Contraversial, Hypocritical Speech

In this post the Jamaican Tory feels the need to comment on rather controversial comments made by the Governor-General, the person of whom I speak is not our own Sir Patrick Allen but rather his Australian counterpart, Quentin Bryce, who made a shocking speech last week coming out in support of both gay "marriage" and an Australian Republic. Since she made the speech it has been one of the hottest topics of discussion both in social media and the press. As with everything else there are always differing views on the matter, some applaud her comments as being long forthcoming, others are outraged that she would dare use her office and her position in such a manner, while others are rather indifferent saying that they expected no better from the likes of hers and it was only a matter of time before she showed her truly colours.

               

First of all, let me categorically state that the Jamaican Tory stands by his fellow monarchist (particularly Australian Monarchist) in strongly rebuking Madam Bryce for her ill-advised comments concerning the monarchy,  it makes her look like a gross hypocrite, after all she has served as Governor-General of Australia for five years and prior to that she was State Governor of Queensland for a similar number of years,  that makes ten years in total as representative of the Crown and now all of a sudden she’s  implicitly renouncing the very monarchy she has sworn to serve. There are some who have said that she was always a republican even before she took the job,  that then begs the Question  why did she even take two vice regal posts if she didn't even believe in the very office in which she served?. It is already bad enough when politicians like former Prime Minister Julia Gillard go about spewing their republican views all over the place but at least they are elected politicians, but when the Queen’s direct representative go about saying stuff like that in public, it is a grave insult to see that the very person who is appointed to represent the monarchy is now turning her back on it, it’s almost as if she had slapped the Queen in her face. I’m sure the Australian republicans must be in a frenzy right now saying that she did the right thing and her remarks were long overdue, they couldn't be more wrong as her remarks were far from appropriate give her position. Some say she was only expressing her heartfelt views on the subject, be that as it may, the Governor-General of Australia, like Governors-General from every other commonwealth realm has one main job only and that is to represent the sovereign, all other roles of the Office of the Governor-General be they constitutional, ceremonial, community or otherwise are all symbolic roles to denote the presence of the monarch via her direct viceroy,  and to that fact Bryce has certainly put herself in a precarious position.

              

Then of course there is the whole matter of gay "marriage", while many others focused only on the GG’s treasonous comments, being a traditionalist the Jamaican Tory finds her view on Gay "marriage" just as alarming as he found her views on republicanism.  Regular readers of the Jamaican Tory will know by now that the so called phenomon of “marriage equality”  is something that I have always been fiercly opposed to from day one and that will not change now.   One thing that  was found to be quite interesting though is that she mentioned support both a republic and  gay "marriage" in the same speech, causing  her to gain massive  popularity among both LGBT people and republicans, while raising the fury of both devout monarchist and anti-LGBT persons, am I the only one seeing the connection here? . It's not the first time that LGBT advocacy and anti-monarchism have been seen to go hand in hand as part of an ultra-liberalism agenda, take for instance our own Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, is it not ironic that she the first Jamaican PM to support LGBT rights also wants to see the Queen gone?, what about the leftist human rights groups in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean? The same thing can also be said of their kind. Many of those who support both LGBT "marriage" and republicanism claim that their advocacy is one of equality. equality of marriage and equality of opportunity what rubbish, funny thing is about that is it looks all rather Marxist to me, let’s face the facts, Karl Marx in his writings had several  goals, two of those goals was the destruction of the family structure and also the destruction of traditional authority,  no wonder most LGBT advocates are also monarchy haters, they have a great deal in common and both are nothing more that two sides of the multifaceted yet diabolical philosophy known as cultural Marxism. 

              

To further demonstrate my point take a look at the flipside of the coin, where many of those who oppose a republic also oppose gay rights (that’s not to say that all republicans are LGBT loving or all royalist are anti-LGBT), a prime example would be Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot, a man who is well known for his forthright views, a true loyalist and an honourable man, the kind of leader many other countries would benefit from. It is a well known fact that the Prime Minister is a supporter of the monarchy and an opponent of marriage equality, this knowledge which I’m sure the Governor-General has only goes to further underscore the seriousness of her transgressions, what could she as the Queen’s representative hope to gain by openly standing in direct opposition to her own prime minister? One cannot help but wonder if this was a political ploy on her part and if so, then why? .  Walter Bagehot in his book the English Constitution states that a constitutional monarch has three functions, The right to be consulted; The right to encourage; and The right to warn, hence the reason why a monarch can remain above the whole political fray and serve as a symbol of unity for the entire nation. The Governor-General is expected to do the same and therefore must at no time must ever be seen to be publicly in favour of one political position or political party, at least not in public anyway. This is why Bryce’s offence is so grave and why the Jamaican Tory unequivocally supports the call for her immediate resignation, clearly be her own actions she has proven that she is representing her own interest rather than the interest of the Crown. Hopefully her successor whoever he may be will be a true monarchist, since it has been supposed by many republicans that appointing a republican to the nation’s highest office will make the transition to a presidency even smoother.

                     

The Republican Movement in Australia really don’t know when to give up even after knowing they have fought and lost time and time again, now unfortunately they along with the LGBT rights groups have been given significantly fresh ammunition with which to fight against the conservative Tony Abbot Government and they have been given such means from no lesser person than the GG herself, one can only hope the conservative movement will be able to find the means to force a resignation or dismissal sooner than later and to Her Excellency, I will repeat the words of former Prime Minister Gought Whitlam, “Well may we say, God Save the Queen, because NOTHING will save the Governor-General” .

Aftermath of Conference

The annual conference of the Jamaica Labour Party has come and gone and I’m sure many of my regular readers must be wondering what happened to the review they have been promised by yours truly. Well here’s the final piece in this entire JLP vs JLP saga, for those of you do not know, the leadership race has come and gone and incumbent party leader Andrew Holness has managed to successfully defend his position against challenger Audley “Man-a-Yard” Shaw, with delegates choosing to give Holness  2,704 votes while another 2,012 voted in favour of Shaw, without a doubt it was clear who won the day and yours truly was one of those was fortunate to be on site at the National Arena in this historic day in the life of the party, a day which also has great significant for the continuance of the political right winged movement in Jamaica.

                         

So now that the elections are over one would have thought that the JLP would now get its act together, and prepare to take on the left winged People’s National Party in order to drive them out of Jamaica House come next general election, but unfortunately the fued continues as was demonstrated by actions taken by both sides this week. Upon being reelected as leader of the party, one of Holness’ first act was to reshuffle his shadow cabinet effectively placing Audley Shaw and all his supporters on the back benches of Gordon House and if that were not enough it emerged that Holness controversially sent pre-written and undated resignation letters of certain Senators to the Governor-General for his approval. According to sources, Holness had asked all opposition Senators to write undated resignation letters and submit them to him for safekeeping which he would in turn submit to Sir Patrick Allen (the Governor-General) at a time he sees fit.

                    

How does something like that work?, let me explain, the Constitution of Jamaica stipulates that the Upper House should consist of 21 senators, 13 from the government and 8 from the opposition, all of which are appointed by the Crown on the advice of the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader. The controversy in this case comes from the fact that Holness upon winning the leadership challenge had asked certain persons to politely step aside and give him a free hand to assemble his team, they refused so he took more drastic measures. Since this incident occurred there is a raging debate going on as to whether or not the leader did the correct thing, on one hand some accused Holness of being dictatorial and vindictive by seeking to ruin all those who had opposed him, such persons accuse him of violating the constitution and also brings the independence and integrity  of the senate  as an institution into  disrepute. On the other hand there are those who says that the leader is better off starting afresh with new faces, it’s only appropriate seeing as his recent  win has given him a new mandate and it would be a backward step for him to continue with the same old faces especially since some of those former senators were the very ones who had opposed Holness and supported what they saw as Shaw’s attempted coup d’état, they had gambled everything and lost, the only decent thing for them to do was to graciously step aside.

               

While I may not totally agree with the removal of Shaw and his supporters from both the shadow cabinet and the senate, I see the point Holness’ supporters are trying to make here, it kinds of reminds me of the famous line from the HBO Television series  “Game of Thrones” where a character uttered the now famous quotation “Whenever you play the Game of Thrones, you either win or die, there is no middle ground”, it seems to me like  Shaw and his crew though they’ve already lost in this game , they’re not ready to die just yet, this was exemplified in a letter sent by Shaw to Holness the day of his election loss outlining a set of demands that must be met before he will ever accept any post in a shadow cabinet led by Holness. I’m not entirely sure what his motivation was for doing so but it certainly does not seem like Shaw is ready to gracefully accept his loss and move one, in one of his campaign speeches Shaw had promised to be the worst nightmare for Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller if elected, one can only hope that now he has been rejected, he would not turn into Andrew Holness’ worst nightmare instead.

              

Then there is the whole matter of whether or not Holness’ actions in sending the undated letters to Kings House was even legal. From all accounts regardless of all the sentiments about independence of the senate, legislative review,  separation of powers and whatever other argument some persons are coming up with, in truth there is no legal basis to claim that Holness’ actions were illegal, uncalled for maybe but certainly not unconstitutional, in any organization public or private, it is understood that the person who hires you (or someone else in a similar position later on) also has the power to fire you, hence the reason why he could ask senators to step aside but not members of Parliament who are directly elected by their constituents. The 8 opposition senators were appointed on Holness’ advice and so why can’t have them removed just as easily? And as for the senate as an independent body, Where did they get that from?, the Governor-General cannot appoint a Senator on his own, he must wait to  be advised by either the Prime Minister or Opposition Leader as to who to appoint, some Caribbean countries like Trinidad and Barbados have independent senators which are nonaligned to a political party, Jamaica does not, so tell me again what kind of independent senate are they talking about.

There is an old saying that you can’t eat your cake and have it yet it seems that’s exactly what Shaw and his supporters are intent on doing, while there are some who accuse Holness and his supporters of promoting disunity in the JLP even after the race is over, that’s an unfair observation considering that the same thing can be said of the Shaw Team, quite frankly in this saga, I think there is more than enough blame to go around on all sides. 

Secularist Sinister Agenda

On the last anniversary of the Her Majesty’s coronation, yours truly wrote an article concerning the Queens’ coronation ritual (see http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2013/06/rites-of-coronation.html ), the same ritual used to crown English, Scottish, British and Commonwealth monarchs over the long centuries of the monarchy’s existence, one of the points that came out in the article was that our sovereign was actually one of the few monarchs that are still officially crowned, this was noted due to several factors such as the fact that many monarchies were abolished over the last century alone (most of which were deposed in illegal coup d’états) or the fact that most remaining monarchs have chosen to abandon the coronation ritual altogether and instead opt for a civil inauguration (a word that should even  not be uttered in monarchist circles) or enthronement ceremonies.

                                              

The coronation service is not just a civil or state ceremony but more importantly it is a religious ceremony which underline the sovereign’s role as Defender of the Faith and Head of the Church (of England), the coronation is significant of that age old belief that the sovereign rules by birthright because it is the will of God himself not because it is the will of the people, a quite appropriate way to put it considering that the monarchy is a hereditary institution that not an elected one. This belief is best exemplified by the title of the Queen herself as used in this Realm, Elizabeth the Second, By the Grace of God, of Jamaica and of Her Other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. Other Commonwealth Realms use their own unique version of the royal style and title and even though outside of the United Kingdom she is not seen as Head of the Church, all Commonwealth Realms have one thing in Common in that they acknowledge her as being their rightful Queen solely by the Grace of God, hence it is most appropriate that a religious coronation should be used to acknowledge this fact.

                                  

It has come up lately in the news however that certain groups have now taken issue with the timeless tradition by claiming that a the ceremony is a “violation of human rights”, they have the audacity to claim that the ceremony is outdated and there is need to replace it with a ceremony that appeals to more multicultural society. What a load of rubbish, I’ve seen leftist come up with some ridiculous claims in the past but my goodness, this one baffles even me, where these liberals come up with these bizarre sinister conspiracy theories only heaven knows. Human Rights is a much abused word these days, leftist use it to justify everything they do, it’s getting sickening. How can God’s earth can a coronation ceremony be seen to violate human rights? No one is being abused or being enslaved or being massacred, persecuted, and discriminated against or anything even remotely close to what the average man understand human rights to be. They have to nerve to talk about freedom of religion?, the Queen might be head of the Church of England but that in no way is a barrier to religious freedom, every subject of the Crown in all 16 realms and their dependencies are free to practice their religion, so in truth, the monarchy guarantees freedom of religion, which is much more than I can say about non-religious states such as North Korea, where it has recently come to light that people are now being executed simply for owning a Bible, or the days of the Soviet Union, an atheist state which had an agenda to eliminate all religion and replace it with an atheist one world  government .

                                              

The justification given by this secularist is that they are trying to promote religious freedom, what nonsense, everyone knows that the only kind of religion that atheist groups are interested in is no religion whatsoever, and what they promote as religious freedom is in fact a cover for their true agenda which is to abolish all religion (the same agenda promoted by every evil communist regime to ever exist).

                        

Also disturbing is the fact that the courts may or may not be expected to make rulings in this case concerning aspects of the coronation, which begs the question, what authority does any court have to make rulings on such a sacred aspect of the  monarchy?, the Queen is fount of justice, she is the one who appoints judges, all judges must swear allegiance to her as sovereign and dole out justice in her name, how dare any judge presume to have the right to make a ruling on  Her Majesty’s person, this only brings to mind the kangaroo court of 1649 that traitorously brought their own sovereign to trial in which King Charles I rightfully asked                                                      

 “Now, I would know by what authority – I mean lawful- but I would know by what authority I was brought from thence and carried from place to place, and I know not what.  And when I know what lawful authority, I shall answer.  Remember, I am your King – your lawful King”.

This is nothing if not sacrilege, for years many have been arguing that the principle of democracy means that the monarchy must remain above politics, yet when others used underhanded political tactics to interfere with the Crown no one bats an eye, by politicising the coronation ceremony these people attempt to bring one of the great timeless traditions of the British/Commonwealth monarchy into disrepute. While it is not inevitable it would come as no surprise if it were to be discovered that the true agenda of these liberals and secularist was to end the monarchy but instead of doing so outright, they do it quite subtly little by little, if they can come up with an argument to abolish the coronation, what is stop them from coming up with arguments to abolish the monarchy?, it’s the same principle and these ominous persons must be stopped in their tracks before it is far too late

Real Poppy vs Fake Poppy

As is traditional the first week or two in November is dedicated to remembrance day activities which will culminate in the ceremonies to mark Remembrance Day coming up this weekend , seeing as my regular readers would probably already be aware of exactly how remembrance day is commemorated via a previous post written by yours truly (see: http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2012/11/i-vow-to-thee-my-country-remembrance.html), there is really no need to go over all of that again , however there is something else that has caught my attention this week, that I feel the need to talk about.

                                            

As was already explained in an earlier post, one of the traditions associated with Remembrance Day (also called Veterans Day and Armistice Day) is the Poppy appeal, which is launched by veterans organizations across the Commonwealth (in our case the Royal Jamaica Legion) , these poppies are normally used to raise funds to support those who have served with Pride in their country’s armed forces and are now retired, This year the Legion plans to donate the  funds garnered from the appeal to the Curphey Home for ex-servicemen in Newport, Manchester. Being a traditionalist and a patriot anything that will support the cause of those who have served the Crown so ably is something that will certainly receive my approval, from all indications, things seem to be going well, as it is clear that the Legion is enlisting all the help it can get to see the poppies distributed island wide.

                     

However while it seems that the Jamaica Legion is on track with it’s goal, the same cannot be said of all it’s fellow Legions within the British Commonwealth Ex-Services League, it seems that some of the legions are facing stiff competition from liberals who have designed their own version of the poppy in order to compete with the legion. Traditionally poppies are red with a black centre, designed to look like the Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) plant , traditionally made from paper (British) or plastic (Canadian), Jamaica uses both designs, The Poppy was used as a symbol for represent fallen heroes, those who gave their all to defend their countries and the liberties we now take for granted.  The white Poppy on the other hand came into being sometime later, it is designed similar to the traditional poppy however this counterfeit is white instead of red and has a green centre rather than a black one.

                     

The rationale for the white poppy is that it symbolizes peace, whereas the red poppy is used to glorify war, as such the white is seen by some as a symbol of pacifism. But is that the real story behind the white poppy? As was stated earlier the Red Poppy appeal is traditional sponsored by veterans organisations and normally has the patronage of both the government and the military, it’s purpose is to fund means of supporting veterans. That begs the Question, who sponsors the white poppy appeal? And where do the funds go? The truth is that unlike the red poppy which has a clear purpose, the only real purpose that the white poppy serves is to create confusion and to distract from the real poppy appeal, as many so called peace organisations jump on the bandwagon to distribute white poppies, which means that some of the funds that would normally go into the poppy appeal are diverted elsewhere, no wonder the Legions are annoyed by it’s existence.

                               

Canadian veterans affairs minister Julian Fantino was heard decrying the white poppy as being disrespectful, he further continued by saying that “It really does show a total lack of respect for what Remembrance Day truly stands for, and to try and intervene in this fashion is totally disrespectful, and I would suspect that most reasonable Canadians would see it that way.” To be frank, I agree entirely with the minister, the symbol of the white poppy was not created as a means to support peace at all, in fact it is the Red Poppy that was really created as a symbol of peace, the peace that those who served in the armed forces earned even at the very cost of their lives. Contrary to left wing propaganda that the white poppy symbolizes peace while the red poppy glorifies war, in truth the red poppy is used to represent the sacrifices that our veterans made to ensure that we can have peace now, No false poppy can ever be more powerful symbol of peace than that.

                

Though thankfully I cannot ever say and I have ever seen a white poppy here in Jamaica and hopefully I never will, the creation of this poppy goes to show just how much the left is really offended by the idea of peace, freedom or even patriotism itself, they have never failed to make their presence felt with their invention of this counterfeit whose only purpose is to show just how contemptuous of those who have actually served their country and so try to malign them in his ghastly and underhanded manner . The Left have again shown their true colours, so my advice is to reject this farce, support your local legion  by getting a real poppy and join with our veterans this remembrance day in singing that good old patriotic hymn:

 I vow to thee my country, all earthly things above, entire, whole and perfect the service of my love;The love that ask no questions, the love that stands the test, that lays upon the alter the dearest and the best; The love that never falters,  the love that pays the price,  the love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiFpkn1QHAM

And we will remember them.....Lest We Forget

No such thing as a "Jamaican Halloween"

Today is the 31^ST of October and this say is known by many different names, Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Samhain among several others. The Halloween festival is known for several things including trick or treat, a tradition normally carried out by children and in some cases the young at heart,  lighting of bonfires, playing of pranks, visiting of haunted houses, dressing up in all manner of costumes, some of them rather bizarre, the hosting of Halloween theme parties and of course the most famous of Halloween  traditions, the Jack-O-Lanterns carved out from hollow pumpkins.

                              

 The Origins of this festival remains rather obscure, some say that it is an all Christian festival that is celebrated the day before the traditional Catholic Festival known as all souls day, November 1, others however reject this idea, pointing out its pagan origin, such people decry all Halloween celebrations as being part of a satanic culture, with the view that nobody who calls himself a Christian should take part in Halloween. Regardless of your view on the matter, it is certainly not the intention Jamaican Tory to express his own view on the matter one way or another, as that is not the subject of the debate here.

                     

I have my own reason for not taking any part in any such Halloween celebrations, simply put it is totally nontraditional. Some of you might be puzzled as to where I’m going with this, after all Halloween has been celebrated for hundreds of years, how can it not be traditional?,  Answer: It’s not Jamaican tradition to celebrate Halloween. How is this possible? Let me explain, Jamaica was ruled by the British for 307 years, over that time period we inherited many aspects of British life and culture and incorporated with our own local culture which was also influenced by African, Amerindian and Asian aspects, one thing the British did not bequeath to us however was the celebration of Halloween. Sure we have our own myths, legends and horror stories (or as we like to call them Duppy Stories) which included figures Annie Palmer, Rolling Calf,  River Mumma and the like  but none of them have never been associated with Halloween in any shape or form, hence there is no historical or cultural justification for the celebration of Halloween in Jamaica.

                       

There has been somewhat of a cultural shift however where for the last few years Halloween is now becoming more popular in Jamaica. As a child growing up, the only time I was ever made aware of Halloween was through the influence of television programmes (especially horror movies) which were all imported from the United States, besides that there was no other mention of Halloween and most certainly nothing that was ever connected to Jamaican folklore. That however is changing as more and more people seem to be getting inot the Halloween spirit around this time of year, dressing up in Halloween costumes and going to Halloween-themed parties on the weekend closest to October 31, If we’re not careful we’ll soon see Jamaican children engaging in trick-or –treat to mimic those children from other countries as often seen on television.

                      

To be frank, I have nothing against those who wish to celebrate it, especially in countries where that is the norm after all  they have a right to participate in all aspects of their national cultural life and maintain the traditions of their forefathers, however being a traditionalist I am wary of the erosion of our own local culture to give rise to something that is foreign and alien to us, tradition must be preserved and in the case of Jamaica, our own customs does not include Halloween celebrations, it’s high time to stop wanting to copy everything that  foreigners (particularly Americans) like to do and stick to our way of doing things. This is by no means meant to decry or announce American culture really after all other countries celebrate Halloween too and  some  might even ask so why pick on them?, the answer is quite simple,  It's not a matter of picking on them per se  but  let's be honest here, while other countries have Halloween as well, it is the imposition of American culture through the mass media that has caused so many Jamaicans to become more in tuned to Halloween, the mentality that causes so many to be brainwashed into thinking that it’s better to follow fashion than stay original. The fact that many Jamaicans now choose to celebrate Halloween is only a symptom of a bigger problem: that of cultural erosion and the damaging effect that this new cultural shift is having on our people.  

Race Heats Up

With just two weeks before the annual conference of Jamaica Labour Party, things seems to be heating up in  race to the top between incumbent Andrew Holness and challenger Audley  “Man-a-yard” Shaw and right now the competition is still anyone’s game  with both leaders still managing to pull very strong support from the grass roots base of the party. However the Jamaican Tory is deeply concerned with the turn of events with the campaign becoming more and more hostile , this leadership challenge is tearing the party apart, as we’re now seeing Labourite against Labourite, when what we’re more used to seeing over the years is Labourite against Comrade (PNP). Perhaps this is what Olivia Grange meant when she declared that whoever seeks to challenge the leadership at this time might not have the best interest of the country and the party at heart.

                  

               

To be frank blame can be thrown at both sides, since the announcement of the leadership challenge every issue has turned into a major squabble from the selection to the delegates list to disputes over who has the most parliamentary support and which side has more to spend on the campaign trail. This race is getting way too petty, with both sides airing their dirty laundry in public as it were, this is not doing either side any good rather it is hurting the entire party.

I’m rather shocked at the amount of tribalism that is being displayed within the ranks of the JLP itself, just last week as senior JLP MP, that is a known supporter of the incumbent evicted a counselor from his constituency office simply because she supported the challenger, this was irrespective of the fact that the counselor was still a loyal member of the party . Other statements and actions by the leader's supporters are also calls for concern, such as Everald Warmington decrying Shaw’s leadership of his area council as the worst in the island, effectively branding him as incompetent. Then of course there is the leader himself who was also found making uncalled for comments about his opponent , he accused his challengers of being traitors deliberately undermine his authority to the detriment of the party, which is why it where it is today,.

               

The Shaw camp is not spared either, regardless of  calls by the self-styled Man-a-Yard to  “bring back the love” , it is quite clear that this party is anything but united, it is quite telling that many of those who lost their seats in the last general elections are supporting Shaw, and even placed blame at the Holness feet for their election  losses, this criticism however seems rather unfair considering that Holness managed to retain his seat while they loss thiers, he must have doing something right that they were doing wrong, they also further state that since that time until now, Holness has yet to meet with them. And then of course there is Shaw himself who made a huge fuss, criticizing the leadership style of Holness  by discussing several internal party matters on a public platform and complained about Holness being weak and indecisive, allowing the PNP to get away with too much and promising that should he win, he will be the PNP’s worst nightmare, much like the present Prime Minister threatened when she lost the election back in 2007.

                       

Being a High Tory I still believe that a government that subscribes to conservative principles is best to lead a country, which is why I prefer to support the conservative JLP over the liberal PNP, but this race is tearing the party apart so much that it’s heartbreaking. The more I watch, is the more that I’m of the view that regardless of who get most of the delegates votes, the real winner in this whole saga will be neither Holness nor Shaw but rather the People’s National Party, while Labourites are busy infighting the  comrades of the PNP are having a joy ride ruining the country with no serious challenges to their incompetence and mismanagement .  I would not  be surprised if Prime Minister Simpson Miller did exactly what Holness feared she would and call an early general election soon after the leadership race is over just to spite the JLP. So the question here is: if she does, can the JLP  recover in time to take on the PNP and hopefully retake the reins government or will they miss the mark and end up spending another 18 years as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition?.

The Real Cause of the Deadlock

Without a doubt, the biggest story in the news for all of last week, has to do with the shutdown of the United States Congress and the ultimately the entire United States Government due to differences between the President and  both houses of  Congress over the budget for the upcoming fiscal year which normally begins on the first of October. Since that time there have many theories as to who is to blame for this whole fiasco as this as the first such incident in seventeen years, some persons blame the president, others blame the Democrats and still others blame the Republicans and each have their own theories as to why, some say it’s  the Republicans fault for being so stubborn, others say the President shouldn't be pushing his own agenda on to congress, I even heard one ridiculous theory that claims that it’s a personal attempt to sabotage Obama due to his race (a preposterous notion, how someone could even fathom that is beyond me).

                    

The truth of the matter is that all of these are side arguments, any blame for the shutdown should be placed squarely at the feet of the Constitution of the United States, a document written over two hundred years ago by rebel colonist who led a revolution to overthrow their rightful monarch and set up a republican form of government. It is said that if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it as truth, that is exactly what has happened here, the lie that has been spun over and over again that says that the US constitution is the best model in the world, that falsehood continues to permeate despite evidence to the contrary. The truth of the matter is that the political constitution of the United States is riddled with errors, in their effort to divide government function between three separate branches, while putting in measures to avoid any one branch from becoming too powerful, they have ultimately failed to putting in safeguards to deal with inefficiencies that may occur from a government shutdown of this nature, after all this is most certainly not the first time something like this has happened.

                   

The first and biggest failure was of course the lack of a monarch, the United States Constitution clearly states that the Union shall guarantee to every state a republican form of government, thus clearly stating their rejection of monarchy once and for all, this was a most ill-advised and short sighted move on the part of the founding fathers. With a monarch at the helm of the nation this crisis would have been much easier to solve as he would have the authority to dissolve the legislature and call new elections, since unlike a President he would not be aligned to any political party and as such can be a totally neutral figure acting in the best interest of the nation on a whole rather than in a partisan manner   the president  who is himself a politician cannot do this as the constitution has placed limits on his domestic power in relations to his dealings with congress, a move originally meant to intend that the President can never exercise too much control over the legislature has turned into one where he is instead so hampered by it so much that he becomes politically impotent , the founders probably never  thought about that when they wrote the constitution. Ironically enough, the American revolution was never meant to be a republican experiment from the outset, until the declaration of Independence the Colonial Army were fighting only to be free of control from the British Parliament and not from King George III, it was actually the declaration of Independence that later falsely and unjustly fingered the King as the main villain of the story. And even after they had won, many in the new country would have crowned George Washington as the new King had he wanted it, he refused and decided to run for president instead thus ending all hopes of a monarchy,A wiser man would have taken the Crown when it was offered to him but Washington did no such thing.

                            

The second constitutional flaw that is ultimately responsible for this foul up, is this whole business of separation of powers where the executive and legislature are totally independent of each other , in a Parliamentary democracy, the Prime Minister cannot remain in office if he cannot command the support of the lower house, in the US the President can stay in office whether he has the support of congress or not leading to a great political deficit, if the chief executive cannot even get congress to support his proposals how can he get laws passed? Especially since he himself does not even have a seat in the house (which is of itself another shortsighted move). Clearly there must eventually be some political fallout from such a system. It grieves me every time I hear some idiotic Neo-Marxist claim that we in Jamaica should adopt a similar model by claiming that such a separation is more democratic as it allows for greater balance of power between both sides rather than Prime Ministerial dominance of parliament. Nothing however could be further from the truth, that kind of separation of executive and legislative only makes it easier for a dictatorship to come about, while it is true that the US itself has never become a dictatorship, many other countries that adopt the Presidential model cannot same the same.  The simple fact is that the Westminster Model with its constitutional monarchy and its parliamentary structure has been proven as the most efficient of all forms of democracy that have been tried so far.

                      

To illustrate take a look at the 1975 crisis in Australia where a similar situation was occurring, seeing that talks between the government and opposition was getting nowhere and that the Prime  Minister was willing to use underhanded methods to get his way, the Governor-General  dismissed the Prime Minister and appointed someone else in the interim until new elections were called soon after , while he eventually paid a high political price for his interference at least he had the good sense to know that the situation was untenable as is and was willing to use whatever means at his disposal the break the deadlock, unfortunately for the US no such thing can occur as they chose to play their game  by a different set of rules altogether.

The deadlock is still on in earnest with no end in sight as yet , while it is expected that all parties involved will eventually come to a compromise that will end this crisis, that does not change that fact that someday in the future this might very well happen again unless they make some drastic changes to their constitution. 

Another Hollow Speech

            Unless I’m mistaken, the very first post written in this blog was in reference to the 2012 Annual Conference of the People’s National Party, time has certainly flown as just yesterday the Peoples National Party held its 2013 national conference to culminate a month long of activities in which the PNP celebrated its 75^th anniversary as a movement having been founded by the Right Excellent Norman Manley in September 1938.

                            

As is traditional of party conferences on both sides of the political divide, the highlight of the day was the speech by Party Leader Portia Simpson Miller (who also happens to be the current  Prime Minister of Jamaica) , the speech of the Prime Minister was somewhat lacking, she focused much of the first half of her speech retracing the history of the party and its leaders from Norman Manley, his son Michael Manley and then to P.J. Patterson in which she over exaggerated the achievements made under various PNP administrations  over the many years while at the same time completely ignoring some of the failings that also happened in the same  period such as the great social-political upheavals of the 1970s and the Finsac Crisis of the 1990s which did much damage to the middle class and the productive sector, a big part of the reason why Jamaica is where it is today .

                       

                       

The latter part of the comrade leader’s speech was  just as uninspiring , the Prime Minister extended her speech by constant repetition,  glorifying the few achievements of the PNP since they retook the reins of power while failing to accept responsibility for much of the problems that are now facing the nation, choosing instead their populist tag line “it’s JLP’s fault”, how convenient of her to forget that the People’s National Party was in power for 18 years from 1989 to 2007, while the Labour Party had only a four stint from 2007-2011, there is no way that the multi-billion dollar debt that the country now has could be all JLP’s fault.  Comrade Portia in her speech missed the mark by failing to address important national issues such as unemployment, the debt burden and the crime rate, she also did not hesitate to cast cold water on those who criticized the secrecy of her dealings with the Chinese concerning the global logistic hub, though she mentioned a few points it was not enough to give anyone a real idea of what the vision of her government really was. Also surprising was her total silence on the matter of corruption, which given the scandals that are currently rocking the People’s National Party one would have expected that she would be more forthcoming on the matter yet she continues to give full support to both Philip Paulwell and Richard Azan who has now resigned his cabinet post as though they did nothing wrong (see http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2013/09/contractor-general-vs-pnp.html).

                      

In like manner as 2012, the Jamaican Tory must again classify the PM’s 2013 conference speech as being devoid of any real substance (see http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2012/10/i-really-must-comment-on-speech-given.html), a view shared by many political commentators and private sector interest groups ,The PM should take care to remember  that even though those  seated in front of her are primarily fellow comrades, her speech is broadcasted live to the entire nation in which Comrades, Labourites and all manner of other stakeholders are looking to her not only as Party Leader but more importantly as Prime Minister  to hear what plans her government has in store for the country, clearly her speech has fail to hit home with many audiences hence the reviews. 

Contractor General VS The PNP

So finally the long awaited reports of contractor general Dirk Harrison are finally out and both have been laid before parliament for consideration, the report  into the  Spaulding Market scandal  has concluded in no uncertain terms that Richard Azan, a government MP and Junior Minister acted in a most inappropriate and corrupt manner and even went as far as to recommend to the Director of Public Prosecutions that he be prosecuted for the offence, the report from the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has described Azan as being involved  a deep web of conspiracy. And if that were not already bad enough a second report from the OCG with regards to the bids for the right to construct a major power  plant found that the Minister of Energy Philip Paulwell also acted in an inappropriate manner in order to allow an unauthorized bidder into the process well after the bidding time was over, the report from the OCG goes on to give details of meetings between the minister and said bidder giving them an unfair advantage in the entire process instead of following the rules that were originally set forth when the bid was first being announced.

Given the damning nature of these reports and the public outrage that ensued, one would have assumed that the government would at least be attempting some serious damage control in order to soothe tempers but instead the response of the administration has been anything but.  Speaking at the weekly Jamaica House press briefing Information Minister Senator Sandrea Falconer got herself into hot water with a couple journalist after refusing to say much on the issue, it later turned into an ugly spat and ended with the microphones of several journalist being cut so as to prevent them from badgering the minister who came with a prepared script which said very little on the matter and was not prepared to tolerate any questions on the matter regardless of it’s national significance.

                       

And if that was not bad enough, one should hear the response of Mr Paulwell who declared that he rejected the findings of the contractor general, the arrogant minister  went on to call the report as rubbish asserting  that the CG did not know what he was talking about in the first place claiming that he (Paulwell) will be proceeding as planned, in other words a report from Parliament’s oversight agency means very little to the minister because it did not fall in line with what he thinks it should be, this is nothing if not the most  blatant act of disrespect to the intelligence to the people of Jamaica.

                               

Similar sentiments were also echoed by Mr. Azan who claims that he had no regrets whatsoever about his part in the whole Spaulding Market fiasco claiming that those who now occupy the market are benefiting from what he did and that was politically corrupt then so be it. To be frank one can be tempted to sympathise with Azan given that his intention at the outset may have been noble, but that does not change the fact that he failed to follow procurement rules, he overstepped his boundaries as a junior minister and on top of all that he was actually collecting rent from the venders in the market which by right should have gone to the Clarendon Parish Council, if that is not the heights of corruption then I don’t know what is.

                         

This sort of arrogance has resonated with the People’s National Party ever since they first took back the reigns of power in 2012, they had often campaigned on the ground that the Labour Party was too arrogant and distant from the people, but in truth the response from these two individuals coupled with the lacked from response from everybody else in the government goes to show that the PNP is guilty of the very  thing the accuse the JLP of, who could forget the infamous statement of one PNP counselor back in April boldly congratulating Mr. Azan for his corrupt deeds and declaring that the Clarendon Parish council will be theirs indefinitely, that was beyond arrogant, delusions of grandeur would be a more appropriate term to define such utterances

The actions of both gentlemen has led to calls from all sectors of the society from them to resign or for the Prime Minister to relieve them of their post, the government is yet to respond to this. One can only hope that they will do the honourable thing and resign as is expected in such a system where accountability is key to wiping out corruption for good .

Leadership Challenge? Bad Idea

One could not have been in Jamaica and not have heard this story, after all it has been in the news for an entire week, and is one of the hottest topic of discussion right now particularly on local talk shows. There are quite a bit of rumblings going on in the opposition Jamaica Labour Party as it is indicated that Audley  “Man-a-Yard  Shaw”  might have is eyes on the top job in the party and is carrying on consultations to see whether or not he should challenge the incumbent  Andrew Holness for the leadership when the Party host it’s annual conference in November , Shaw is currently one of the 4 deputy leaders of the JLP, Chairman of Area Council Three, Member of Parliament for North East Manchester, a former finance minister and the current shadow minister of the same portfolio. Holness on the other hand is Member of Parliament for West Central St Andrew, a former Prime Minister and Minister of Education, he is also the  current Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.

Given what has been said so far it seems as though the tide is swaying in favour of the incumbent rather than the challenger, something Shaw probably did not anticipate given the recent defeat the party had faced at both local and national levels. However it seems as though many labourites are still loyal to the incumbent leader , several senior JLP MPs have already publicly declaring their support for Holness continuing as leader, Everald Warmington one of the most outspoken MPs and Chairman of Area Council Two had no qualms about publicly declaring where his loyalties lie and urged the delegates in his constituency in do likewise, while former culture minster Olivia “Babsy” Grange even went as far as to assert that any member of the JLP that wishes to mount a challenge at this time has an alternate agenda that means no good to the party or the country.

                    

Looking over the history of the Labour Party ever since it’s foundation 70 years ago, a certain trend has been noticed, since 1943, the JLP has had four leaders and none of them were elected by popular vote of the delegates of the party. The JLP was founded by Sir Alexander Bustamante to challenge the People’s National Party and others in Jamaica’s first general election that was held the following year. Although he retired for parliament in 1967, Sir Alexander remained as Party Leader while the senior deputy leader (Sir Donald Sangster and later Hugh Shearer) served as Prime Minister. In 1974 when Bustamante finally retired from the party, labourites began searching for a new leader. Shearer was not seen as the most suitable candidate given his election loss to Michael Manley and the PNP in 1972, so they turned to Edward “Papa Eddie” Seaga and he took the party in hand and lead it from 1974 to 2005, serving as Prime Minister from 1980-1989. When Seaga retired the senior hierarchy of the JLP unwilling to have the party divided by a leadership contest decided to work with who they thought was the most winnable candidate and settled on Bruce Golding who led them to victory two years later after 18 years out of government.  After only one term as JLP leader and Prime Minister, Golding also decided that it was time to go and again a succession crisis arose and the party leadership was settled in the same way as it was in 2005, this time with Holness emerging as victor, the delegates of the Jamaica Labour Party were for the most part left out.

              

Of course in all fairness one cannot blame the party leadership for all of this, the delegates too must share the blame, after all according to the constitution of the JLP, the delegates in theory have a opportunity to elect a new leader every November when conference comes around, it’s just that they have never exercised this right, that will certainly change this year and one can only wait and see what the results will be (personally I’m betting on Holness). Some have accused Man-a-Yard of trying to unseat the leader by surreptitious and underhanded means and they also claim that he has no right to mount a challenge but is being driven solely by personal ambition; of course Shaw denies these charges. These are baseless accusations, in truth Shaw has every right to challenge for the leadership and so far he has not gone contrary to the party’s constitution. That does not however mean that the decision to challenge is a wise one as the opposition surely has better things to do than internal squabbling.

                        

Overall the situation is like this, Labourites are more interested in a change of government than they are in a change of party leadership, many resent Shaw for what they see as his attempts to divide the party for personal gain (some have even accused him of being a PNP comrade for doing so), personally I think that it’s not too late for him to back down after all he has not officially announced a challenge, but in either case the Jamaica Labour Party will have everything to loose and nothing to gain if it remains divided along sectarian lines and distracted by personality issues.