Thursday 14 February 2008
Rebuilding the People's National Party
The appraisal of the People’s National Party’s performance in the 2007 General Elections is now complete. The report entitled - BUILDING FOR JAMAICA’S FUTURE: UNITY, PHILOSOPHY AND ORGANISATION, is an analytic review of the factors that contributed to the failure of the Party to secure victory at the polls. The report is available here: http://www.box.net/shared/7izqqotcgs
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4 comments:
Rebuilding the PNP will be no easy task but it must be done and it must begin now if it is to prevent itself to be relegated to the backwaters of Jamaica's political landscape.
The rebuilding process requires sound and decisive leadership. Leadership that possesses a vision of where the party should be in the 21st century and beyond. The leadership should also have the will and the know how to execute that vision.
It will be necessary for the party to go back to its roots to find its soul, its purpose, the reason for its existence whatever these are they must be recaptured and programmed to be the heartbeat of the party.
but this is not sufficient to make the party relevant to the future. The 21st century and beyond require radical changes in how the party operates, organizes and engages the public at the community level and at the state level.
To do this, however, those who are vested with the task of transforming the party must be able to STEP INTO THE FUTURE if the reform is to be meaningful in other words they cannot and must not proceed with the reform if their mindset is anchored in the present.
I am convinced that the PNP has started on the journey of rebuilding itself. I hear the talks of decline and crisis however I take it all with a grain of salt looking at the fact that the PNP was 18 years in Government and the cries for a change found resonance with a lot of people.
We all know that a Party should be strongest in opposition where the shackles of running a government will be removed, so it will have more time to spend on its internal organs. So the PNP now has that glorious opportunity. I think that with a Young successful businessman in the form of Peter Bunting now as the General Secretary thed Party has indeed taken the first steps.
With a change in the leadership of the PNPYO finally becoming a reality that too is a step in the right direction.
If we look at what happened to incumbent governments in the Caribbean in 2007, and then looking at the PNP losing by less than 3000 votes, after been significantly outspent by the JLP financially in the campaign and having that baggage of 18 years then I think the PNP's foundation is no where as way as some would paint it.
In the Local Government elections of December the PNP with a barebones budget managed to come out of that election stronger than they went it.
I think the PNP has a glorious opportunity to rebuild itself and to once again stimulate the Jamaican populace and then poise itself for a grand return.
The work has started, they need to shed the baggages of the past and move forward united.
The response by both Peter's to the to the leave of absence, was refreshing and provides the first glimpse of where the PNP needs to go as it charts the way forward.
One gets the feeling though that the openness and frankness displayed by Peter, Phillips and Peart over the last week are so,are not shared by all the persons in the leadership brass of the party.
Questions come to mind immediately
1. are the three Ps the only enlightened ones
2. Are they apart of the of the grow public consensus that the party needs to reinvent itself "PON RAPID" and prepare itself for the next set of elections
3. will the enlighten ones prevail among those who want to maintain the status quo
it is the case of the "legalists" vs the "moralists"
lets see
Well I think Portia should not put herself forward as part president at the next General Conference, that would be the strongest signal that the party is moving away from being flat-lined.
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