She was the ‘Best Man in Government’
She is the people’s treasure, and all the invective and negative surmising won’t change that, ever..
It’s the people that are putting her there. Their hearts pulsate for her. Jamaicans just plain love her and the world at large has adopted this humble daughter of Jamaica’s grassroots, accepting and loving her for what she is and what she has been, regardless of her little “flaws”, whatever some may conceive or perceive them to be.
All this vilifying amidst the jockeying for power within the PNP simply makes her dearer to the people’s hearts, at home and abroad because now we all know that all she has achieved came at a higher price than any other politician has ever been asked to pay.
She did it all with vitriol aimed at her, scarring and inflicting pain upon her both emotionally and politically, really long knives stuck into her back, and feet trying to pin her down so she could not pierce and shatter that precious glass ceiling. Imagine how far ahead this country could have been right now, if she had had a band of harmonious soldiers around her working in symphony, instead of constantly and clandestinely working against her efforts, some because of old grudges!
For those who think she was not “highborn” enough to lead our precious nation, remember, Abraham Lincoln came from even more humble beginnings than she did, yet became a president the world will likely never forget because of his charismatic and effective sojourns on behalf of the working class and the ‘low born,’ as well as his stand for freedom…like PSM has done, and is still doing.
If “head sickness” is her detractors’ grouse, (and I don’t know that to be true because I have seen no evidence of it) let me point them to Ronald Reagan, an actor turned president who was known to be suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and a degree of dementia while in office, yet he governed the Leader nation of the free world and did so admirably, until his term was finished.
No one found fault, but knowing all this, supported him, knowing he still had a lot to offer despite his illnesses. It’s showing these hypocritical “renewal” dissidents up, They were doing nothing to help her at all while the party still held sway. In short, many of them WERE DOING NOTHING at all! A little woman showed up the ineffective ‘men’s club,’ so their noses have been rubbed in the dirt and they are trying to make her pay for it.
That’s what this “timeline” thing is all about. The people need to know the real truth behind it all.
Now we come to the subject of her age. President Mugabe is 92 years old. He is still president of Zimbabwe and showing no sign of slowing down. The leader of Nepal recently deceased Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, who came to office in 2014 was born in 1939…do the math., King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was born in 1924 and ably ruled his country until his death last year. They are a world power mainly through his instrumentality, and oil, of course.
Golda Meir, Israel’s fourth Prime Minister, the first woman to hold that title, took office at the age of 71, and was dubbed “the best man in the government”…very much like Portia Simpson-Miller. She was “best man” because so many of her assigned ministers fell down on their jobs and instead of publicly humiliating them by asking them to step down, as she should have, she gave them a motherly pat on the back, heaved the load of their ministry on her own already overwhelmed and dipping shoulders, while she soldiered on like the warrior she is.. This while jackasses idly occupied parliamentary chairs and had time to get drunken and surly. The beat went on and the public never knew the difference. She was SUPERWOMAN! The very reason why she is so hard to remove, despite all her detractors’ concerted and best efforts
John McCain was 71 when he faced off with Barack Obama for presidency of the United States and is still going strong on behalf of the people in Arizona, at the grand age of 80. . Bernie Sanders at 74 posed the biggest threat to Hillary Clinton’s current bid for president. She is 68 and.knocking on the door of 70. I could go on and on but in the interest of time and space I will restrain myself.
People are asking these people at their age to step up, not step down, because they value experience and know that it is maybe the most desirable and valuable asset in a leader. Experience usually comes with age, and Portia bears hers better than most. She has all of 40 years of service under her belt. Far more than many of the above named, and she is as fit as a fiddle. I note that she bounces and runs, while most of our politicians can hardly see over their beer bellies and walk with a waddle and a whimper rather than a lively gait. She proves daily that age indeed is just a number. She always surrounds herself with the young and encourages them to aspire to greatness, bar none, case in point Damion Crawford, Lisa Hanna, Jolyan Silvera, and Dr. Dayton Campbell, to name a few. Some now see fit to sit in rum bars, rather than do the work the people elected them to do, then exit in the company of J. Wray and all his many Nephews, that noisome, vulgar and self deprecating lot. Others choose to find the beds of seductive women and men who should know better, while their own spouses steam alone at home at nights, and the social crimes go on, albeit on both sides of the political fence.
Yes, she surrounds herself with youth and it seems to have been rubbing off on her. Methinks some are calling for a “deadline” because they are afraid that she has found the fount of perpetual youth and may outlive them all. As long as she is alive, their chances of gaining an ascendency to leadership is a dim and very long shot. The people of Jamaica seem reluctant to let her go, and they are calling out these questionable “renewal” advocates who really need to take a lesson from PSM about what renewal really is and how to go about it. She is doing a marvelous job of it and has been for a long time, on a daily basis, while others seek to frolic and pleasure themselves in whatever ways please them most.
The real and glaring fact is they know the whole lot of them ‘don’t mek one,’ as my granny used to say, so they want her to go for only another year and win back the power lost, then she is supposed to “hand it over” to one of them to rule. They don’t know how to win because they don’t want to do the work. So, this lady who is supposedly almost deranged and sick no fowl foot, is strong and okay enough to deliver the goods….to them? What hypocrisy! They are looking to ride into town on her “old” back. I say, if she is good enough to do all that, then she is good enough to lead me and the rest of the country into tomorrow.
My message to the ‘motley crew’ is, the only way you are guaranteed a good turnout at your events, is if the name Portia Simpson Miller is apparent on your ticket
Note that venues where she will not be among the keynote speakers are rarely well attended. She is the drawing card. Where most others are slated to appear, the planned events are the drawing card, and must be exceptionally alluring, or else….. When it comes to pulling a crowd locally, I have never in my many years seen the likes of Michael Manley and Portia Simpson-Miller.
These miscreants have done everything so far short of killing her, throwing everything at her, including the kitchen sink.. They have not yet acknowledged and come to grips with the fact that half of the fascination she wields over the people has always been the warrior spirit that has seen her grind through party grunge and through the ranks to the very top. She still is as spunky as she ever was.
I hope that her refusal to give them a deadline wont frustrate them into giving her a “dead’ line that will make the headline. …….Yes, I went there. Sounds eerie? Then think back to shades of Sangster and Ken Jones.
Not the PNP’s history and style, but this latest bunch seems intent on Labourizing the PNP until it is unrecognizable.
Simpson says she is not having it….so now, despite her charming and unassuming self, and she is a noted warrior and watchman over her people. …war has been declared. Expect her to deliver a knockout punch and put an end to this untimely firestorm.
By Ava Ramdeen – a former staff writer and subeditor of The Daily Gleaner ,The Jamaica Daily News, and Caribbean Life News in New York, as well as Managing Editor of the Caribbean Media Network. Email feedback to [email protected] and kandiearth@hotmail.
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