2011 Election

Pack up your Bags and Go!

Labourites were dumbfounded.
By 8:00 pm on December 29th it seemed
unbelievable, but the People’s National
Party was in the lead.

Labourites babbled , believing that if
they talk loud enough what they say becomes true.

No one could tell a Labourite what the majority
of Jamaicans thought of the Manatt affair.
Labourite opinions steamrolled over the nation
as if because it came out of their mouths it
was endowed with authority.

Rank and file Labourites, who are almost as
distant from the Leadership as the Veranda
Sitter, had no idea what was going on behind
closed doors.

They didn’t know how Holness got power,
and had no one to ask.

Holness cut every throat he needed to on his
way up, ensuring there was no challenge.
Bruce Golding was forced to step down;
this wasn’t easy as the baseless sense
of his own prestige has always controlled him.

Like telling an ugly girl that she’s beautiful,
or convincing a mundane player that he’s the
best on the team, so too Golding’s false sense of self worth.

It took a week of pressure for Golding to
deign to tell the Jamaican people that he
was stepping down in favour of Holness.

His enormous ego and arrogance was soon dwarfed by Andrew Holness.

Thinking he was Jamaica’s Barack Obama,
Holness didn’t realise he was an unknown
quantity to the majority, but more poignant,
that the sensibilities of Jamaicans were unknown to him.

The Majority of voters in Jamaica are not young.
Politics really matters to those 60 and upwards.
They remember when.....

During the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, there were few
young people active in politics.

The Youth Organisations had their members but
the average Jamaican; 18 - 28 was not interested
in politics.

The majority who attended that JLP conference
in November were over 40. Yet Holness, in his
arrogance took the stage not appreciating he
was talking to people who had followed ‘Bustamante until they died...’

His performance, as if he had a ‘record’
to stand on, (as Minister of Education he
had alienated the teachers and was homeschooling
his own children) was amusing.

But not amusing were the political Ads.

Firstly, Holness, as the majority of Labourites, have
no idea how the entire Dudus/Manatt scandal destroyed
the JLP. Thinking he could claim not to be involved
and pass to another topic was the kind of miscalculation
that destroyed Golding.

Secondly, was the unawareness that the vast majority
of Jamaicans are uneducated. They are sensitive
about their lack of education.
To ridicule Portia Simpson because she didn’t have
an alphabet soup behind her name or behave with
Upper Class decorum, was insulting them.

Every Ad which was anti-Portia lost the JLP more votes.
Yet, in their Ivory Tower, smugly surveying the proles,
the JLP persisted in pushing forward their young, inexperienced, arrogant leader.

Polls have always been suspect.
Anyone who has ever participated in poll
taking knows how questionable the results are.

As the JLP relied on Polls it was not difficult
for the 'uneducated’ PNP supporter to lie.
If the JLP believes it is in the lead, it will
spend less money, do less work, and call
elections at the worst possible time.

Elections interfered in what is the most
lucrative time of the year for the poor.
Xmas Market is the time when people go out
and spend money they can’t afford to buy gifts.

With Elections set for the 29th of December,
and Downtown known as a political hot bed, people stayed away.

Only someone out of touch with real Jamaica
could call elections during that time.

Holness believed the Jamaican people were
stupid and he could rely on non-answers
of technical jargon, and that by saying
a contract can’t be changed people would
believe him, when they themselves have
personally experienced how contracts can be changed.

The People’s National Party had done its canvass.
By the 28th of December 37 seats were ‘certain’.
Hence they knew they had won.
But that was not to be shared.

When election day came, despite the large
number of new names on the voters list,
despite the belief Holness would ‘inspire’
them to vote, they couldn’t be bothered.

The so called ‘neutral’ voters, loud mouthed
Veranda Sitters, couldn’t be bothered

PNP voters went out to vote.
PNP voters made it their duty to vote.
Hence more seats were gained than predicted.

Cabinet Ministers; Dwight Nelson, Chris Tufton,
Robert Montegue, Clive Mullings, lost their seats.
The new ‘young’ MPs were on the PNP ticket.

Everyone in Jamaica, from the Police to Vendor,
from the Lawyer to the labourer, supported the PNP.

Only those in ‘Garrisons’ with old leaders,
Mike Henry, Pernel Charles, Ken Baugh, Horace Chang,
retained them.

Currently 42 seats out of 63 have been won by the PNP.

It doesn’t matter if Holness steps down or not.
Jamaica is sorry that it ever put Golding into
Office in 2007.

All the PNP has to do is be an average government to hold power for a long time.