The Question of Stable Leadership: 1980 to 2007

During a recent online debate, a certain muppet began to blame the Jamaican people for the Peoples’s National Party being in power for 18 years between 1989 and 2007. I find it completely unfair to blame the Jamaican people for the PNP being in power for 18 years because it was not the people of Jamaica that was at fault but the Jamaica Labour Party, who did not present themselves as a viable option and who I believe should return the opposition salary they received after 16 years of being the worst opposition on the face of this planet as it was not until after the question of leadership for that party was settled that they began to focused their attention on the Jamaican people and do the job they were paid to do.

In November of 2004 Edwards Seaga announced that he was stepping down from representational politics and by mid-January of 2005 his announcement came to past. The Jamaica Labour Party had not won any of the 4 elections between 1989 and 2007 and if one was to research the series of events that took place between those periods, one would clearly see why.

The Peoples National Party won every election between 1989 and 2007 not because that party had the answers to Jamaica’s problems, because they did not, not because Jamaica was moving in the right direction under the PNP Government, because it was not, not because the standard of living of most Jamaicans flourished during those years, because it was not but simply because the Jamaica Labour Party was a party in turmoil. The JLP was not a unified party but a party that had separated itself into different warring factions. It was always the gang of “Some Number” fighting Edward Seaga for the leadership of the party and it took 16 long years for the JLP to settle the question of leadership and 18 year to return to power. “We remember well the Gang of Five and Gang of 11 disputes, as well as other squabbles over leadership that ruptured the party over many years.”

Within those 18 years it was not so much that the PNP won the elections, it was more like the JLP lost the election or did not bother to turn up and there was no way under the sun the Jamaican people or any sensible people could vote for a party that was going through such intense internal power struggle and infighting. During one election the PNP campaigned solely on the words of the Gang of “5/11” as they publicly attacked each other like Hyenas fighting over a dead carcass, all the PNP had to do was play the recordings of these bitter attacks straight from the horse's mouth and use it against them, during that period JLP man cuss JLP man like dog.

I would go even further to say that during those 16 years Jamaica did not have an active opposition we were in fact a one party state. We paid the opposition to keep the Government in check and to be ready at moments noticed to take over the seat of power but there was no opposition to be found.