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Et tu Jamahl? January 11, 2007

Yeah, I know I’m late to the party here, but that’s only due to me attempting to get as many facts straight on the story as possible. Over the last 3 days, I’ve been emailing, phoning and talking face to face with various members of the UBP, fellow bloggers and select people from the Pembroke West branch in order to get the facts straight for my own piece of mind. As I’ve said before, I am not a blind follower of the UBP, I do believe in their vision for good governance, but allegations of racism or threatening on a basis of racism I take seriously as I will not be a part of an organisation that is racist or is bullied by people that are racially motivated.

First lets start with Jamahl’s accusation of a core of Pembroke West branch members ousting him due to him being black. It should be noted that the same Pembroke West branch members voted Jamahl in AND while they have changed their mind for another candidate, it should also be noted that the new candidate is black as well. How can that be perceived as racist, I will never know.

It has been told to me that Jamahl has not been canvasing at all, although he insists it’s due to family issues. It should also be noted that Jamahl has, since 2003, lost his house, lost his job, had medical problems for both he and his family members. While I do sympathise with him and admire him for putting his family first (I would have done the same thing), wouldn’t the best practice to have resigned his post and allowed someone else to fill the role, a role that does need filling. Had he done this, I know for certain that once his affairs were in order, he would have been more than welcomed back, if not in the same constituency if it was occupied. Instead he choose to stay where he was, in a job that requires a lot from an individual if it’s to be done properly and in the end wonders why he’s lost the support of the branch members. While many sympathise with Jamahl’s personal issues, the show must and has to go on. Period.

Getting to the allegations that his members where threatened, I’ve been inquiring with everyone, and from what I’ve got back, it was one person and from what I’ve been told it wasn’t a threat. It was more along the lines of someone mentioning to someone else at a cocktail party that, the person who was apparently threatened, might not be able to take a role in the UBP due to their job in government. Everyone I’ve asked about this has had the same story that it was a third or fourth party comment to someone else which was relayed to the person in question. Just to be sure, I have emailed Jamahl for clarification, and I have to say that he is the only one who has not gotten back to me on this. This point alone was the most important to me for reasons stated above. To date no one has been able to substantiate Jamahl’s claims.

Jamahl also claimed that he had no help from the leadership of the UBP. I’ve spoken to Wayne concerning this and as he has said, the party did indeed attempt to help him out, first of all by denying Mr. Adderley from running during the 2003 election and then by Wayne helping Jamahl with strategies, which can been seen in a number of email correspondences. Unfortunantly, with all parties, there are internal conflicts as you are dealing with a group of individuals. No matter how much unity is played upon it’s inevitable that ALL parties suffer from internal strife. This is evident when Jamahl left the NLP and PLP and as painfully evident with the PLP in 2003 when Jenifer Smith was ousted and in 2006 when Alex Scott was the same. It apparently comes with the territory of politics.

It has also been claimed that this stems from weak leadership. Unfortuantely within any party, there is so much that the leaders can do. Much of the power is held at the branch level, whereas the MP’s are actually and ultimately answerable to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the branch. These two individuals can actually pick choose and refuse a particular MP by way of branch vote. This is indeed what has happened in Jamahl’s case. The UBP leadership tried very hard to persuade the branch to keep Jamahl, however the branch votes outweighed the party leadership. This isn’t weak leadership from the party leaders, this is democracy. If there was a case of weak leadership, then only Jamahl can be blamed for this. I can only assume that Jamahl saw the writing on the wall and gave up the good fight before the battle actually ensued. I can say this as I’ve spoken with a numerous people who were in fact contacted by Jamahl for support up to a few weeks ago.

Taking all of this into consideration, Jamahl’s sudden and very verbal accusations towards the UBP does not make much sense. Given Jamahl’s history of party hopping, it can be easily inferred that he’s going to cross over to yet another one, of course only time will tell. I am waiting in anticipation as to what this Friday’s parliamentary session brings as I have no doubt that the PLP will capitalise on this issue. Before that happens, lets not forget that they have had their own, somewhat messy power struggles recently, which ended in their leaders having their heads severed ruthlessly (Politically and figuratively speaking of course) by their own fellow members. The only issue is that if Jamahl does switch sides, will his new party trust him, or will Jamahl fade into the background out of the political arena entirely. This much I can say for a fact, there are quite a few people in the UBP who thought Jamahl had what it took to serve Bermuda, most of whom are now saddened by his actions. I guess all is fair in politics as well, but we really should strive for better.

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