Still In Charge! Pressing Ahead With PDP
My My My! So tell me now. You all mean to tell me that since the retirement of the beloved Portia Simpson Miller, this present Comrade Leader Peter David Phillips was only working and existing with “lip servers,” who were simply looking for a chance to stab him and leave him to bleed to a political death?
Where is the loyalty in this?
Factions were plotting his overthrow and replacement with an upstart flaunting big bucks to patch weak pockets. They were not seeing the bigger picture? This is now very evident by the way this Challenge went down. It was a lesson in treachery, backstabbing and greed.
No wonder Phillips came off as lackluster to us all, myself included. He was manning a ship without rudders, few hands on deck and no mates. Now we know there were a pitiful few committed to helping him with the cause. Aspirants to leadership were simply moving along in the shadows, biding their time, to pounce! This man was too tired doing what many should have stepped up in their assigned role to relieve him of. There were few TRUE warriors behind him. No leader deserves that. How then can he lead? Who goes to war with half an army? Yet he did, and he survived it. That is saying a lot for his ability to mobilise in clutch situations.
I am not particularly fond of him, as everyone pretty well knows, but I am fair-minded. I have always made myself clear on that but my basal instinct for fighting for the underdog has been stirred. Henceforth, I will be back in the fray, fighting for the cause and my country at large. If PDP is the person heading that charge then he can expect another soldier who works from the shadows. He at least deserves the chance to fail.
So, now sensible delegates have handed him the reins, again. He is energised. Age is but a number. Bernie Sanders is now 78 years old, Joe Biden 76 and Hillary Clinton 71 and are all still gunning for leadership of the most powerful country in the world today. Why not Phillips? He is still in his sixties. Still many years of service left in him.
Now we need to give him the support we have given all previous CLs and let him fail without our contributing to his demise. We have put the ball in his court, so let us do it fairly and squarely and give him full support, as we have done with all other party leaders..
I have a strong feeling inside of me, despite my former standoff, that with us all giving him even 50%, he will lead us back to the positive side of local politics. The people, as usual, will feel and be energised according to the heartbeat of 89 Old hope Road.. If Comrades’ hearts are pumping action, zeal and real fire, (not hot air), the people are going to respond likewise. That will translate to the masses coming out to vote on Election Day. If PDP is lackluster, then let the known big talkers step up and do their charisma thing. That will leave him even more time and room for the business of governance. A failure at the polls is a failure for all of us, lest we forget.
Phillips was an integral part of the Michael Manley, PJ Patterson era and by PSM’s side in the last PNP regime, he was a proven campaigner, negotiator and diplomat for his party and his people. There is none other at the moment as qualified and ready to take on the world on our behalf. The song ‘My Leader Born Ya’ is still good. Comrades should pump it now with a will, together, in unity and zeal just like old times. The people still remember.
Let us educate them further. It took all of the 70s and 80s to prepare us for the 2000s. Educate our young people and show them the hope that spurred a module the whole world was looking up to, lauded by other world leaders for the progress and appreciating him. He was the brain behind much of Jamaica’s resurrection from the graveyard after a burial by JLP politicians. He has the power to show our youth how, with some modification, it can still work for them. Just as he has electrified the PNPYO, who came out in full support of his leadership, let us infect them with new inspiration and hope and pray that they will take it personal and make it their fight.
There has always been but one PNP and that PNP remains a potent and powerful fighting machine for betterment of the masses. Let’s join hands and put our might behind Peter David Phillips. He is who the country needs right now. Let us take him on our backs with a strong surge forward and let God take care of the rest. A win for PDP equals a win for the people, who seek a halt to corruption in governance, unemployment, crime, sexual abuse of the innocent and starvation. He is already well known to world and area leaders everywhere, and is no newcomer to international politics, nor the business of resurrecting our finances from the gutters.. We need that experience and expertise right now. Let’s do it!
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 1995. Email feedback to [email protected] and kandiearth@hotmail
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