It was only last week I wrote that Portia Simpson Miller's principled call for all members of parliament with dual citizenship to resign might be a strategic mistake. I argued that should the Jamaica Labour Party's Daryl Vaz win the West Portland by-election it might be the boost needed for Bruce Golding to call a general election. And should the JLP win the by-election, then what would be the political future of Portia Simpson Miller? But now the JLP sounds as if they are "running scared".

MICHAEL BURKE

Take the fertiliser affair and the statement by the agriculture minister Christopher Tufton that it is no time to score cheap political points. But politicians will be politicians and Tufton should know that it is indeed the time to be scoring political points because a crucial by-election is imminent which could determine whether a general election is called or not.

Indeed, it is known that perception is seen as reality in Jamaica. The Observer of March 6 reports that Alex Kaminsky, the managing director of the Florida-based Diamond R Fertiliser, said that "there is no human faecal material in our fertiliser". But the perception is there that it is. And faecal stench is quite distinct, so someone is not telling the truth. We know that politicians will play politics. But we also know that prominent people like President Bill Clinton and President Richard Nixon have also made denials. In the case of Clinton, most of us know the story regarding Monica Lewinsky and with regard to the late Richard Nixon, we know of the Watergate scandal

So animal and human waste have always been used as fertiliser in Jamaica, certainly for growing coffee as people in the the Blue Mountains and Portland should know. But that is our own and not that of a First-World country with a reputation of imperialism and oppression, which is what galls most Jamaicans.

Another JLP knee-jerk reaction was when Kenneth Rowe used a word that is understood in a certain campaign context as political fair play. In politics, "intimidation" by greater numbers is not seen as a form of violence. Indeed, my information is that this is precisely the tactic that the JLP is using in the campaign. But what does the JLP's call for the disqualification of Kenneth Rowe tell you?

Yet another alarm raised is the revelation that the PNP candidate has a Canadian passport and that Rowe should withdraw not on legal but moral grounds. Canada is a part of the British Commonwealth and there is no violation of the constitution. True, the PNP had to act quickly after learning of a by-election and not an award of the seat to Abe Dabdoub. But they still should have checked out all of these things before. While a candidate can constitutionally have a Commonwealth passport, in the circumstances it doesn't look good on Rowe.

But Western Portland gave Daryl Vaz a majority in the general election despite his dual citizenship at the time. It is therefore possible for Rowe to win despite his Canadian passport and the appearance of hypocrisy after the pressure that the PNP put on Vaz for having dual citizenship.

The similarities in the political subculture of Kingston and Montego Bay are greater than the similarities between Kingston and Portland. The Blue Mountains cause a separation that creates a different subculture. Kingstonians travel to Mandeville and even Negril, let alone Montego Bay more often than they do to Portland. I have known this for at least 39 of my 55-year existence.

In 1970 as a teenager I was a member of the PNP Youth Organisation, and the PNPYO set up a summer school in Hope Bay, Portland. I stayed in the home of the late Clement Afflick for five weeks in the summer of 1970.

At the time, Ken Wright was MP for Eastern Portland. The JLP was promoting a young man named Lascelles Tucker as their candidate. From the public relations angle in Kingston, Tucker seemed ahead. But going into Portland I found that Tucker was not as popular as he was being promoted to be. And he lost his bid for Parliament against Ken Wright in 1972.

And I learnt that Portland voted for the individual. Indeed, Sir Harold Allan, Jamaica's first minister of finance, represented Eastern Portland and was an independent, not a member of a political party although he was in Bustamante's Cabinet. In Western Portland, it did not surprise me that although the JLP's Leopold Lynch had been MP for 32 years, as soon as he stepped down the PNP's Leslie Birch won the seat.

It is of interest that this is the fourth time in Western Portland the PNP candidate has been a "convert" from the JLP. There was Edward Fagan in 1955 (who as a JLP candidate defeated Norman Manley in 1944), Clement Afflick in 1972 , a former Federal MP (1958-62) and MP for Eastern Portland (elected in a by-election following the death of Ken Jones in 1964), Abe Dabdoub and now Kenneth Rowe.

I really thought Daryl Vaz had this thing pat. I have not been into Portland since the start of this year, but those alarmist cries from the JLP sounds like any card can play on March 23.