The announcement by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, of Jamaica, that he was not seeking re-election came as a surprise to those of us who monitor Jamaican politics, not because we were unaware he was under considerable pressure, but because the decision to leave comes across as very “un-Caribbean”.
Comparatively speaking, Golding’s intended action is akin to Nelson Mandela’s decision not to seek re-election because he (Mandela) was also behaving in a most “un-African” manner.
Therein are lessons that leaders like Robert Mugabe have chosen to ignore.
In the Caribbean, we have inherited a political system that does not limit the number of times a leader can seek office. This works “well” with a system that can be easily manipulated to make an elected leader appear popular and continually needed by his party and country.
Several of the political problems that are discussed each week in People & Things are related to the fact that too many of our Caribbean leaders (past and present) remain in office long after it is prudent for them to do so. It is for this reason that I have consistently argued that term limits are necessary in the Caribbean.
Golding’s announcement is therefore pleasantly surprising since he is implicitly acknowledging that one of the attributes of a good leader is to know when it is time to put party and country ahead of self, and the political context here is perhaps relevant. It is true that Golding has been under considerable pressure to resign largely because of the “Dudus” Coke affair which has laid bare the extent to which Golding in his capacity as leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was involved in the extradition debate.
This revelation was interestingly enough not dissimilar to the People National Party PNP’s Trafigura scandal since both of them illustrated graphically what political parties in Jamaica routinely do privately that many inside Jamaica and across the Caribbean would consider “improper”.
This impropriety naturally impacts negatively on a political party’s chances at the polls and while as prime minister Portia Simpson-Miller was not inclined to appreciate this fact, it is clear that Golding does and this is commendable.
Golding has not yet stated the reasons he is not seeking re-election, nor has he stated whether he will demit office before or at the next election, but one assumes he sees himself as more of a liability to the party at this time and quite rightly has judged that the JLP will do better at the polls and Jamaica would look better as a country if he takes responsibility for whatever mistakes he made and “falls on his sword”.
In so doing, his errors will die with him politically, which is also good for him since it portrays him as a martyr who has sacrificed his political career for the institutions that facilitated this. Those institutions at the party political and national level are therefore strengthened since it appears as though they have the capacity to manage themselves and will not be distracted from the important business of governance.
If Golding’s decision is placed in proper historical context, it would also appear as though a commendable Jamaican model is emerging that is now being replicated on both sides of their political fence.
Jamaica has over the years had one of the most reliable “regularities of alternation” between the two political parties. However, this trend was modified by a combination of good leadership by P.J. Patterson and a dogged determination to remain as leader by Edward Seaga.
Patterson was facilitated by Michael Manley who also appreciated the good sense of “quitting” the office of prime minister, after securing the job for someone within his ranks who was equally able. He appreciated the logic of not jeopardising his sterling innings by handing over the job while still in office and giving the party sufficient time to prepare for an election under its new leadership.
One presumes that Golding fought relentlessly with Seaga on this issue, to the point where he once left the JLP to form a third party. It is noteworthy that the JLP’s first electoral excursion without Seaga was its most successful in recent times. Although Seaga would have had two terms at the helm, Golding clearly appreciates the fact that a leader’s time is not strictly determined by a measure of two parliamentary terms, but also impacted by significant political events and in his case the Coke issue stands out.
It is difficult not to see this as a sign of political maturity for which Golding, and to a lesser extent Jamaica as a maturing democracy, should be commended.
It is also interesting that this action by Golding appears to place former leader Simpson-Miller in a peculiar light since she lost office (although not under a similar cloud) but persists, notwithstanding the widely held belief that she is not helping the PNP by doing this.
This represents a complete reversal since in a few short years, the PNP, which appeared to be the reform-minded party, now appears to be the dinosaur, with the JLP appearing progressive.
It will be interesting to see how Jamaicans respond to these leadership changes when the next election is called. Like several other regional commentators, I hope this virus spreads quickly across the region.
Peter W. Wickham (peter.wickham@caribsurf.com) is a political consultant who is a director of Caribbean Development Research Services.
