“The Jamaican people need a new direction. The Jamaican people need a Government that cares for them. The Jamaican people need an honest Government that will look after their interest. The Jamaican people need the People’s National Party (PNP) back in government with Mark Jefferson Golding as the prime minister, and a tapanaris set of people round me to run the country the right way in the best interest of the people.”

These are the words of president of the PNP Mark Golding. Golding was speaking at the East St Thomas Divisional Conference recently. Golding continues to spout the slogan ‘New Direction’. What is his great secret? Should someone who has put himself up as our alternative prime minister, the most powerful elected office in the land, be allowed to continue this hide and seek?

It is an insult to well-thinking Jamaicans that, after many months of election campaigning, Golding has yet to specify what is his new direction.

Important revelation

Inadvertently, or consciously, Golding did make a very important revelation in the mentioned address to party faithfuls in east St Thomas and, by extension, all Jamaicans. Golding seems to have let a proverbial ‘puss out of the bag’. He revealed to the gathering what kinds of persons would constitute his inner circle were he to become our prime minister: “Tapanaris!”

What does this mean in local parlance? The term is commonly used to refer to ‘big shots’, the well to do, and what reggae legend Bob Marley termed “friends inna high society”.

Oligarchy, this is the name which is given to the type of rulership which Golding seems to have put forward in east St Thomas. Oligarchy is the “rule of the few”. It is a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people might be distinguished by nobility, wealth, family ties, education or corporate, religious or military control.

Is this part of Golding’s new direction? If the answer is in the affirmative, then it begs the further question: How does tapanaris rulership square with the principles of democratic socialism, which the PNP says is powered by the needs and directives of ‘the small man’?

Given Golding’s tapanaris revelation, it begs another question: Is Golding a bona fide socialist?

Following on his public admission in this newspaper that he was a socialist, I asked in this space: “Just what kind of socialist is Mark Golding?” I also noted the following: “Golding is the de facto alternative prime minister, folks; therefore, we have a right to know the precise foundation upon which his socialist ideology is situated. Does he have sympathies with communism or totalitarian regimes? Are his socialist beliefs grounded in Marxist doctrinaire? Is he a Christian socialist? Or is he a devotee of Fabianism — the rotten dogma from which democratic socialism was hatched? Is he a libertarian socialist?” (Jamaica Observer, June 13, 2021). Based on the mentioned revelation and related declarations by Golding, discerning persons, doubtless, would have figured the answer.

Given Golding’s St Thomas pronouncement, well-thinking Jamaicans have a duty to also ask which kinds of tapanaris will form his front bench. These are not fanciful or frivolous questions. These are questions to which Golding and the PNP need to provide straightforward answers, especially given their constant trumpeting that they are planning to take Jamaica in a new direction — glimpses of which have been scary.

Well thinking folks cannot simply sit, assume, and hope that men will be their better selves in the midst of their yearning to achieve power. That is dangerous.

Jamaica’s reality is that, for decades, some who have sought and achieved political power have perpetrated bait-and-switch politics. The hugely deleterious impact on the growth and development of especially the ordinary people of this country is immeasurable. Golding consciously or otherwise has told us that a future Administration led by him will be populated with elites.

Those who conveniently excuse away what our alternative prime minister said in East Thomas as a mere slip of the tongue are not going to be the ones to wring their hands in costly regret and bitter consternation if Golding’s pronouncements are put into action. Emperor Haile Selassie I, famously said, “Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.” I agree.

‘Tek sleep and mark… dead’

Last Sunday, Golding made another revelation which some among us are conveniently categorising as political jiving. According to The Gleaner, Golding said this, while speaking during a St Andrew East Rural constituency conference at Donald Quarrie High School, last Sunday, “Everybody, mek up unu mind! Work has to be done. It not going happen so. We have to mek sure seh every Comrade who voted for the People’s National Party in 2011 and delivered the victory. If they’re still alive, dem affi go vote fi Comrade Patrick Peterkin when the election call, and even some who not alive, you know if dem can deal with it, no problem.”

The PNP subsequently put out a release which said, Golding’s statements were “reported on without proper context” and were “intended as humour” — the old blame the messenger dodge. But, where did 89 Old Hope Road play this gramophone recently? Recall that less than three months ago there was mighty kerfuffle at the headquarters of the PNP. It was preceded by many weeks of bitter outbursts in the constituencies of St Ann South Eastern and St Elizabeth North Eastern. Violent conflicts between PNP supporters in St Catherine South Eastern worsened lacerations in Norman Manley’s party. In mid-May some of the warring factions converged on 89 Old Hope Road to vent their disgust with the manner in which Dr Alfred Dawes had been selected to represent the PNP in the next general election.

Recall the deputy general secretary of the PNP, Dexroy Martin, was caught on tape chastising a reporter for wearing green clothing to the PNP headquarters. Recall, too, that Martin objected to reporters questioning PNP Vice-President Mikael Phillips. He also ordered the reporters to leave the compound. According to media reports things escalated further with rape threats issued against a female reporter. The threats of rape were issued inside the PNP’s HQ in the hearing of a familial throng. This horrible incident caused significant damage to Jamaica’s reputation. Consider this: “Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns multiple threats against journalists, including a threat of rape, outside the headquarters of the People’s National Party (PNP) in Kingston.” (RSF, May 9, 2023)

The PNP sought to downplay the damaging incident with a release and media appearances by its general secretary, Dr Dayton Campbell. The country was sold the line that the genesis of the rape threat was banter between friends — this seems to have become a kind of go-to defence for disturbing happenings in the PNP, lately.

These happenings are of national importance. Why? The PNP is not a pressure group. It is a political party. Its raison d’etre, given it is in Opposition, is the securing of State power. Golding is not a hermit in the Blue Mountains. He is a public figure. His statement, at a minimum, is severely frightening and deserves the strongest national condemnation possible.

It has not escaped my notice that up to the time of writing denunciation of Golding’s statement at last Sunday’s St Andrew East Rural constituency conference has come from but a single civility society group. Believe it, there are still stubborn defenders of acrimonious politics in our midst once it benefits their narrow political interests. Some of these individuals are well credentialled. Some wear long robes, much longer than their quotient of intellectual honesty.

It does not concern them in the least that, after many months of election campaigning, Golding has not presented any operational specifics of his new direction for Jamaica. The discerning among us sees exactly what is going on. The sanitising heat of public scrutiny must not be lifted from the actions of those who seek to retard Jamaica’s growth and development.

Scary implications

Well-thinking Jamaicans have to be super vigilant with respect to the progress we have made to date. During the last 14 years the people of this country have invested enormous amounts of blood, sweat, and tears into rescuing our economy from the edge of a giant precipice. We were pushed to that precipitous edge primarily because of years of accumulated mismanagement, particularly in the 1970s and 90s.

Jamaica must never ever return to the dark days when we were the laughing stock of the region and were seen globally as an economic pariah. I believe it is absolutely necessary that we protect ourselves against those who have no qualms about squandering 14 years of hard-won economic gains if that is how their political and related ambitions will be satisfied. Utterances which I have previously discussed here are harbingers of a return to the days of mismanagement that almost ruined us.

Economic ruination is synonymous with the PNP administrations of the 70s and the 90s. Luckily for us, Norman Manley’s party, as consequence of strict supervision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), did not derail the economic programme started by the Bruce Golding Administration. I previously said here that Dr Peter Phillips, the minister of finance and the public service and de factor prime minister between 2011 and 2016, deserves credit notwithstanding the fact that his actions were directed by the IMF.

Any return to any kind of electoral fraud in Jamaica will not be viewed as banter between friends, especially by the international financial community. But, more important, vastly more important than our almost miraculous economic progress in recent years, is the matter of preserving Jamaican lives. Electoral fraud and/or an atmosphere in which folks believe there will be voter fraud are precursors to violence, murder, and mayhem. We, in Jamaica, do not need to do more research into this matter. The awful consequences of the 1976 and 1980 general elections still haunt dozens of Jamaicans today.

Formula for defeat

Just over a year and half ago I said in this space that Mark Golding would become the second head of one of our two major political parties and leader of the Opposition not become to prime minister. Recall I made a similar forecast about Dr Peter Phillips just over two and half years before the September 3, 2020 parliamentary election.

Six months ago I said here that the JLP — I presented a number of reasons then — would win a third consecutive term at Jamaica House. My forecast is trending in the precise direction that I had anticipated.

The JLP’s positives are vastly more powerful than the negativism platform of the PNP. This is another reason that the JLP, except there is some calamitous scandal or catastrophic natural disaster, will win a third term. I previously discussed the possible political dynamics of those happenings. The PNP has an obvious formula for defeat and the JLP one for victory.

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.