutive term at Jamaica House. Those caught in this snare would do well to remember they must first purchase the drapes. Drapery costs are now considerably higher than nine months ago when the Andrew Holness-led JLP secured its historic and third-straight term.

Recently baked Labourites, especially, need to keep these key ingredients in their recipe at all times:

1) The party that forms the Administration starts to lose the day it wins power.

2) The privilege of political office typically starts with cheers and ends in jeers. It’s like life — happy at the start, but we begin to die the day we are born.

The best way for a ruling party to temporarily defy the laws of political gravity in this day and age, particularly in a functioning Western-style liberal democracy like Jamaica’s, is to continually deliver goods and services that materially improve the lives and livelihoods of the majority. Most Jamaicans are much more aspirational and less ideological today.

It bears repeating that the pace at which a political party that forms the Administration loses power is invariably determined by the quality and quantity of its track record of delivery, but, more centrally, by its present and likely future ability to deliver.

These are hard times. Some years ago I said here that most voters and supporters were concerned with ‘What have you done for me lately?’ and ‘What can you do for me soon?’ This is still very true.

Except for those who live under a huge rock, we all know by now that the war in the Middle East has consequences which do not stay in the countries of the combatants or stop at the local gas pump.

Speaking of gas pumps, prices at the local pumps have increased virtually every week since the start of April. This affects everything that is bought and sold. Everything! Four months since the start of the war we are now beginning to feel the full negative trickle-down impact in our pockets and at our dinner tables. Ordinary folks are feeling the hardest pinch. A recession happens in the pockets and on the dinner tables of ordinary people long before there is any statistical confirmation by the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ).

Notwithstanding the uneasy ceasefire in the Middle East, locally our pockets and dinner tables are sinking into recession. Ordinary folks are stretching every dollar. This is not a side issue; it must be the central issue for a caring Administration.

For those who are unfamiliar with the realities of the majority, stretching the elastic means that ordinary folks are having to pick up a smaller basket or trolley at the supermarket, buy less at the corner shop, purchase fewer items at the market, and park — or seriously contemplate parking — the family car in favour of riding the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC). Thankfully, the JUTC offers a much more reliable and improved service today compared to a year ago.

Stretching the elastic means that many ordinary Jamaicans have to now pay their car insurance in instalments, and spend less on — or completely cut out — critical stress-relief activities. These include going out for a drink with friends on the weekend, taking a trip to the country with the immediate family to visit relatives, and, of course, carrying cash and other necessary supplies to family members in rural areas, especially the elderly. Hundreds of Jamaicans have relatives in the rural parts who depend on us for financial, social, and — more importantly — emotional sustenance.

Stretching the elastic means that the planned addition of that extra room will have to be postponed. It means the renovation that was earmarked for this year will have to be put off. It means the planned repair or purchase of new equipment to expand that small business has to be put on hold.

Six months ago, Jamaica suffered a near-catastrophic setback caused by one of the most powerful hurricanes in recorded history. A global energy crisis so soon on the heels of Hurricane Melissa could not have come at a worse time. It’s a mighty blow to our solar plexus.

In this context, stretching the elastic is a double-edged sword for citizens all over the country. Individual progress is being slowed and, in some cases, halted altogether.

THE POLITICAL ELASTIC

Soon after the JLP won its unprecedented third term, and before Hurricane Melissa landed on our shores, I said in this space: “One of the biggest mistakes administrations make in a third term is that they become bogged down by restraints like Lemuel Gulliver.”

I was not, by any stretch of the imagination, looking into the future. I have said here time and again that I have absolutely no way of seeing into the future. I have also explained here several times that human nature and patterns of behaviour are constant and that supply and demand, irrespective of geographical location, is king.

Soon after the JLP’s third-term victory, I said, among other things, in this space: “People elect a Government to get things done in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Individual benefits are crucial to the preservation of the social contract. In return for the certain and consistent satisfaction of individuals’ immediate and aspirational needs, especially, citizens entrust their confidence to the Government. This adhesive of confidence glues society together.”

The JLP’s strong suit is its positive track record of delivering goods and services that tangibly improve people’s lives and livelihoods. A critical mass voted for the JLP to secure a third term at Jamaica House specifically because of the party’s strong delivery record between 2020 and 2025. I have presented the receipts here before.

Long ago, I noted here that “some political scholars posit that unless a political party can govern for at least three cycles — 15 years in our case — it cannot achieve transformative change”. Holness and the JLP have now been given the privilege of a third-consecutive term at Jamaica House so that the modernisation of Jamaica’s roads, water infrastructure, social institutions, courts, housing, environmental protection, human rights protection, and other critical areas can continue along the strongly positive trajectory of the last 10 years.

Those who are busy cutting the drapes for a fourth term at Jamaica House had better understand that the modernisation objective is still very incomplete. Those who are preoccupied with measuring the curtain also need to understand this reality. Increasingly, ordinary folks are feeling and seeing a sizeable drift in the Administration’s momentum on several fronts.

Many months ago, I said in my The Agenda column that, “It is rare for a political party to win a fourth-consecutive term in a participatory democracy. There is an inevitable and natural reality of decrease, decline, attrition, and staleness that sets in after three consecutive terms in office. This is a fact!”

As I see it, the Administration is unwittingly thwarting its own momentum in two ways. First, too many in its ranks are preoccupied with selfie queues, even in totally unwarranted circumstances. They must remember that the media can make you, and the media can also break you.

Second, some in the Administration have allowed themselves to be sucked into the Opposition People’s National Party’s (PNP) tactic of the ‘Jerry Springernisation’ of Gordon House. Those who have been caught by this snare seem not to understand that this is an Opposition which thrives on privilege without responsibility. As I see it, Opposition Leader Mark Golding, wants to be treated a as future prime minister, yet he behaves like a protest candidate. This is antithetical to the standards of gentlemanly parliamentary conduct in the Westminster system.

I am not surprised by these tactics — including filibustering and related manoeuvres — now being employed by the PNP in Parliament. Seven Sundays ago I described the PNP’s behaviour in Gordon House as parliamentary curiosity. I stand by that description. The PNP’s modus operandi today is akin to a magician performing a trick with no sleeves at a circus. The PNP is using misdirection and distractions as powerful sideshows designed to increase the sound-bite value of their ‘oppose, oppose’ tactic.

After three straight general election defeats, the PNP still has not learned that pricking political blood injudiciously is often a double-edged sword. I have presented the verified receipts previously. Those in the JLP who have allowed themselves to be sucked into the snares of the Opposition evidently do not realise that Opposition Leader Mark Golding follows his party.

The scandal involving Dennis Gordon is the most recent evidence. Some political scholars argue — and I agree — that one of the surest signs that an Administration is starting to lose the plot is when it allows itself to be sucked into low-calorie politics. Some in the JLP are doing exactly that. It is foolish!

The recent buffoonery in Parliament involving the Member of Parliament for St. Andrew South Western Dr Angela Brown Burke, along with the reactions and support from her colleagues and her formulaic, wrong-but-strong defence, demonstrates that the PNP continues to limp from crisis to crisis. As I see it, the PNP needs serious detoxification from its fixation with populist politics. Populist politics is a slave to outrage. The JLP will do well to avoid this trap.

The greatest aphrodisiac in politics is hope. The global consequences of the war in the Middle East are rapidly eating into the hope reservoir of ordinary Jamaicans. Folks want to see a Government (the Opposition included) that is preoccupied with the inspiration and delivery of hope in very practical ways. The politicians who are preoccupied with providing fodder for the media and sound bites to advance their careers are off on a frolic. Voters are noticing the betrayal. Folks are watching and they will have their revenge when they next go to the ballot box.

DELIVERY IS PARAMOUNT

In my column of September 28, 2025 I noted that, “This Holness Administration would do well to understand that the admittedly splendid macroeconomic song, which has been a mega hit over the last nine years, has started to fall off the hit charts as far as many ordinary Jamaicans are concerned. This new Holness Administration urgently needs a new mega hit song. The lyrics must centre on tangible and sustained economic growth of at least three per cent. It must register in people’s pockets and must be visible on the dinner tables of thousands more ordinary Jamaicans.”

The macroeconomic song is now off the charts. In these hard times, folks don’t want to hear how great the macroeconomic numbers are. Folks are interested in how the statistics are materially improving our lives and livelihoods. This brings me to the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) and the giant obstacles that are being used to make this generational project wither and fail.

It took Jamaica 45 years to begin implementing a national identification system. And, 35 years after Prime Minister Michael Manley recommended the building of a modern Parliament we have not laid the first block yet. This is madness!

Consider this: “Jamaica must address its public bureaucracy. We have got caught into this culture of analysis paralysis. There are those who will seek to say that you are corrupt, that you are trying to circumvent procedures. But what they are really wanting to do is to hide behind a wall of circuitous regulation that leads to nowhere. And in my mind, that is the corruption.” Prime Minister Holness made these comments at the official opening of the Parnassus Argo Park in 2024.

At the opening of the Essex Valley agro-processing facility recently Dr Holness spoke about “excessive bureaucracy” hindering growth and development.

Political ‘bad mind’ is another great hindrance. The Administration needs to listen less, far less, to the obstructions from the PNP and its confederates in civil society and get on with the NaRRA project.

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.

Garfield Higgins

Opposition Leader Mark Golding outlining the People’s National Party’s version of “building back better” during his contribution to the 2026/27 Budget Debate. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)

Angela Brown Burke (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Oil prices at the pumps continue to challenge commuters.