So the silly season is over and the Peoples National Party has prevailed.
The bawling and despondence on the labourite's faces were evident... my concern at the end of the day however is, 'has Jamaica won'?
Now that the election is over, the overarching responsibility of the newly elected government is to provide the framework for growth and success not just for their individual constituents and followers but for those of the opposition party as well. The new Prime Minister and her government must as a matter of urgency begin to address those pressing issues which face us as a nation.
If nothing, this past election has proved that Jamaicans are maturing electorally. No longer can any party claim to have 'safe seats'. MPs must work for their keep. Responsibility and accountability is key. At the same time however, I agree with some electoral historians who say that a separate vote must be done for the Prime Minister, this thing of the party with the most seats ruling is archaic at best.
The following are my thoughts on Election 2011:
THE AD CAMPAIGN
The 2011 advertising campaign in my opinion faded in comparison to the 2007 campaign. I find it hard to believe that the comrades could not find more dirt on the Labourites, after all, they made some serious blunders i.e. the Manatt Dudus affair, the blunder with the police and teachers regarding salary negotiations, Bobby Montague tracing off the nurse at that council meeting and last but not least, Bruce Golding fleeing in a cloud of suspicion!
I found that the comrade's ad campaign suffered from execution. The one ad I thought would have nailed the JLP would have been 'One minute of Labour' instead all we got was 15 seconds! Talk about being shortchanged! There was just so that could have been placed in that one minute: the PNP berates the JLP daily about 'Who paid Manatt?’ the multi-million dollar Christiana Road and yet, none of that was mentioned. It seemed as if they were only interested in coming up with an idea, producing it as fast as possible and getting it on air.
Notwithstanding, the PNP campaign picked up in the last week or so, the production of that fast-paced jingle 'Vote out the Green Man' was a plus. Jamaicans love to gyrate and so that production would have been a winner from the start. Another problem I had overall with the PNP was that they complained too much. When you are in competition, people will step on your corn, once the comment is not libelous, relax and take your blows. All they should have done in those cases was to counteract and do so strongly and pointedly.
On to the JLP's campaign... that hit a good note from the start, all the children in my community knew 'Vote for Labour' word for word. Once you can get a child's attention, his parent will either listen or tell him to shut up. A fundamental problem for me though was those ads which attacked the Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller. We know Mrs. Simpson-Miller's shortcomings, they were fully ventilated in the 2007 campaign (think, ‘We found money! lol) and so I didn't think it wasn't important to highlight those again. Admittedly however, the ads were funny, especially the one where the papers blew off the lectern.
The second criticism of the JLP campaign was the constant promotion of Andrew Holness. I know he is new and so people needed a chance to get to know him but I thought that it would have been good to interject a Christopher Tufton in there somewhere because he did a great job in Agriculture so much so that he was voted the Gleaner's Man of the Year some time ago. I also thought that with the youth factor they should have done an ad with a Collin Virgo, Kamina Johnson & Warren Newby just to highlight the influence of the youth.
Nevertheless, I thought they ran a tight campaign. It is obvious that professionals were used in the production and execution of their ads.
THE DEBATES
I for one think the name should be changed from debates to something else... maybe a ‘discussion’ as there was no debating.
A quick (unscientific poll) of the debates would suggest that the Youth debate was by far the most 'fiery'. One thing I took away from the youth encounter is that political tribalism is still alive. To borrow a phrase from the Hon. PSM, these young people were willing to 'fight to the death' in defending their individual parties whether what they are saying was true or not. I thought that if there was a Best speaker prize it would have naturally gone to the PNP's Lisa Hanna. She was by far the most articulate, composed and confident; her years as a presenter on ‘Rappin’ were very advantageous.
From the JLP side, I would have given that title to Warren Newby. To be honest, when I heard he would be part of the debate team, I was very concerned for the JLP because I have never found Warren to be articulate or knowledgeable (after all I've seen him buck, buck through some interviews before) but Warren came out with all guns blazing. He was knowledgeable, confident and vociferous... i'm proud of you Newby; you proved that you are no ‘newbie’.
My biggest disappointment from the youth debates would definitely be Marlene Malahoo-Forte, she appeared too sensitive for politics. On the other hand, if there was a rude award, it would have gone to Raymond Pryce. I found his comments disrespectful, rude and rooted in gutter politics. I hope he realizes that Jamaica is changing and the majority of Jamaicans are willing to talk it out and not fight it out. As far as Dayton Campbell goes, I honestly cannot recall anything he said and Dr. Longmore, while she made some points, her inexperience was evident for all to see.
Debate #2 between Audley Shaw and Dr. Peter Phillips addressed far more issues, however as I said before the format took away from both men making their points. Importantly, I must say I was pleased with 'Man a Yaad's' performance. He had a good grasp of the portfolio and it showed that although successfully running the gas station eluded him, he was well on board with what the economy needed in order to succeed. Equally Dr. Peter Phillips in such a short time showed a good grasp of the issues; he showed that he does have what it takes to run the Ministry. The challenge however remains with the format... the opening and closing comments as well as the one question to each other were the only parts that showed any sign of a debate.
Debate #3 was billed as the big one, there were expected to be fireworks and in the words of someone from Facebook, Andrew Holness was expected to annihilate Portia Simpson-Miller. Needless to say that was not to be. It turned out to be the most boring debate of the season. PM Holness as expected was articulate, pointed and confident; however much to the surprise of many Portia Simpson-Miller held her own and held it properly. There were no winners or losers but God was it boring!
POLLSTERS
Pollsters and polling is a feature of elections. However, like many of my friends and even persons that I don’t know, we’ve never been polled. I don’t know, maybe we just hanging with the wrong crowd.
This election featured three pollsters, Professor Boxill, Don Anderson and Bill Johnson. Man, were they put through the ringer… especially Don Anderson, when he called it for the PNP everybody and their parent’s hit out against him… guess he was right!
THE BUGGERY ISSUE
Following on from Debate #3 the biggest issue that arose was the review of the buggery law. In response to the question posed by Journalist Deon Jackson-Miller 'Would you allow gays in your cabinet?' PM Holness played it safe and said (not verbatim) 'my leaning would be whatever the Jamaican people say'. A number of persons have complained that this is not an answer, but in the context of the Jamaican situation, it is the safest answer that he could have given. The same question was posed to PSM, instead of stopping at 'yes and I will not go into anyone's bedroom' she went on to talk about a review of the buggery law. Now there is where the big debate has been since Dec. 20... I have noted that a lot of politicians tend to overspeak. Particularly on an issue such as this PSM should just have answered the question that she was asked. Had she not gone overboard, we would not have had this furore.
While we are becoming more liberal, Jamaica is still a Christian country at no other time does this Christian principle show more than when the issue of homosexuality arises. Personally, I don’t believe that it is a conversation that we as a people are seriously ready to have.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Although there were little issues here and there, I believe that we have had the most peaceful election campaign (to date). I witnessed camaraderie between supporters like I’ve never seen before; I witnessed an incumbent Prime Minister pray for the nation and brilliance in thinking and planning from both sides of the fence. I’m proud of my Jamaican family for the peace that has held so far and my prayer is that it continues. As I questioned in the preamble, I only hope that Jamaica has truly won this time round!
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