There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true, the other is to refuse to believe what is true. — Ship of Fools

American Katherine Anne Porter is the author of the above-states international classic. It is based on a political allegory, which first appeared in Book VI of Plato’s Republic, which centred on a ship with a gravely dysfunctional crew.

Porter’s Ship of Fools tells a tale of a group of disparate characters sailing from Mexico to Europe aboard a German passenger ship. The main characters include Germans, Mexicans, Americans, Spaniards, a group of Cuban medical students, a Swiss family, and a Swede. Figuratively the book examines the deep-seated problems and dangers evident in the behaviours of people obsessed with the acquisition and retention of individual power.

Self-glorification is the priority of such obsessives. They will use near any means necessary to preserve their very selfish interests. Does this sound familiar? It should. Remember this: “We believe that it is best for the PNP [People’s National Party] to form the Government; therefore, anything that will lead or cause us to be in power is best for the PNP and best for the country.” This was enunciated on radio in the 90s by the PNP’s now Chairman Emeritus Robert “Bobby” Pickersgill. Anything excludes nothing.

The PNP has never separated itself from this frightening and rotten dictum. It is not difficult to understand how and why? Just look “outta yu two yeye dem”, as we say in the streets, and you will see the rapid disintegration of Norman Manley’s party.

The PNP was once seen by some Jamaicans as the party which could be relied upon to provide more urbane leadership. As I see it, the leaders at 89 Old Hope Road have, by and large, been relegated to purveyors of navelism (my coinage), meaning merchants who intellectually and predominately specialise in that which is located below the waist.

Plato, in the mentioned text, warns of the awful, inevitable, and precipitous pitfalls of political actors who sideline expert knowledge, facts, rationality, competencies, and skills acquired through research, education, and best practice and, instead, focus on worthless political trinkets. Plato like Porter warns that, especially State power, when attained and/or retained via the use of trinketry, leads to disasters.

Trinkets galore!

Last Sunday, I said, among other things, here: “Something is just not right at 89 Old Hope Road. If the PNP cannot coordinate its position on taxes when in Opposition, what should we expect if it formed a future Administration?”

Especially in recent months it should have become obvious to well-thinking Jamaicans that Norman Manley’s party seems to be having a collective political nervous breakdown. As I see it, Opposition leader and PNP President Mark Golding is leading a veritable trinket parade.

The leaders of the PNP seem to believe they can arbitrarily dictate the political, social, and cultural Zeitgeist of Jamaica. They are wrong.

Golding, over many months, has been channelling Michael Manley, especially his exceedingly successful use of popular culture in the 1970s. Manley used reggae music and other cultural paraphernalia to his great advantage. Golding needs to understand that this is 2025 Jamaica, not the 1970s.

For nearly three years Golding has been campaigning in the highways and byways of our country. The PNP has been using a combination of empty braggadocio; Trumpian mimicry; celebrity endorsement of standard-bearers; veiled threats; vulgar displays; the giving of pride of place — especially on their campaign platform — to individuals of highly questionable character, including some with criminal convictions; trailer-loads of uncosted promises; drive-by type attacks on the reputations of people, including private citizens, media houses, and specific journalists who refuse to swallow the PNP’s cool-aid; plus what journalist, the late Winston “Babatunde” Witter called standpipe brawls.

The use of these tactics has given the PNP some amount of bounce. That reality has obviously emboldened 89 Old Hope Road. Golding seems not to understand, though, that political bounce and political momentum are totally different things. I will explain the differences in a future article. Suffice it to say that to win State power in especially a Western-styled, liberal democracy like ours three critical ingredients — money, momentum and message — are needed. I don’t see the evidence which proves that the PNP has sufficient amounts of any of these three to win a general election at this time.

Last Monday someone sent me footage of a PNP rally which took place in the constituency of St Ann South Western. Danishka Williams, daughter of Danhai Williams, who is no stranger to local headlines, was presented as the party’s standard-bearer for the mentioned constituency. Like other standard-bearers across the country, she reeled ofa trailer-load of uncosted promises.

As I listened to the promises being reeled off, the saying “a promise is a comfort to a fool,” which my late grandfather often repeated, came to mind.

It did not escape my notice either that the senior leaders of the PNP, including its President Mark Golding, did not present any costed plans which would materially improve the conditions of people’s dinner tables and pockets in the specific constituency and/or nationally. True to form, Golding and the PNP spokespersons reached deep into their bags of trinkets and started to release them like confetti. Confetti are totally useless as soon as they hit the ground.

And something else from the mentioned footage made it all too obvious that descent is a premium in the PNP these days. Several popular dancehall artistes, some has-beens and wannabes, descended on the platform. Some were dressed in camouflage with their faces totally covered with masks. Some displayed gang signs in their on-stage gesticulations. Some had cups of what looked like hard and/or expensive liquor. Some simply ran from one end of the platform to the other aimlessly. And one shouted an extremely derogatory utterance which cannot be reprinted in this a family newspaper. Golding was on the platform. He did not stop the craziness. The chickens are all already on the roost.

Tactics are not strategies. It is obvious to me that the PNP does not understand this — in the same way the party has mistaken political bounce for momentum.

That aside, all Jamaicans need to “tek sleep and mark death”. For months I have been warning here that the Mark Golding-led PNP was the epitome of an unusable past. Jamaica cannot afford to backslide.

United in division

Consider this: ‘Not a word! Crawford says PNP won’t reveal plans until elections are called’. The news item said, among other things: “PNP caretaker for St Catherine North Western Senator Damion Crawford has vowed that his party will not reveal the policy plans it has for the country until Prime Minister Andrew Holness calls the general election.

“Several political analysts have called on the PNP to outline the policy platform it would pursue should it be successful in the election due later this year. The analysts say the PNP has not outlined a clear list of policies to improve the lives of Jamaicans.” (Nationwide News Network, January 20, 2025)

Recall I have been asking in the space for almost two years for the PNP to say what Jamaica would look like at the end of, say, five years if the PNP were to get back the keys to Jamaica House. Senator Crawford’s response to the country at a PNP rally last Sunday, to me, is a piece of effrontery. Crawford and the PNP seem to be under the mistaken notion that we work for them. He would do well to remember this adage: “He who has raw meat must seek fire.” The PNP has a whole lot of raw meat.

It bears repeating, tactics are not strategies. It is evident to me that the PNP does not understand this in the same way they have mistaken political bounce for momentum. And let me also remind the PNP that poll results do not have predictive power.’

Consider this: ‘Paulwell outlines PNP’s plan to reduce electricity cost’. The news item said, among other things: “Opposition spokesman on energy Phillip Paulwell has outlined a five-point strategy which he says will revolutionise the energy sector under a future People’s National Party (PNP) Government.” (Jamaica Observer, January 20, 2025) This headline says to me that the long-standing political lacerations in the PNP are still not healed.

Is Crawford a OnePNP or a RiseUnited follower? And to which of those two factions does Paulwell belong?

Something is just not right at 89 Old Hope Road. Clearly the left hand of the PNP does not know what the right is doing, as we say in local parlance. Divided parties do not win State power.

No thunder stealing

Anyway, it did not escape my attention that, instead of helping to enlighten the country as to the plans the PNP may have for the growth and development of Jamaica, Crawford and others, last Sunday, took refuge in the stealing of thunder dodge. Something is just not right at 89 Old Hope Road.

Here is a lesson which my late grandfather taught me. When you are bright you don’t have to jump on the roof top and shout it at the top of your voice. Crawford, who seems to be high on hubris, would do well to understand that lesson.

Recall that, while on the political hustings in Portland Eastern in the run-up to the by-election in 2019, Crawford, then a candidate for the PNP, spewed what was appropriately described by many well-thinking Jamaicans as “classist”, “sexist”, and “misogynist” diatribe about his political opponent, Ann-Marie Vaz.

Among other things, The Gleaner of March 4, 2019, reported: “If you look at potential, the furthest this lady will go is Mrs Vaz. If you look at potential, how far can I go? And how [far] will you come with me?” Crawford stated, also declaring that,“If this lady beat me, it will be a travesty!”

Recall, too, Crawford’s boasts about his academic prowess leading up to the Portland Eastern poll. On April 21, 2019 I noted, among other things, here: “Braggadocio is not a political strategy. All who aspire to enter representational politics would do well to understand this simple fact. Constantly telling folks that you have degrees to match a thermometer and attended Heaven’s University do not impress them when many do not have indoor plumbing, decent roads, and other basic amenities.”

Credentialism, the belief in or reliance on academic or other formal qualifications as the best measure of a person’s intelligence or ability to do a particular job seems to have become a political affliction in the PNP. In the run-up to the 2016 General Election I remember seeing a video in which a very senior PNP leader titillated himself on the political stump by listing the individuals in his party who had the title Dr before their names.

Something is just not right at 89 Old Hope Road. Recall that after some very incriminating vote notes gushed onto the public pavement in 2020, Crawford said he had “some things to improve”. I don’t think he has made one iota of improvement. Evidence splashed into the public square since 2020 suggests he is the same old loquaciouscarpetbagger of public fame.

Last Sunday, for example, Crawford claimed paternity for concerns about student absenteeism in local schools. He said he had enunciated concerns in his address at the PNP’s annual conference, last September. He claimed Prime Minister Andrew Holness took his concerns and adopted then as his, minus crediting him. A little research would have helped Crawford’s memory:

* ‘We need truancy officers’, The Gleaner, February 13, 2012

* ‘Parents who fail to send children to school could face penalties’, Jamaica Information Service, September 2, 2010.

Crawford seems not to get it that truancy is the elephant in the room. Who saw it first is immaterial. Credit binging will not advance us. Jamaicans must resist shiny and not so shiny trinkets, especially at this time.

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.