Campbell's Commentary - 48-15, THAT’S THE NUMBER!

By Aubrey Campbell

NEW YORK, NY. Tuesday, September 8, 2020 – Hello folks. Here’s hoping that your carnival experience in the virtual space was a-ok? September means Summer is over and done. Gone! Here comes the Fall and whatever comes with it. Brace yourself.

So much for the small talk.

Here’s the deal. It seems the jury is still out on why the People’s National Party (PNP) did so badly at the polls last Thursday.

As one political commentator noted in our radio conversation of Sunday, August 30, - days before the polls - it would have been difficulty for the ruling Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) to lose, given the big bump it had in the opinion polls.

And so said, so done but certainly not by a 3-1 margin!

Not many folks saw that coming, at all.

So, what has happened to Jamaica’s party in the four years since they lost a general election by a razor thin, one seat?

Is it the hand of COVID 19? I was about to say Cupid...lol!

I said it in this very same space last week, that any political party, in the Caribbean, that is worthy of a seat in the parliament of the land, would call a general election, five months from its constitutional due date.

Why?

A general acclaim from the international community that it did very well managing the initial days and months of the pandemic with little or no resources, to boot!

Calvin G, Brown repeated the same sentiment during Sunday’s conversation in the zoom room, with was a first for Caribbean flavored radio in the Tri-State area!

Political parties are about holding onto power at all cost, and given the powers vested in them, they are going to call an election when they think it’s in their best interest. It just so happened that this was the JLP’s turn to paint the country green and that they did, to the envy of many.

But, let’s get back to basics, here.

Why did only 37 percent of registered voters bothered to exercise their franchise? And, if only 37 percent of the ‘population’ voted and one party won so handsomely, so convincingly, what is that saying about the losing party and its support base?

Here’s what my certificate course in ‘PoliSci101’ is telling me, from this distance, far, far away here in the Epicenter of the Diaspora, that if the inner circle of the PNP party cannot settle on the one, true leader, then the comrades will or won’t let their fingers do the choosing.

The comrades decided on the path of least resistance. Everybody cannot be prime minister. Some will have to be ministers without portfolios!

Mind you, nothing is wrong with having ambition. It’s just that sometimes it can work against you!

It is that simple.

So, while the Laborites went out in droves, and I mean that literally, the comrades stayed home this time, knowing that it’s a necessary stepping back to regroup, regurgitate, grow and move forward in five years!

There’s no other way to explain what happened to the party. The doctor was out of his depth, unable to prescribe the right medicine.

Now they can thank the corona virus disease!

Notice all who lost their seats. Those were the ones fighting for power, the kind of infighting that has done nothing but to splinter the camaraderie and the comradeship that Michael and his mechanics labored so long and hard to build!

Thanks to COVID 19, the PNP will retreat, re-imagine, rebuild and reemerge with a force akin to the decades of the 70s and 80s.

The JLP did it. And for comfort, you might want to say that all politics is cyclic!

LMAO.

The good thing is, having worked for both political parties, I can say with all honesty, that I am beholden to none. I am a Jamaican, first!

Our politicians have failed the nation. Doing the same things every five years and expecting a different result, is the perfect recipe for failure!

During Sunday’s conversation, one of the commentators in the zoom room made the startling revelation that he witnessed vote buying at a polling station in Anchovy, St. James, a matter that was brought to the attention of the police. I wait to hear the outcome as well as the case involving one constituency in Westmoreland where, after the two candidates – Buchanan/PNP, Lawrence/JLP - tallied the same, exact number of votes, the returning officer cast the tie-breaking vote for the PNP candidate!

Is that legal?

Well, my understanding is that the matter is going for a magisterial recount. And if that’s the case, why was the tie-breaker necessary?

There is a school of thought that says, absolute power corrupts!

Hours after the polls closed, Mr. Andrew Holness while acknowledging his party’s performance and saying thanks to the nation, noted that his government will not stand for corruption and that such a mandate will not be taken for granted. He now has the mandate to make changes to how such matters will be handled, including urgent attention to an archaic justice system.

If he does nothing to stem the tide of politicians plundering the public purse, if he does not act quickly to arrest criminality and re-apply the clamp on Covid 19, the honeymoon may not last five years!

Toots Hibbert. Feel better, my brother!

Your opinion matters!

You have the floor.

 

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Editor’s note. Aubrey Campbell is producer/host of Caribbean Conversation, airing Sundays 3 – 5 pm, on the Caribzone Media Network at, www.caribzone.com/Facebook