Subliminals, colour and ‘Time Come’ promises at PNP 86
Published:Monday | September 16, 2024 | 12:54 PMErica Virtue/Senior Gleaner Writer
In the blistering heat of yesterday, inside and outside the National Arena, the People’s National Party’s (PNP) 86th Annual Conference provided political moments that could become talking points for days, some in support and others objecting.
The first of many dramatic moments was the arrival on stage of Adidja Palmer, better known as Vybz Kartel, eight weeks after his release from prison. He stood before party supporters not once, but twice – the second time with Isat Buchanan, one of the attorneys who made the case for his release before the United Kingdom-based Privy Council earlier this year.
No words were uttered by Kartel during his first appearance, which lasted little over a minute. Only the roar of the crowd was heard. Neither did he speak, during his second appearance, with Buchanan, and when the crowd again reacted, a picture flashed on the big screen showing Member of Parliament (MP) for St Catherine South Fitz Jackson in the background. Kartel, speaking with TVJ’s Entertainment Report shortly after his release from prison, said if he ran to become an MP, he would win, when asked about his political ambitions.
His appearance seemed to be received with both pleasure and displeasure, the latter on the faces of older Comrades while others got their cameras in position to capture the moment.
Maroon Chief
It may yet turn out to have been one of the most consequential moments for the future, in addition to the attendance and address by Accompong Maroon Chief Richard Currie.
There has been bad blood between Currie (and that branch of the Maroons) and the current administration of Prime Minister Andrew Holness during the last three years over the political status of the Maroons.
Maroons have been upset by what they claim is mining taking place in the areas that border their lands. They are at odds with the Government over the Holness administration’s dismissal of their declaration that Accompong is a sovereign territory – a status the Maroons ascribe to the 1738 peace treaty their forbearers signed with British colonisers.
Currie said frustration brought him to the conference, and he was prepared to be labelled political, pledging support for the PNP and its leader and policies of equity, respect, and the rights of individuals, which, he hoped, would give more recognition to the culturally recognised ethnic group.
Buchanan and Currie may well have, subliminally, signalled a future in politics, but that is not the case for entertainer LA Lewis, who was also very visible and gave what was said to be a more than $2-million contribution during the fundraising section of the conference.
Meanwhile, yesterday marked the first time since her departure from the political scene that a sustained tribute was paid to former Prime Minister and PNP President Portia Simpson Miller.
The party used women to pay tribute to the woman who, they said, made them who they are.
Under a theme of “I am because of her”, speaker after speaker heaped praises on the retired former party president.
Doreen Campbell, one of 21 women expected to run for the party in the next general elections, said she so admired the former leader that she “walk and talk like her, rocked her body like her, and run up and dung like her”.
She said she even kisses everyone like Simpson Miller used to.
When pictures and audio of Simpson Miller were shown on the big screen, the conference floor went wild, in tribute to a woman who was loved by the party.
At the end of the tribute period, one of the songs used in tribute to her - the Portia Train- was played as persons created a train on the platform by touching each other’s shoulders and moving to the beat of the music.
The ‘raise your voting finger’ moment by Senator Gabriella Morris, the oratory and promises of Senator Damion Crawford, the address by Dr Peter Phillips, the ‘Big up Kenneth ‘Skeng Don’ Black remarks by Mandeville Mayor Donovan Mitchell, and the ‘vote for PNP’ pledge by veteran politician Horace Dalley were other notable moments. Peter Bunting is said to have lost the Manchester Central seat in 2020 after falling out with Black, an influential party activist.
Crawford reminded the conference of his dream of one university degree per household,and pledged that under a PNP government, the right focus would be placed on education, which would see Jamaica outperforming Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados, in passes in the regional Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations. Only 18 per cent of Jamaican students who sat the exams in May and June received passes of five or more subjects with mathematics and English.
A university lecturer, Crawford called himself the teacher and pledged a retention programme to keep qualified Jamaicans in the classrooms.
For several years, Jamaican teachers have been leaving Jamaica’s shores for overseas, ruing poor salaries and a lack of resources.
It was a conference of speeches, from all its affiliates, groups, and arms, each giving different reasons why “Time Come”, the slogan of the PNP under Golding.
However, an attorney and party supporter, who asked not to be named, said there must now be clear worry about the number of things for which time has come.
“I have no problems with the slogan, but I am just worried that people take things so literal these days that when the PNP wins, the very next day, people will come with outstretched hands to say ‘Time come’. No, man! They have to now explain that to the A B C level and not outpromise itself,” said the attorney.
“Time Come” for water, roads, infrastructure, economic growth, education, health, economic empowerment, land titling, school-feeding programme, school apartheid, life to be successful, end of exploitative contract-workers regime, pension plan for workers, rights of the people, breadwinners of the country, provision of street lights and proper garbage collection, the restoration of Jamaica’s standing in the region, and to put the PNP in charge again, “all resting on the shoulders of its leader Mark Jefferson Golding, for whom steel-plated shoulders must be building somewhere”, said the attorney.
Phillips reminded the group that the PNP was the party of vision and the most significant programmes, which are still potent and pertinent today, and called for legislative changes to protect the rights of constituents having by-elections for elected representatives in a specific time after death. The former PNP president said he continued to be inspired by the party, especially at conference time.
Party officials have expressed satisfaction that it has staged another successful conference, which brought out another large crowd similar to last year when the police estimated that about 13,000 persons were present.