Kristen Gyles | Actionable lessons from East Portland

Reputation is the collection of words people use to describe you when you are not around. Whether these words are true or not, they have meaning and they help to shape the trajectory of your life.

More than a week after the 2025 general elections, Jamaicans from Negril Point to Morant Point are still talking about Ann-Marie Vaz. She was the JLP candidate for the Portland Eastern constituency and the incumbent member of Parliament. She was first elected as MP for the constituency in 2019 during a by-election in which she defeated Damian Crawford, ending the PNP’s 36-year rule in that constituency.

That election marked the first time many of us heard of Ann-Marie Vaz, but that first impression lasted. From early on, she gained popularity for her bold campaign messaging which focused on tangible deliverables.

“Beautiful speaking cyaan put food pon table. Beautiful speaking cyaan put water inna pipe. Beautiful speaking cyaan build road. Beautiful speaking cyaan pay supermarket bill … Action do dat!” This was her campaign mantra and probably what got her the moniker ‘Action Ann’.

Once you use any social media platform you have likely seen Action Ann on your phone screen, standing in front of a moving tractor, standing before a team of workmen building or repairing a road, or overseeing some other infrastructural project. She has also managed to form public-private partnerships and to attract donors to fund several initiatives including the provision of tuition assistance to students within the constituency, the restoration of the Musgrave Market and the provision of cash grants to support market vendors.

HAS BEEN WORKING

From the looks of it, she has been working. This is the reputation Action Ann built for herself. Throughout her tenure as MP, she positioned herself in the minds of Jamaicans as a hard-working and industrious woman. Now that she has lost her seat as MP, Jamaicans are still talking about her and are still scratching their heads over what could have led to her defeat.

The point of this article is not to add to the discourse on Vaz’s tenure as MP, but there are valuable lessons that can be gleaned from her representation and subsequent defeat.

Eastern Portlanders have spent the past week trying to defend their collective decision to oust Action Ann. Some say it is an MP’s job to fix roads and that the fixing of roads is so basic that an MP does not deserve credit for it. Others say “road cyaan nyam”.

Most will agree this is a strange type of logic, but with so many Jamaicans criticising the collective choice of East Portland, I guess constituents have been left with no choice but to say … something.

That’s what reputation does. The most obvious takeaway from the election outcome in East Portland is that while it may not pay the bills in the short term, a good reputation is not useless. It silences even your most relentless critics and naysayers. In this world, there is no scenario in which everyone will support you, but it ought to be the case that those who don’t, have a hard time articulating why.

EMERGED AS WINNER

Although Action Ann lost her seat, in some sense she emerged out of the election as a winner. If more than one week after the election, people are still debating over why she was not victorious, it indicates that she was doing something right.

What that ‘something right’ is, warrants some thought too. Could it be that Action Ann simply understood the importance of visibility? Ann-Marie Vaz may appear to be the most hardworking MP across all Jamaica. And maybe she is. But maybe she is not. Regardless, she positioned herself to be seen that way. Without insinuating that she publicised every single activity she engaged in, it is clear that she used social media to her advantage and that she made herself visible wherever she could. There’s no point in doing a job well, only for your hard work to remain the world’s best kept secret.

Young people laying the building blocks of their careers and future professional lives, should especially take note. There is merit in keeping a detailed record of what you do and the value it creates for those you work with and serve. That detailed record is not just for pinning on your fridge door or for hanging on your living room wall. The time will come when you will need to draw for that record as a reminder, both to yourself and others, that you have in fact delivered.

Does that guarantee the desired outcome of career recognition, applause or tangible rewards? No. But it guarantees that decision makers will have the facts at their disposal when it is time to recognise, applaud and reward. What happens after that may be beyond your control, but the facts always speak for themselves.

Hard work and/or the perception of hard work can still work for Action Ann in a myriad of ways. She may not have retained her seat as MP, but her party is likely to use her in some other way over their next five-year reign. That is important to remember too: Failure in one pursuit can easily translate into success in another. But that success is so much more likely when a good reputation precedes you.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com