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JAMAICA Labour Party officials Dr Christopher Tufton, Daryl Vaz and Delano Seiveright, along with People’s National Party functionaries Delano Franklyn, Raymond Pryce and Damion Crawford speak on Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s address to the nation last night. Here are their responses:

Dr Christopher Tufton, minister of industry, investment and commerce:

 Given his experience in the political process, one has to respect and yield to his own judgements on these matters and the views that he has advanced.

If you look at the political landscape globally and even regionally, age and experience is playing less and less significance in terms of political leadership and what is critical is energy, vision capacity to grasp the issues, take decisions and basically to mobilise people to provide leadership and that can be demonstrated in five years. It doesn’t have to take 15 or 20 years.

“There is always going to be a need to ensure that in terms of the party going forward, the age and experience, youth and experience, are balanced which could provide the best combination in the country and party. So it’s not one or the other or one at the expense of the other as it relates broader leadership.”

Daryl Vaz, minister of information and development:

 Mr Golding’s speech is reflecting his reasons for resigning and what he thinks the country is looking for.

“I don’t think that Mr Golding will ever be able to satisfy every request or every speculation as to why he would have retired based on all the comments that have come so far and all that will come. But what he has given is open, honest and frank in terms of the reason he gave.”

Delano Seiveright, president, Generation 2000 (G2K):

 “The prime minister gave his reason for resigning and I have faith in him and support him on the points that he has put forward. For the first time in the country we have a prime minister who thinks beyond himself and puts the country first, and I think that is something that future leaders should emulate.

“The prime minister is reiterating what G2K pushed for last year. It is among our top policy positions. We have already demonstrated and will continue to push for Generation X and transformational leadership. Jamaica needs that game change and the prime minister has selflessly put us on course for that. We continue to respect our party elders and are certain that many of them have a lot more to contribute. Mike Henry, for instance, is a man imbued with vision, mental agility and 21st-century pragmatism. Just look at how he got the train rolling again while simultaneously leading a overhaul of our infrastructure.

Delano Franklyn, former PNP state minister and senator, attorney-at-law:

 Central to the prime minister’s decision to step away is the Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke saga. It is very clear that he has come to the realisation that this matter is going to haunt him for the rest of his life and he’s figured that to go into an election as leader with the Dudus saga central that his party was bound to lose.

There is no doubt in my mind that this notion of wanting to hand over to a younger person is one which he came to, having made the decision to retire. Certainly, by stating that he would wish to support a younger person he is ruling out Mike Henry, Pearnel Charles, and even Audley Shaw and Ken Baugh, those who seem to e contemplating offering themselves.

The problem Mr Golding is going to have though is that whether or not he is central to the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party, the fact that all others figured that he did nothing wrong as it relates to Christopher Coke, is also going to be a burden for them to bear.

Mr Golding speaks about how difficult it has been over the last four years .. the role of prime minister has never been an easy one. One will recall that when Mr (PJ) Patterson became prime minister in 1992, it was the said Mr Golding who said that he was a boy in a big man’s job.

Now it is absolutely fair that Mr Golding has demonstrated that he doesn’t have the capacity to lead when things get tough.

Raymond Pryce, president, PNP Patriots:

 If his speech is sincere now, that means we will have to agree that the one in May of last year was insincere and those statements in the interim were incincere as well.

One thing is for sure and that’s the handling and/or involvement and/or behaviour of the administration, not just the prime minister, over this whole Coke extradition to say the least was horrendous. Now we have a situation where the prime minister is leaving largely because of it, as many in the international press have suggested, and up until Monday of last week before would-be successors emerged, all of them were still on record as saying that nothing bad had happened — the 13 Senators, the 30 members of parliament who voted in the noconfidence motion, saying that the prime minister had done nothing wrong, as recently as Monday, the former justice minister was heard in the media still defending the issue; the prime minister attempts again in this statement to explain the issue… so it is unfortunately a further example of the bad pantomime becoming even worse toward the closing of the curtain.

Damion Crawford, former president, PNP Youth Organisation

 Overall, I think that the presentation was very weak. I thought that the prime minister used the opportunity to voice his opinion on who he believes is best to be the leader of his party and who by extension will be the prime minister of the country. And so the speech I would have been looking for is one that was more focussed on actually explaining the circumstances that would have led to the prime minister having to leave and to quell some of the rumours that have been spreading that could actually lead to an unfortunate economic downturn, because of the lack of certainty and the risks perceived in what might come in the future.

As it relates to young people leading the party, I don’t think that demographic factors should be a basis upon which we make decisions, be it age, gender, race. Youth has the natural zeal and enthusiasm that is needed, but it doesn’t mean that an older person will not have that. Equally, older people come with a level of reasoning and wisdom that will be needed, which is not to say that young people don’t have that. The things that we should be looking at are those pertaining to leadership characteristics, more than the age, or the time that an individual was born.

Source: Jamaica Observer