Still without its own manifesto, JLP heaps scorn on PNP’s

By: Livern Barrett

Image caption: Fayval Williams (right) makes a point as (from left) Dr Dana Morris-Dixon, member of the Jamaica Labour Party’s Communication Task Force; Kamina Johnson Smith, chairman of the Achievements/Manifesto Committee; and Dr Christopher Tufton, chairman of the JLP’s National Campaign Committee, listen. The occasion was a briefing held at the JLP’s St Andrew headquarters on Thursday.

The 54-page manifesto published by the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) “clearly seems to be a very rushed and hurriedly prepared” document with policies that have already been put in train by the Government, senior figures in the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have opined.

The JLP also mocked the numerous spelling and other errors it said are contained in the document, charging that they betrayed an organisation that is seeking to provide leadership to the country.

“Just by way of how it was laid out and the errors that were in the document forces us to conclude that not a lot of thought went into it,” said Dr Chris Tufton, chairman of the JLP’s campaign committee.

“Their document had multiple – I think the last count was about eight or more – and that was just the spelling errors. There were also several inaccuracies,” he said during a press conference at the JLP’s St Andrew headquarters.

The JLP’s manifesto will be published shortly, he said, without giving a timeline.

Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, chairman of the JLP’s manifesto and achievements committee, tore into the document produced by the Opposition, noting that it did not mention the word ‘gang’.

She acknowledged that there was a “vague reference” to scamming networks.

“In a country where organised gangs are directly responsible for more than 70 per cent of murders, the PNP’s manifesto does not even include the word gang,” said Johnson Smith, the minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade.

“On crime, the PNP manifesto is an absolute and complete and abject failure. They absolutely 100 per cent do not understand how to deal with crime in this country,” she said, while touting the 40 per cent reduction in murders this year, which she attributed to the policies of the Government.

She charged, too, that it was under the PNP-led administration between 2012 and 2016 that criminals were able to “reorganise”.

“So this is not a party that you can trust on crime,” Johnson Smith said.

Dr Dana Morris Dixon, a member of the JLP Communication Task Force, charged that the majority of the policies included in the PNP manifesto had either already been implemented by the current administration or were in line to be implemented.

She cited, as an example, a proposal by the PNP to increase government spending on labs for public schools.

Morris Dixon, who is also minister of education, skills, youth and information, said she had already announced a $400-million investment that would see the installation of state-of-the-art labs in all 15 technical high schools in Jamaica.

“So for example, St Andrew Technical High School will get a renewable energy lab; Herbert Morrison is getting a robotics lab; Dinthill Technical is getting a lab for digital construction; Kingston Technical [High School] is getting a virtual well-being lab; and St Elizabeth Technical is getting a mechatronics lab.”

Morris Dixon noted, also, that civics was reintroduced in the curriculum for Jamaican schools in 2022 when her Cabinet colleague, Fayval Williams, headed the education ministry. Over 500 schools have already introduced it, she said.

“We are introducing it not just at the high school level, but we are going through the entire process … from your basic school to your primary school to your secondary school,” she said.

“So the reintroduction of civics, which the PNP have in their manifesto, makes no sense because it has already been reintroduced.”

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