Anyone grateful for the benefits liberal democracy has conferred on this country – due process, a free press, and the opportunity to choose our leaders – has a moral responsibility to vote. Those who don’t vote obviously don’t care who governs them and have no right to complain about anything the government does.

This at least is what I told my staff before the 1997 general elections. Not that many of them listened. Of over 80 members only 13 went into a polling booth. And I myself was in a dilemma at the voting station.

The PNP had by any standards governed disastrously since 1989 - the crime rate had almost doubled, the economy was not growing and corruption was rife. They certainly did not deserve my vote.

But then the JLP looked even worse. Its members kept stabbing each other in the back and its leaders were all mired in debt. It would surely be illogical to support such a disorganized and incompetent entity.

Yet my conscience demanded that I vote for someone. So what about the NDM?

Now the NDM had run a totally inept campaign. Its ridiculous “change the system” slogan told you it was against everything that had transpired in Jamaica since 1944 but gave no idea what it stood for. Indeed except for some vague, indeterminate Americanism no one – not even NDM executives – had any clear idea what the party proposed to do if it came to power. Whenever I asked people what they thought of the NDM the answer was almost always the same - “But what do they stand for?”

Even worse the party based its entire platform on an issue which no party in the history of democracy has ever come to power on – constitutional reform. Anecdotal evidence then suggested that the only Jamaicans this matter excited were Mutty Perkins and the Breakfast Club hosts. And a later Stone poll only confirmed what those with ears already knew – less than 5% of Jamaicans considered constitutional reform a high priority issue.

Furthermore the NDM ran totally uninspired and confused ads. There was no common linkage and not even a musical tag line. Compared to the PNP or even the JLP it seemed like a collection of amateurs.

Yet the NDM had a number of things going for it. For one several of its leaders were successful businessmen with proven financial and administrational competence – traits lamentably rare in Jamaican politics and virtually non-existent in the present PNP or JLP. In addition the party was untouched by political scandal and completely untainted by political violence. In short the NDM offered the prospect of good managers, no violence and no corruption.

True its smug holier-than-thou attitude grated on the nerves and its blanket condemnation of Jamaican politics seemed an insult to the memory of Norman and Busta. But still it seemed the lesser of three evils. So I made my X against the lighthouse and left the booth with a clear democratic conscience - I had voted and could look my staff in the eye. But what would I have done if there had been no NDM? Spoiled my ballot?

What transpired is now history. The NDM got an embarrassing 5% of the vote, chose not to contest the subsequent parish council elections and was humiliated in the recent North East St Ann by election, leading to the stepping down of its founding president Bruce Golding.

Why has the NDM failed to attract significant support? No one can be entirely sure. Many say third parties simply cannot work in this country. But most mature democracies have more than two parties in parliament. Unless Jamaica is somehow a unique political entity, which is unlikely, there is no intrinsic reason why another political party can never take root. It is not as if the PNP and JLP have overwhelming support among the electorate. After all less than 45% of the eligible voters voted for either party in 1997.

But any successful third party will need two things – the right leader espousing the right issues. Now the NDM indisputably failed to address issues that resonated with the Jamaican people. God knows why the party thought constitutional reform was a burning issue among the masses. It should have promised to fix the roads properly, vowed to tell the public the truth about FINSAC, and played up its real strengths - managerial excellence and an absence of corruption.

Leaders get the praise for victory so they must take the blame for defeat. To his credit Bruce Golding has manfully accepted responsibility for the NDM’s failures and will be stepping down as president. Many say he was right to do so because it was his endless vacillating that caused the NDM after five years to still have no coherent platform. But it is not often that any politician – Jamaican or otherwise – accepts responsibility for his party’s mistakes. His detractors say Golding is constitutionally indecisive. But there was certainly nothing gutless about his resignation after the North East St Ann defeat. He did what a man of integrity had to do.

I would like to see the NDM continue as a political entity. After FINSAC there can be no doubt that this country needs a viable third party. Because FINSAC represents nothing less than a gang rape of the tax payer by the PNP and JLP. All it would take is one MP of integrity to table a bill to make the details of those disgraceful proceedings public. But that one apparently does not exist today. “Give us one MP and we will tell you the truth about FINSAC” – now there is a vote winning NDM slogan.

It is not true that the NDM has contributed nothing to Jamaican politics. Though unnecessarily theoretical at times, it has certainly raised the general level of debate. And by constantly taking the high ground on political violence it has forced the other parties to follow suit and come out of the gutter so to speak. It has also encouraged many prominent private sector figures who might not otherwise have done so to get involved in Jamaican politics.

No doubt that the NDM has made many errors. But mistakes are an inevitable part of politics, a game with no written rules where trial and error is the only way to get things eventually right. Nor is five years a long time in the elections business. The British labour political movement took over a decade to get significant parliamentary representation.

Frankly if the NDM folds its tent after a mere five years and a couple of defeats those who accused the party of being a bunch of celebrity seeking profilers will have been proven right. But hopefully those of its members who are serious about wanting to transform Jamaican politics will continue to press on. The race is not always to the swift. changkob@hotmail.com