PNP reveals pillars for progress
Published:Thursday | August 18, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
PORTIA SIMPSON MILLER says the People's National Party (PNP) has resisted the temptation of offering election-oriented policies in a bid to return to state power.
Speaking during the launch of the party's Progressive Agenda at The Courtleigh Auditorium in New Kingston last night, the PNP president said the policy mixes contained in the document are aimed at fulfilling the mission Norman Manley spoke of in his last address to the party's conference in 1968.
"We have realised political independence now for almost 50 years. However, as Norman Manley said, the task ahead is to achieve economic independence. The ideas contained in this document will take us onward and forward to achieving that target," Simpson Miller said in the packed auditorium, with dozens locked out because there was no space in the room.
Manley, the first president of the PNP, said the mission of his generation was to win self-government for Jamaica. He also said the mission of the generation which succeeded him was "reconstructing the social and economic society and life of Jamaica".
Approach to governance
In the Progressive Agenda, the PNP says it commits to "an approach to governance that will be data-driven, evidence-based with measurable outcomes".
The party says governance would be constructed on five pillars - human resource development; a safe, secure and just society; participatory, accountable and responsible society; progressive internationalism; and economic growth for sustainable national development.
Commenting on the work of the Anthony Hylton-chaired committee which developed the Progressive Agenda, Simpson Miller said it delivered what she asked for.
"Opposition parties are always faced with the temptation of crafting programmes for vote-getting. I thank the team for resisting the formulation of empty promises, quick fixes and populist sloganeering," she said.
"I thank you who crafted the Progressive Agenda for not simply rushing to satisfy the understandable anxieties of a population that is desperately in need of hope," she added.
Commitment to transparency
Among the promises contained in the Progressive Agenda is a commitment to introducing greater transparency to the management of the country's finance and economic affairs.
"Fiscal imbalances, persistent deficits and low rates of growth in the national economy have been consequences of this over many years," the party noted.
"In an effort to secure greater transparency, greater fiscal responsibility and greater levels of public accountability which is at the heart of good governance, the PNP will establish an estimates committee in the Parliament to have consideration of expenditure priorities in the context of a medium-term economic framework," it said.
"We will also ensure the effective functioning of a committee on taxation in the Parliament able to consult with stakeholders in considering taxation policy and revenue-raising measures," it added.
Priority industries
Simpson Miller's party has also promised to position Jamaica's cultural and creative industries, including sports, as priority industries, given their enormous potential for growth, export, employment, general economic development, and human-resource development.
"The party, as government, will seek to develop modern cultural and creative industries policies, informed by research and analysis," the Progressive Agenda says.
Simpson Miller yesterday stressed that the way forward for Jamaica's development must be driven by research. "We must be evidence-based. We must engage in fact-finding, data collection, objective analysis and level-headed realism," she said.
The Progressive Agenda represents the fourth policy review of the PNP since Norman Manley published the Man with the Plan in the 1950s. Michael Manley published Democratic Socialism in the 1970s and The Compass in the 1980s before P.J. Patterson's 21st Century Mission in the 1990s.