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?.