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You got to know when to walk away....
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Re: You got to know when to walk away....
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Piper27
YG did you write this?
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Jan 14 04 11:15 AM
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This is a very interesting letter.... putting the responsibility of Seaga's tenure in the hands of the party rather than Seaga himself..
Last year, when Ian Duncan Smith, the leader of Britain's Conservative Party, became fed up with colleagues constantly yapping at his heels, complaining about his electability, he threw down the gauntlet.
They had 48 hours within which to mount a formal challenge to his leadership or shut up and get on with the job of building Conservative unity.
The challenge was mounted, Mr Duncan Smith lost a confidence vote and after a period of horse trading and compromises, Mr Michael Howard received the unanimous endorsement of Tories to be their leader.
Earlier, in 1990, Margaret Thatcher had served 11 years as Britain's prime minister and was the darling of the international Right. But she had grown unpopular at home and there were doubts about whether, under her leadership, British voters would return the Conservatives to power.
A gentleman by the name of Michael Heseltine, a former member of Thatcher's Cabinet, mounted a challenge against the conservative leader. Mrs Thatcher won on the first round, but the victory was unconvincing. Having sounded out her Cabinet, Mrs Thatcher resigned, upon which John Major, beat Mr Heseltine to become the Tory leader and prime minister.
Within 24 hours of the Tories humiliating defeat in the 1997 general election, Mr Major resigned and in the ensuing race a young man named William Hague, 36 at the time, was elected as leader.
But Mr Hague came to be seen as a political lightweight. So when he lost the 2001 general election, he was quickly dispatched, making way for Mr Duncan Smith.
The British Conservatives have had five leaders in the past 12 years, demonstrating in their politics a ruthless pragmatism and lack of sentimentality.
The Tories may have brilliant policies, the attitude suggests, but the electability of the leader is paramount if those policies are to have a chance of implementation. If the leader is not electable, he has to go. Simple!
Few leaders easily, or willingly, concede that they are not up to the job, that they have nothing more to contribute or that they represent the major hindrance to their parties' chances. But what the British Tories have not been shy to do, and what Canada's new prime minister, Mr Paul Martin was unabashed about, is giving the incumbent a hard, and fatal push.
Which brings us to Jamaica and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), where Mr Edward Seaga has been the party's leader's going three decades and has lost four consecutive general elections.
Mr Seaga, by almost any measure, has made substantial contributions to the development of Jamaica and is still intellectually sharp. He probably believes that there is much left in him.
But Mr Seaga is 73, has been through many political battles, including many nasty skirmishes in his party over his leadership style. Conventional wisdom says that Mr Seaga is unelectable. The financial problems surrounding his companies and a recent series of political faux pax have not helped his cause.
Like Mr Duncan Smith last year, Mr Seaga now has party critics snapping at his heels. On the face of it, Mr Seaga does not, unlike the past, have the capacity to easily quell the sniping, or nascent rebellion. Except that his critics are not so sure. So a guerrilla tactic is employed. Probing, hit-and-run attacks.
Our concern is that this form of attack is debilitating to the JLP, serving only to weaken the Opposition when it should be building itself as a credible alternative to the present administration.
This newspaper believes that Mr Seaga should go quietly, decently and with grace and respect. But that is beside the point.
What we think is the real point is that Mr Seaga's internal critics should either put or shut up. If they believe that he should go and he does not at his own volition, they should mount a challenge. If they are unwilling or afraid to do that, then they should allow him to get on with the business of leading the JLP.
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