OT Fairclough: A visionary – Golding
Published:Wednesday | February 2, 2022 | 12:10 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
PRESIDENT OF the People’s National Party (PNP) Mark Golding has described founding member and party stalwart Osmond Theodore (OT) Fairclough as a visionary who, at the time of its founding, understood the need for a party that was qualified to lead Jamaica’s political transition from its colonial roots into Independence.
“He realised that coming out of our colonial experience of Jamaica and the brutal history of our country it would be necessary to have a political movement that could change the dynamics of how the entire society was structured. From one of control by an elite and very disparate opportunities and wealth to a more equal, egalitarian society. One which allowed persons of all vested groups, especially persons of African descent who were brought here from Africa and their descendants to be full citizens, owners of this country, playing their rightful role as leaders.”
Golding’s remarks came while delivering the main address at Saturday’s OT Fairclough Trust Fund Educational Grants Award Ceremony at the PNP Headquarters, 89 Old Hope Road, St Andrew.
CORRECT IMBALANCE
Drilling further down into the party’s history, the party president said he realised that many workers, after giving decades of dedicated service to the PNP, found themselves in hardships, with nowhere to turn for help. The creation of the trust fund, which was his brainchild, was just one way of seeking to correct this imbalance, and Saturday’s scholarship awards only the latest chapter.
“When I was looking at the party, I was aware that many of our stalwarts and party workers gave lengthy service to the party and often they needed help. Some of them were facing hard times and I said look, ‘A party like ours, a democratic party coming out of a socialist tradition, it’s important that we do our best for our workers’,” he disclosed.
All 11 scholarship recipients are children of party workers, most of whom are women and they were drawn from the party regions. High school students each got $25,000, while those attending tertiary institutions got $50,000 each.
Meanwhile, PNP chairman and shadow minister of education and training, Dr Angela Brown Burke, served notice that the next PNP government will need to create a revolution in education to level the playing field where needed, and to give a head start to those who need it. The awards, she said, were made with the clear understanding that education is the most powerful weapon that we can use to change the world.
In addition, giving every child an equal chance to succeed can only be achieved if the education system is turned upside down. She identified those most at risk as rural children, urban children of modest means, students with special needs and students from working and middle-class families who are having a hard time accessing education right now.