The best & worst in us

Robert Buddan, POLITICS OF OUR TIME

If Bruce Golding represents the worst side of politicians in us as Jamaicans, Portia Simpson Miller must represent the best or certainly a better side. In a time of national crisis, a crisis for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and a personal crisis for Golding, she has proven herself a bigger person than any politician I know of anywhere in the world in such times.

At her party's National Executive Council's emergency meeting of May 16, she expressed her disgust over the Government's attempt to "plot, collude and scheme; with the explicit sanction of the prime minister" in the Manatt, Phillips and Phelps scandal. She was angry at his "brazen and barefaced deception and betrayal of the trust of the Jamaican people".

At that point, the power-hungry politician would have gone for the jugular and stomped Golding into the dust. Her party had already called for Golding's resignation and national support had built up for it. She could have announced mass demonstrations and organised mayhem to force Golding and even the entire government to resign. But she did something very different. She would not open the wound wider and divide the country politically. She turned to healing instead. She turned to her trusted formula of 'People', 'Nation' and 'Party'.

"We, as a nation" she told the NEC, "must understand that this present crossroads in our nation's history provides us an opportunity to decide where we want to go as a people. Now we must look to the way forward." Her healing is through prayer and she called for people and nation to pray. "Today," she said, "I call on the Church and all people of Jamaica to pray for our nation. I call for prayer specifically for Mr Golding, his family, the leaders of the JLP and the members of that party."

Having called upon people and nation, she also called to her party saying, "I charge you to look in the mirror". Some Jamaicans were not happy with the PNP as a party and "we must be big enough to recognise it, mature enough to admit it and strong enough to address it". She did not want her party to simply gloat in the face of the JLP's crisis.

It is not that her party is not looking in the mirror. She spoke of the party's new integrity commission, progressive agenda and engagement of human resources. But there was a broader and deeper will in the party that she wanted to summon. Old habits die hard.

Portia Simpson Miller singled out the current crisis of violence and distrust of politicians as that which most needs healing. But she resisted the temptation to tell people what should be done. As former minister of local government and community development who served for so long, I imagine she understands communities, including 'garrison' communities, more than most. But her formula is for 'we' as a people, nation and party to work out the solutions. She said, "We want to work out a practical way to address these issues. We recognise that this will mean changing a way of life, a culture and a psychology of real people."

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS

One is struck by what this says about her. She wants 'practical' solutions not lofty ones like constitutional reform, worthy as that would be. By practical she means ways that allow children to go to school and parents to go to work, indeed, to have work to go to. She wants ways that make people trust each other because without that there can be no community. She speaks of 'real people'. She wants ways that change the lives of real people, not people as a concept, but those looking for food, shelter, and safety. She wants them to be more independent of those who would buy their favour in exchange for misplaced loyalty.

She also understands that the lives of people who live in communities are lives lived in the minds of those people as well. In those minds is fear but also hope. She, therefore, speaks of treating the culture and psychology of people. This means going beyond the occasional committee on tribalism and artificial ideas that make up for lack of real experience. It means more than pontificating against politicians and parading glib slogans like 'tribalism'. I would ask any intellectual who is working on communities, including garrison communities, to make Portia Simpson Miller their first port of call.

PROTECT LIVES

Naturally, you can't conquer violence and build trust in politicians by using more violence. Portia Simpson Miller had already said that her party would use legal means to seek the resignation of Mr Golding. She has not stirred up PNP supporters to join in the violence that led to or that has accompanied the State of Emergency. She and her spokesman on national security, Peter Bunting, have asked for calm and cooperation. They say it is an opportunity to smash gangs and break down their links with politics. It would have been easy to exploit the situation if it were true that all that politicians wanted was power first and at any cost.

I can think of few Opposition parties that would have relied on the law and on peace in circumstances that offered such quick and cheap advantage. As for those criminal gangs and garrison dons supposedly connected to the PNP, we saw nothing of them. They could have been used to unleash violence against JLP gangs or the security forces. Either way, we would have been in a bigger mess.

Instead, when the violence did break out in Western Kingston, Portia Simpson Miller asked Bruce Golding as the member of Parliament to use his influence to protect the lives of innocent women, children and men who come from his own Western Kingston constituency. That protection did not come. In fact, it is a sad reflection that the member of Parliament did not have much influence over those people's lives.

When the State of Emergency was declared, the PNP leader did not get hysterical about government repression either, as is the fashion. She supported the stand against criminals but insisted that areas be targeted for curfews, police powers be clarified and a civilian oversight body be established. Rather than demonising Golding, she even offered cooperation in setting up this oversight body. But she has correctly said, had the situation been handled better from the start, lives could have been saved.

HOUSE CLEANING

It is fashionable to charge that politicians are all the same, having equal links with criminals and that the political system is corrupt. But I urge the business, media and civil society leaders who do so to look in the mirror too and pray for forgiveness. They must take responsibility for the money they give to and take from these 'evil' parties with few questions asked about its source or the purpose it is used for. They must take responsibility for failing to uncompromisingly support those same politicians who have been calling for transparency in financing parties while supporting those like Golding who are against disclosure. They must take responsibility for demanding codes of conduct when one party is in power and being silent when another is. A good clue to good leadership is moral consistency. Portia Simpson Miller has that.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Govern-ment, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm or columns@gleanerjm.com