'Prepare for governance' - Henry-Wilson implores party to avoid power hunger

Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

FORMER GENERAL secretary of the People's National Party (PNP), Maxine Henry-Wilson, has urged her party not to be caught up with merely returning to power. She said the party must effectively prepare itself for governance, and present Jamaica with the best policy options possible for development.

"There are going to have to be significant changes in the way that we operate," said Henry-Wilson, who was speaking at her constituency conference in Nannyville, St Andrew, last Sunday.

Her pronouncement came days before the PNP unveiled the long-in-gestation Progressive Agenda.

The Progressive Agenda contains the policy platforms on which the party hopes to govern the country.

"We have to be willing to accept that when the People's National Party comes to power things can't be as usual. You have to be prepared for some of that change," the South East St Andrew member of parliament (MP) said.

Pointing to the education sector, Henry-Wilson said it was important that more be done in that area, but admitted "we don't have the kind of resources that we need".

"The only way that we are going to do it is if you come on board. We have to make sure that our teachers are the best in the world, we have to make sure parents bear their responsibility," Henry-Wilson, a former minister of education, said.

She added: "I am not coming up here to be like Andrew Holness who every day trace off the teachers, trace off the parents, trace off the schools. That's not the way to do it."

Strong word of caution

The former PNP general secretary urged Comrades to put their collective energy together in order to build the country. She, however, had a strong word of caution for them.

"As we get ready to assume power, as we get ready to change the government, make sure you are part of that larger change.

"We have to be ready to do the extraordinary. Never before has a government served one-term. We have to be willing to make the case why they should not serve another term," she said.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which now holds state power, was 11 per cent behind the PNP in the latest Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson polls. The JLP won the 2007 general election, ending the PNP's 18-year reign.

Henry-Wilson, regarded as the architect of the PNP's fourth term which was secured in 2002, told party workers that in making the case that the JLP must go, the PNP must not only be prepared to do hard on-the-ground work, but they must also have convincing arguments for the voters.

"When somebody is going to come to them and appear and say it is four years we (JLP) are in but they (PNP) were there 18 years, it can be an attractive argument. We have to debug the argument. We have to show them why after four years it's time for a change. And, very importantly, we have to show them what the PNP has to offer."

Henry-Wilson, who has been MP for South East St Andrew since 2002, is walking away from representational politics at the end of this term.

She said Julian Robinson, the man chosen by the PNP to contest the seat when the election is called, fits the gold standard as a representative of the people.