JAMAICA | Ignoring Portia is Bypassing an Oasis says AJ Nicholson

KINGSTON, Jamaica, November 12, 2023 - An article from the Opposition People's National Party leadership presenting an outline of historic strides made by Jamaica in foreign relations initiatives, published in the Jamaica Observer of Sunday last, November 5, had an omission of serious proportions.

The article named every head of government from either political party, with some contribution of theirs - from Bustamante to Holness - for good and for ill, without any reference whatsoever to Portia Simpson Miller and the contribution made during her tenure.

I make no comment or suggestion concerning any possible reason for the omission save to say that there is an oddity.

Regardless, I certainly cannot be taken to task for seeking to address, and to remind ourselves of, the significance of what has been omitted, particularly with the heart of the conversation consisting of the different approaches taken in recent times by the political parties in government along Jamaica’s international relations journey.

None of our heads of government came to that high office with Jamaica's international image so severely damaged and torn as when Simpson Miller assumed the reins in early 2012.

Jamaica was being buffeted in influential foreign news outlets on either side of the Atlantic in the most unflattering terms.

Some had gone as far as including in their commentary the derogatory reference to our country as 'approaching a pariah state'.

Of course, that had sprung from the unfortunate highly newsworthy episode of the Dudus and Mannatt Phelps and Phillips debacle recorded in the pages of our storied history, neatly summed up by 'Star Boy' KD before our urging eyes, colourfully injecting into the folklore the "Pack your Bags" admonition. Jamaica was by no means considered favourably in international circles.

That acid test was accompanied by the previous government, and finance minister Audley Shaw, having grievously offended the gods of the international financial system, causing a poisoned chalice to fall to Dr Peter Phillips upon the change of Administration. Jamaica's economy needed to be rescued.

How, then, did it come about that, by the end of Portia's tenure of four years, Jamaica had become the poster child of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank; and far removed from any precipitous pariah state, Jamaica had come to welcome to our shores the most heads of government during any Administration since 1944?

Dr Phillips, brushing aside the obstacle left by Shaw, ploughed hard and successfully in the vineyard, and came to receive genuine accolades and plaudits from the people of Jamaica at home and beyond for his exemplary contribution as minister of finance for that period.

He made full use of the pitch that had been prepared and which has not received the positive publicity that is its due, in its historical context. Not long after she received the baton, Prime Minister Simpson Miller made her way to approaching the US Congressional Black Caucus seeking their assistance in urging upon the Word Bank that Jamaica's case was deserving of close and special attention and examination.

There came a time when then head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, broke new ground by visiting Kingston to let us know of the rapid strides that Jamaica was making with its negotiating team led by Dr Phillips.

And Portia-like political firebrand California Congresswoman Maxine Waters later came to Jamaica and told the story of the groundwork laid by the prime minister in that early meeting with the Black Caucus seeking the approach to the World Bank.

The effects of the Dudus extradition episode lingered a long while; they continued to loom large and weigh heavily on efforts at restoration of Jamaica's image internationally, and particularly with the United States, after it had been so badly tarnished under the previous Administration.

Any thought of Jamaica being given the opportunity to entertain a visiting leader of government, for example, would be regarded as suspect thinking.

Indeed, it seemed an eternity before the United States named their ambassador to Kingston until, at long last, troubled Jamaica was favoured with the accomplished and highly acclaimed US foreign service officer, fortuitously named Bridgwater, with her husband being a Baptist pastor.

The sterling recovery efforts being dutifully pursued by our foreign service officers at home and in missions abroad would have been immeasurably assisted by the way in which their head of government was regarded. This included the strength of the laurel bestowed upon her by Time naming her among the 100 most influential people in the world.

On top of her acknowledged effervescence, Portia was respected and well received, making many friends globally: in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Africa, in the USA and Canada, at the ILO and within the Jamaican diaspora, representing her people on the international scene with distinction.

Research students will no doubt in time discover and share with us the answer to the question: How, at the beginning of her tenure, our country, Jamaica, was being mentioned in inglorious terms, and how did it come to pass that we were soon to welcome visitors: Prince Harry; Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex; Princess Anne; the First Lady of Burkina Faso; and heads of government of: Our CARICOM partners; South Africa and Nigeria; United Kingdom and Japan; Venezuela and USA? 

Yes, not long after the woes of the Dudus episode between Jamaica and our giant neighbour to the north, Jamaicans were afforded the golden opportunity to meet, touch, and even hug the inspirational President Barack Obama right here on Jamaican soil.

The unvarnished truth is that, as Jamaicans, though we have had to be making our way on a too long journey through a desert of disquieting international relations miscalculations and foul ups, the time when Sista P was at the helm constituted an oasis.

There is no wisdom whatsoever to be found in bypassing an oasis; that is where the astoundingly marked comparison with the wasteland is experienced, and there is no better way of having the stark difference fully exposed, leaving a proper understanding that lasts.

AJ NICHOLSON.