It has been reported that Audley Shaw met with Andrew Holness, Carl Samuda and Horace Chang, where he reportedly formally announced he will challenging the incumbent Andrew Holness for the leadership of the JLP.
Personally , I believe this is a good move and will settle this leadership struggle once and for all and is something I had called for a few weeks ago.
I think it was a good move for Audley to meet with Andrew face to face vs making an announcement on social media or on some political platform.
Filed under: Politics |
Warren's Blog 
Normally I side Man-A-Yaad, but this time wrong move.
What can the JLP do different now?
What should they do different now.
I would say if I am a Labourite …nothing …zilch.
It is not like Comrade going to abdicate and allow the JLP to take
power simply because the JLP with a new Leader will be more vocal. The Comrades have an huge margin and virtually anything they want to do they can do. Besides Jamaica Governments have already handed over power to the IMF lock, stock and barrel. The only freedom the GOJ has is to borrow from China.
Sadly Audley’s time has passed. He allowed Bruised forward in the
Party, watched without protest as he demonstrated his mistrust of him
by sharing out the MOF. Then he allowed Bruised to dictate to him and
broke every fiscal promise to Jamaica, prior to 2007.
Worse he clammed up as Bruised, hitched the, JLP’s and GOJ’s wagons to Dudus caravan-of-the-deadly. When Bruised, the Party and the GOJ was mortally wounded, rather than deliver the coup de grace, Mr. Shaw stood by his man, till Bruised took his merry time and did what was inevitable.
As if all the above was not the worst things an ambitious politician,
could ever have done to commit political suicide, he then allowed
Bruised to hand-pick his successor. Even then, Mr. Shaw, the eternal
water-boy was not done carrying water. He sat there and watch Drew
make the epic rookie mistake. Having the ball in is hand and a
bowler’s wicket, he lobbed ball down the middle of the crease towards
Portia, which she duly hit straight over his head and into stand for a
massive six.
Mr. Shaw is done. The same so-called young turks who were behind
Bruised disastrous return are behind him now. They have been proven a collective failure and will fail again as night follows day, by which time what is left of Mr. Shaw’s dignity and influence will have melted away ;like butta gainst sun.
I support Mr Shaw, Andrew is not up to the task.As much as i hate to say it, the JLP big wigs financiers are not totally comfortable with Andrew at the helm. Mr Shaw would make a more appropriate leader of the party and the country, because Jamaicans on whole prefer a NICE BROWN MAN to lead them.
I hope Andrew is re-elected but reforms in some ways the style of the opposition which he leads. He needs to maintain the progressiveness and sensibleness of the opposition while at the same time becoming more aggressive and outspoken.
Most people have a problem with the leadership style of Mr.Holness because he is not aggressive and Jamaicans prefer people who are usually partisan and vulgar. I like leaders who are intellectually adept, aggressive and those who are able to articulate a philosophical position well, Mr.Holness has some good ideas, but he is unable to articulate them well. Mr. Shaw on the other hand was a better performer than his predecessor and the current finance minister, but he was not a great performer. Politics in Jamaica is the forte of mediocre men and Audley Shaw is one of the better poor performers, but if he wins the election, it will not make a difference, because his supporters fail to develop an argument beyond Andrew’s perceived weakness as a leader. Although, Mr.Holness maybe weak, his opponent does not offer much in terms of substance either. Jamaican people should put aside the hype for once and analyze both men. I will begin with Mr.Holness. In 2004, a the education transformation report was compiled. Holness implemented some of the recommendations like JTC and NCEL. In addition, during his stint a number of other programmes were launched like ASTEP AND CAP, both programmes had instances of success, but overall they failed. However the Centres of Excellence Programme was a big success and there was also a steady increase in the passes for CSEC, GSAT etc. Holness was also aware of the need to have a well functioning education trust, even while in opposition he has made some declarations that have resonated with me. For example, privatizing development approvals and reducing the role of government in procurement, but politics is not about ideas, and like other businesses politicians must give their clients what they want, if they want aggression give it to them. So, Mr Holness has failed to appeal to his base and he is not consistent in his utterances. For example, I subscribe to conservative economic ideals, the jlp is supposed to be the conservative party, but Mr.Holness is calling it the progressive party. Instead of appealing to populist sentiments, he should explain his conservative ideals to the masses. Audley was always a popular member of the party and he is usually a good opposition spokesperson. He achieved some level of macroeconomic stability and under his leadership, the inflation rate in Jamaica was lower than that of the United States, interest rates were at a record low, the dollar was stable, we had healthy reserves and mortgage rates were reduced. Some will argue that the JLP doubled the debt this is not true. The debt in 2007 was 980 billion and in 2011 it was 1.6 trillion, the pnp also increased the debt by dramatic proportions, so I do not buy the stupid argument that the jlp did a lot of damage in a relatively short period, because Jamaicans usually choose to avoid the pnp’s mistakes and Jamaica’s interest payments are extremely high, because of Dr.Omar Davies. If Audley wins then I will confirm the popularly held view again, that Jamaicans only care about hype.