Holness: I will never allow ‘PNPism’ back into this country

Coining a new term to describe the operations of the People’s National Party (PNP), Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the opposition party has for years projected sheer entitlement, calling it ‘PNPism’.

Holness, who was speaking during a meeting of the JLP’s Area Council 1 in St Andrew North Western, said this sense of entitlement is synonymous with “bad mind”.

“It is a kind of thinking that says, ‘Anything you want, we can give it to you, and you don’t have to work for it’. It’s all freeness,” said Holness during the meeting at which the constituency bade farewell to its outgoing member of parliament, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke.

Clarke demits office today, in order to take up one of the deputy managing director positions at the International Monetary Fund.

Holness said there is a disconnection between how Jamaicans are made to feel better and how they use labour to create wealth.

He said much of the island’s challenges can be traced back to ‘PNPism’.

Holness said the opposition party, which formed government throughout the 1990s, ignored the country’s economy then borrowed to sustain it.

A MANTRA OF DEVELOPMENT BY BORROWING

He said the party carried a mantra of development by borrowing, which plagued Jamaica for decades.

Further, he said, the party encouraged land theft in the form of squatting.

Holness said he was a firm believer that every Jamaican must have access to land and housing but noted that this is challenged by the belief of some Jamaicans that people should occupy land informally.

He said pressure is ultimately put on the government to develop infrastructure in these informal settlements.

“PNPism that! Labour party nuh believe inna that. Labour party believes that, ‘Yes, you have an entitlement – social justice entitlement to land and house, but do it in a way that, when you get the house and you get the land, you have title to it and you can show ownership’,” said Holness.

His comments come amid an apparent change in the political tide, with the latest public opinion poll conducted by veteran pollster Don Anderson’s Market Research Services Limited indicating that the PNP has widened its lead over the JLP to nine percentage points, 11 months before a general election becomes constitutionally due.

In the national survey, which captured the voter intent of 1,012 Jamaicans ages 18 years or older, 39.3 per cent indicated that they would be more inclined to vote for the PNP when the election is called, while 30.2 per cent said they would likely cast ballots for the JLP.

At the same time, 28.4 per cent of respondents shared that they were still unsure who would get their votes. The remaining 2.1 per cent are ready to vote for a third political party.

The survey was carried out from September 27 to October 3 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent, at a 95 per cent confidence level.

The prime minister said it is ‘PNPism’ that destroyed Jamaica’s entrepreneurial class with continuous borrowing and high interest rates.

He said, during the 18 years – 1989 to 2007 – that the PNP formed government, it heaped “destruction” on the country through high borrowing and high interest rates, rendering many Jamaicans unemployed.

‘GREATEST TRANSFER OF WEALTH’

“So terrible it was that one of their own members, a man of the cloth, a religious man, his conscience couldn’t help it; he had to speak the truth. He said what PNPism did was the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in this country,” said Holness.

He questioned which “toppanaris” benefited from the transfer of wealth, leaving JLP supporters and observers to speculate.

“I will never allow ‘PNPism’ to come back into this country,” he said emphatically, evoking thunderous applause. “I want you understand me when I tell you that there is a battle going on for your minds and I can’t afford to lose any of your minds in this battle, because the stakes are too great.”

Holness said his Government has delivered on its promises, including increasing the income tax threshold, which dominated the latter stage of the JLP’s general election campaign in 2016. He said, also, that his Government reviewed the compensation package for public sector workers, increasing overall salaries by $200 billion.

Added to that, he said his Government has lowered the unemployment rate by keeping interest rates low, instilling confidence in the private sector.

He said all of this caused the sector to invest in the economy, creating “real” jobs.

“You need to pay attention to the real fundamental changes that have occurred under this administration. Changes that have not taken anything from you but have given back to you,” said Holness.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com