He is given credit for starting the movement which changed the society and became a father of the nation. This man took a principled position which many saw as not benefiting him personally. He bared his chest defiantly, staking his political future, if not his life, on his bravery. Later, the administration locked him up for two years because he dared to make anti-colonial comments. Even without the benefit of WikiLeaks, it was a case of cock mouth kill cock.
After a bit of sleight of hand, he hoodwinked his opponent into calling an election at a time when he wanted, as opposed to when it suited his adversary, and became the first prime minister of independent Jamaica. Despite ill-advised concessions in the bauxite deals with the multinationals gaining inordinate control over our resources and limited gains for workers, who had propelled him into power, William Alexander Clarke, the mythological Alexander Bustamante, is canonised in the annals of our history as a hero.
Heroes are about who is writing and who has control over the machinery of ideology at the time. In simple language, history is written by the powerful. It was Latino writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez who said, "Let us hurry to write our history before the historians arrive." A similar Kenyan proverb declares, "Until the lions have their own historians, the tale of the hunt will favour the hunter."
Fast-forward to 2000 something AD when all who are reading this are nothing more than a pile of decayed bones and the school-children are researching Orette Bruce Golding, MP. By then, Dudus would have settled and Golding would have been recorded as the prime minister who 'belled' the cat, a nefarious gangster who came to prominence between the early 1990s and 2000s when Golding was either in Opposition or out of Parliament, and was ousted and extradited three years after he became prime minister. His-story might very well make Golding the hero for facing down criminals and in the wake of the departure of Christopher Coke, violent crime, which peaked under a People's National Party (PNP) Government in 2006, and dipped quicker than his credibility in 2010.
What of Tivoli dead?
And what of the 73 'martyrs' in Tivoli, who some residents claim were the victims of the indiscretionary and reckless violence of the armed forces? Which version of history will be written? Well, it was a military-police operation, and official reports, the only recorded accounts so far, clearly state that they were enemy troops or militiamen, fighting to protect Coke and his lawless empire.
Even when we look at the saga involving the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) acting improperly on behalf of the Government and engaging Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, what do we have? A prime minister who apologised to the nation, bowed to pressure to stay in office although he explicitly said that he had offered his resignation, and a year later, finally relented to his conscience. The scribes will record that the 'Driva' did the proper thing and appointed a commission of enquiry to investigate, among other things, his own possible wrongdoings. Unlike his 'frenemy' Harold Brady, who was the agent of the JLP/Government and who could have answered all the questions definitively, Golding appeared before the commission, gave testimony and suffered the humiliation of an angry, miserable cross examination.
Long after he is typified as 'pathologically mendacious' by the ultra witty and brilliant PNP jurist, K.D. Knight, unless there is a book that has it immortalised, the memory of that comment would fade and the newspaper pages will have long wrapped pungent formaldehyde-soaked fish, absorbed flood waters and made a workable substitute for bathroom tissue. All that will be in the Golding Chronicles will be the report of the commissioners. No one was guilty of any major offence.
Strange as it might sound, I bet hardly anyone knows that Bustamante would have benefited from being seen as a Spanish white man in the 1920s and '30s if he had a Spanish name instead of a mulatto one. How well-known is it that Bustamante was not a practising trade unionist, nor was he a labour leader when the uprisings in 1938 occurred? In fact, he was an officer of the Jamaica Workmen and Tradesmen Union in 1937 but was ousted by its founders A.G.S. Coombs and H.C. Buchanan, who had founded it in 1935. It is perhaps unknown to many that Bustamante offered his services as a mediator to the employers and Government and was rejected. And, after approaching the striking workers to speak to them, he was initially rebuffed with more force than a mendicant finance minister approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Take my word: It was St Willliam Grant, whose contribution as labour leader is conveniently 'parked' at Bustamante's feet, who told the masses that a repulsion of Busta meant a concomitant rejection of him. Busta did not start any labour uprising.
Resisting police
Like Bustamante, Golding left while still having more time left in his term. Busta, like Bruce, is a co-founder of a political party. The difference is that Busta was a PNP man who went to set up the JLP in 1943, while Golding is a two-time Labourite who left, was out in the blue, but returned to greener pastures.
Does anyone recall when an attempt was made by the police and military to enter Tivoli in pursuit of criminals in 2005? And where was Bruce? He stood and faced down the security forces in a fashion reminiscent of the 1938 strikes. Only recently imposed on the workers by Grant, Bustamante told the police "shoot me, but leave them alone!" Yeah, right, black policemen shooting a deputy-white elite in Jamaica in the 1930s? Not even today in 21st-century Jamrock would Offica Dibble point anything beyond his index finger at a 'brung man', much less then. Bruce read his history and he knows the legend of 'Alexander the Great'.
After becoming leader of an Edward Seaga-less JLP, he egged and taunted Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to call elections. Paying more attention to him than the polls, she waited until it was Bruce time and called it too late and the rest is ... his-story! Busta pushed his cousin to do the same, and instead of paying attention to the streets, Norman Manley kept his eyes on Busta. And in 1961, Manley, who had done all the work to secure our Independence, had to walk away a broken man as Bustamante sucked up the cake like the fat child at a birthday party. Round one, Bruce.
So, where will Bruce Golding's legacy be written? If by stepping down and letting Andrew Holness lead the JLP to victory, beating an undefeatable Portia Simpson-led PNP, what will he be seen as? He would have done what only Bustamante alone ever did - give the JLP two consecutive (contested) victories over the PNP. Bruce might be loose, but he is no fool.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Habemus Papam : The Pope is Selected
As close as it was predicted he has won by more than a nose. In fact he has beaten the whole nest of candidates and the only ones who didn’t affirm his victory were the old nest. Now, unless there is an act of God or some act of the devil that he commits, Andrew Holness is going to not only going to be the next leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) but more important, he is going to be the ninth prime minister of Jamaica.
A man, born in 1972, the same year that current Prime Minister Bruce Golding took his first bite of Parliament, this youngest JLP Member of Parliament was in gestation for the first five months of Golding’s novitiate and was only eight years old when his political sire, Edward Seaga, tasted his first and only legitimate election victory, in 1980. This is an important fact because unlike his likely opponent in the next general elections, due any time before December 2012, he had nothing to do with any of the political developments which marked the 1970s and 1980s, some of the darkest days of our political life.
Indeed, the only ‘viable’ JLP obstacle standing in the way of his acclamation, Mike Henry, was not only part of that period but he has been a political icon for so long, he might have wet his feet when crossing the red sea. Holness, notwithstanding this, is not a rookie.
Entering parliament in the eighth year of Seaga’s 15-year odyssey in the political wilderness, Holness, then fresh with the stains of maternal milk on his lips, the 25 year old went on to win three elections in West Central St Andrew.
Holness presents a daunting challenge if not a leviathan for the People’s National Party (PNP). For the past two years, the portly Peter Phillips led a PNP inquiry and revelation of surreptitious dealing regarding the delayed extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. In a saga which wound like a Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie novel, the matter ended with Coke’s voluntary departure to face the music in the United States and an enquiry by a Commission, handpicked by Golding and hen pecked by PNP Attorney KD Knight and others.
In the end we knew nothing. The main protagonist, ‘Labourphile’ Harold Brady, who stated that he was contracted by the government to engage the American law firm, Mannat Phelps and Phillips, batted and blinked his eyes, stared blankly and said nothing, remaining as silent as Commissioner Anthony Irons during the inquiry. The commission found no one culpable and to date the JLP maintains that the party had engaged the firm, and the commission agreed. Significantly, Holness, like the pope, was celibate of the whole affair.
Let us not pretend, inasmuch as Holness has been in parliament for more than 14 years, and is the rising star; like the namesake contest, it is not a case of the most talented winning but the person who can amass the most votes. Call a spade a trowel and shovel the PNP into the discourse. In the run up to the 2007 elections beginning with the fight for the leadership of the PNP back in 2006, Sista P, for all her popularity, was not the preferred persona of elites within the PNP. Founded by Intellectuals and university men, including Professor MG Smith and educator Howard Cooke, the PNP hosted a bitter battle to succeed the departing PJ Patterson. Many awful things were said about Portia’s intellect and abilities by her own party and I will not repeat them here; ignorance is bliss. In the end Portia was the happy victor.
I have no evidence to think that Holness is smarter or more capable of being Prime Minister than the other would-be candidates. Mike Henry has loads of political experience and has run private enterprises and sporting clubs. Pearnel Charles, trade unionist, has more than 40 years of politics behind him, where his best days are. But he is savvy. The eloquent Bobby Montaque, who knows the rounds and has been an elected politician for more than two decades, is no chicken, although he ran afoul of the public with his strident treatment of an infirmary official two years ago.
At 59, Audley Shaw, is not yet in the valley, although he is just getting over the hill, but importantly, he is Minister of Finance. Even though he, with a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease predicted no ill effect of the global financial crisis in 2007, he is managing the economy in the most challenging times. However, without refuelling his electoral energy at a cool oasis, the polls suggest that his leadership wont make him take the labourites across the political desert.
Christopher Tufton, Dr Cassava, who did a decent job in agriculture, is a University lecturer, with loads of research. in his new portfolio of commerce and industry, he looked like a shoe-in. Having recovered from the slip of his tongue a few years ago; this genuine ‘frontrunner’ would not encourage persons to put their X beside the head this time. But he would not beat Portia in an election now.
In comes Holness. Seaga endorsed him in a wink, his face scarcely recovering from the smirk in the aftermath of Golding’s announced fugue. Picture his stand off with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association over a number of issues including the poorly thought out, and even more poorly defended appointment of Alphansus Davis as Chairman of the Teachers’ Services Commission. It took the departure of Golding and his Gorbachevesque intervention for Holness to relent from senseless petulance. And as soon as Bruce was getting loose, he was joining the Brady brunch. Such a move could only suggest that Holness was saving his brain from the political challenges of leadership.
Nevertheless, the public in several polls had indicated that of all government ministers it was felt that he was doing the best job. Boxill/RJR researchers found that he was the person the public would most prefer to lead the JLP. Hot off the press, surveys by the Gleaner’s Bill Johnson and Don Anderson, demonstrate that Portia has a mere four points on him. That is a virtual statistical dead heat.
The PNP is now caught off guard even to the point of one spokesman forgetting that PJ was in office after Portia was elected president and criticising the JLP for the same anomaly. Portia and her older passengers in her Jeep have a major hurdle in young Holness, who may very well take it home if he times the elections better than she did. If he makes belter decisions that recently, when the smoke settles the nation and not just the JLP might say, habemus papam.
A man, born in 1972, the same year that current Prime Minister Bruce Golding took his first bite of Parliament, this youngest JLP Member of Parliament was in gestation for the first five months of Golding’s novitiate and was only eight years old when his political sire, Edward Seaga, tasted his first and only legitimate election victory, in 1980. This is an important fact because unlike his likely opponent in the next general elections, due any time before December 2012, he had nothing to do with any of the political developments which marked the 1970s and 1980s, some of the darkest days of our political life.
Indeed, the only ‘viable’ JLP obstacle standing in the way of his acclamation, Mike Henry, was not only part of that period but he has been a political icon for so long, he might have wet his feet when crossing the red sea. Holness, notwithstanding this, is not a rookie.
Entering parliament in the eighth year of Seaga’s 15-year odyssey in the political wilderness, Holness, then fresh with the stains of maternal milk on his lips, the 25 year old went on to win three elections in West Central St Andrew.
Holness presents a daunting challenge if not a leviathan for the People’s National Party (PNP). For the past two years, the portly Peter Phillips led a PNP inquiry and revelation of surreptitious dealing regarding the delayed extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. In a saga which wound like a Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie novel, the matter ended with Coke’s voluntary departure to face the music in the United States and an enquiry by a Commission, handpicked by Golding and hen pecked by PNP Attorney KD Knight and others.
In the end we knew nothing. The main protagonist, ‘Labourphile’ Harold Brady, who stated that he was contracted by the government to engage the American law firm, Mannat Phelps and Phillips, batted and blinked his eyes, stared blankly and said nothing, remaining as silent as Commissioner Anthony Irons during the inquiry. The commission found no one culpable and to date the JLP maintains that the party had engaged the firm, and the commission agreed. Significantly, Holness, like the pope, was celibate of the whole affair.
Let us not pretend, inasmuch as Holness has been in parliament for more than 14 years, and is the rising star; like the namesake contest, it is not a case of the most talented winning but the person who can amass the most votes. Call a spade a trowel and shovel the PNP into the discourse. In the run up to the 2007 elections beginning with the fight for the leadership of the PNP back in 2006, Sista P, for all her popularity, was not the preferred persona of elites within the PNP. Founded by Intellectuals and university men, including Professor MG Smith and educator Howard Cooke, the PNP hosted a bitter battle to succeed the departing PJ Patterson. Many awful things were said about Portia’s intellect and abilities by her own party and I will not repeat them here; ignorance is bliss. In the end Portia was the happy victor.
I have no evidence to think that Holness is smarter or more capable of being Prime Minister than the other would-be candidates. Mike Henry has loads of political experience and has run private enterprises and sporting clubs. Pearnel Charles, trade unionist, has more than 40 years of politics behind him, where his best days are. But he is savvy. The eloquent Bobby Montaque, who knows the rounds and has been an elected politician for more than two decades, is no chicken, although he ran afoul of the public with his strident treatment of an infirmary official two years ago.
At 59, Audley Shaw, is not yet in the valley, although he is just getting over the hill, but importantly, he is Minister of Finance. Even though he, with a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease predicted no ill effect of the global financial crisis in 2007, he is managing the economy in the most challenging times. However, without refuelling his electoral energy at a cool oasis, the polls suggest that his leadership wont make him take the labourites across the political desert.
Christopher Tufton, Dr Cassava, who did a decent job in agriculture, is a University lecturer, with loads of research. in his new portfolio of commerce and industry, he looked like a shoe-in. Having recovered from the slip of his tongue a few years ago; this genuine ‘frontrunner’ would not encourage persons to put their X beside the head this time. But he would not beat Portia in an election now.
In comes Holness. Seaga endorsed him in a wink, his face scarcely recovering from the smirk in the aftermath of Golding’s announced fugue. Picture his stand off with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association over a number of issues including the poorly thought out, and even more poorly defended appointment of Alphansus Davis as Chairman of the Teachers’ Services Commission. It took the departure of Golding and his Gorbachevesque intervention for Holness to relent from senseless petulance. And as soon as Bruce was getting loose, he was joining the Brady brunch. Such a move could only suggest that Holness was saving his brain from the political challenges of leadership.
Nevertheless, the public in several polls had indicated that of all government ministers it was felt that he was doing the best job. Boxill/RJR researchers found that he was the person the public would most prefer to lead the JLP. Hot off the press, surveys by the Gleaner’s Bill Johnson and Don Anderson, demonstrate that Portia has a mere four points on him. That is a virtual statistical dead heat.
The PNP is now caught off guard even to the point of one spokesman forgetting that PJ was in office after Portia was elected president and criticising the JLP for the same anomaly. Portia and her older passengers in her Jeep have a major hurdle in young Holness, who may very well take it home if he times the elections better than she did. If he makes belter decisions that recently, when the smoke settles the nation and not just the JLP might say, habemus papam.
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