Seaga's annual resignation threat

Daniel Thwaites

A LEAKED letter indicates that Seaga's annual resignation threat has come a bit early this year. As reported, the letter indicates that unless there is an effective JLP candidate in every constituency and parish council division, the Maximus Leader will quit. That's hardly setting a high barrier.

Unless you consider that there are 60 places in the House of Representatives and another 227 parish council seats. Are there that many people still left in the Labour Party?

Not that Seaga has ever had it easy politically. First there was Michael Manley's infectious charisma to compete with. Then quite dramatically, there was a shift to the enigma of Patterson, who is like the slim, unobtrusive, quiet fighter they thought was easily beatable until he knocked them flat time and time again. Not even Michael's charisma sent the opposition scattering as has Patterson's patient strategic manoeuvres.

Then there are the internal intrigues and wrangles. Mike Henry is preparing to launch his leadership campaign, and though this must be on the minds of all Labourites, there is the infamous "gag order" which restricts their commentary on it. Henry is really competing with untested Audley Shaw who has been plopped by Seaga into an uncomfortable second-spot.

The now completely ineffective Bruce Golding continues to reside on the outside, but must be thinking about building a bridge to return. Which is remarkable when you think about it: the desperation in the Labour Party can still look attractive to the desolation in the Golding Party.

Pearnel Charles is out of sight, out of Parliament, out of favour. And yet, he was the Labour Party's greatest hope. Is it too late for him to be rehabilitated and reinstated? If not, where is the person of national stature? It points to the fact that Seaga is not the problem with the JLP.

Those problems are far greater than merely at the top. It is also with the wimps and sycophants and loyalists who haven't watered the grassroots for a long time. Pearnel would tell them that.

Still, what are we to make of this actual resignation threat? Most likely, it is business as usual, a clearing of the pathway so that Seaga will be able to say "since you didn't do it, I will have to". Thus he will freely deploy candidates of his choice wherever he wants. In praise of Seaga it must be said that he has not changed. He is as constant as the North Star, and even his severest critics must have some grudging admiration for that. But the Cold War is over. The world has changed. And Jamaicans have too.

A Mr. Cecil Gutzmore has written a demolition of Mutty Perkins in a paper entitled "Perkins' Pro-colonial Cast of Mind". It is to be found in issue number 38 of "Jamaica Beat". Therein is also contained another worthwhile piece called "Perkins and Black History".

Gutzmore's piece touches a lot of the right buttons. In particular he completely rubbishes the vacuous slipshod nonsense that Perkins passes off as knowledge about Britain and her governmental and constitutional arrangements. He further dissects Perkins' newly-found (and very entertaining) populism.

Here is one suggestion to Mr. Gutzmore for a future piece. Investigate the background of Perkins' favourite quotation, the business about "things falling apart" from W.B. Yeats. There you will find that Yeats, who had a passion for the Irish fascists, called that poem his definitive political statement. Further to things falling apart: Yeats had an operation by a Dr. Steinach who was briefly popular in Europe for a "denaturing" operation meant to fix the bits and pieces of men that were no longer functional. Things fell apart indeed!

Back to Commentary