Park your differences, PNP president urges party supporters
Published:Tuesday | January 16, 2024 | 12:09 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Ahead of this year’s anticipated local government elections, the People’s National Party’s [PNP] leadership is urging supporters not to be overtaken by internal grievances or differences of opinion, but to be unified and steadfast in supporting the party’s various chosen candidates.
Opposition Leader and PNP President Mark Golding made the call on Sunday evening while addressing an overwhelming sea of orange-clad supporters at The Manning’s School in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, where the party formally presented its local government and general election candidates for that parish.
“The work that we are about is serious work. The country is depending on us; the country wants hope for a better future. They want a country that looks after the people who need to be looked after, where the people running the country care for the people. Comrades, any little differences, any little personality issues, we are going to park those and put those aside,” Golding declared amid the ecstatic cheers and blowing of horns by zealous supporters.
‘Future too important’
“Our work is too important, and our future is too important; we can’t afford to let those things distract us. See the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is for Westmoreland to be retained in the column of the PNP at the local government level, and for the three constituencies [Westmoreland Eastern, Westmoreland Central, and Westmoreland Western] to come back to the fold in the general election,” Golding added.
The PNP president’s appeal followed a similar call made moments earlier by Peter Bunting, the opposition spokesman on national security, who pleaded with supporters not to allow personal ambitions or grudges to overshadow the party’s chances for success at the polls.
“One thing I’m begging you, we are in an era where people seem to be motivated by petty, personal grievances. I am reminding you tonight, go back to the party of Norman Manley, of Michael Manley, and remember the principles and objectives. We are not here about ourselves,” said Bunting, referencing the PNP’s founder Norman Manley and his son and later PNP leader, Michael Manley.
“Your personal ambitions must take a back seat for the transcendent purpose of improving the quality of life of the Jamaican. So I am begging all those tonight, they might have their grievances, they might have hurts, all of us who have been in politics a long time have come across that, but what is before us is more important than what is behind us,” Bunting continued.
Calls for unity
There have been calls for unity within the PNP over the years, including as far back as 2015 under then leader of the PNP Portia Simpson-Miller, because of disagreements on different issues between various groups or individuals within the party.
In 2015, contention played out in the Trelawny Northern constituency where PNP supporters openly rebelled against the leadership decision to appoint John-Paul White as its candidate to replace the outgoing member of parliament at the time, Patrick Atkinson. Then, in 2019, Bunting launched an unsuccessful leadership challenge against then PNP President Dr Peter Phillips.
More recently, last year August, reports arose that the PNP refused to give party member Dennis Meadows, who joined the party after leaving the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), the go-ahead to represent the Trelawny Northern constituency in the upcoming parliamentary election.