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.