Comrades dispirited by below-par turnout; call for Hanna to take on Holness

It wasn’t the customary fanfare associated with pre-pandemic People’s National Party (PNP) annual conferences, but hundreds of hopeful Comrades eager to see the political movement back at the zenith of Jamaican politics filed on to the grounds of Independence Park in a first hoorah for Mark Golding as leader.

Overburdened buses and women dressed in barely-there outfits, the hallmark of local political rallies, were on muted display as more passive Comrades assessed the activities of the party’s 84th annual conference in Kingston.

Smoke billowed from the soup pots of sellers desperate for the attention of curious patrons, but like the Crown and Anchor hustler who, on rare occasions, had a victim, the sales were low.

“I’m not gonna say it’s very good,” a vendor, who gave her name as Joy, told The Gleaner when quizzed at midday Sunday about the support from Comrades on the ground.

“But a Jungle mi live, so mi a go biased and say it will pick up,” she quickly let off.

For Humphry Mills, a 53-year-old P. J. Patterson supporter, the turnout for the conference was worrying.

“The conference weh me know, you have guests come from all ‘bout inna the world. Now, yuh hardly see the chair them full up. So there is something wrong. I don’t know what, but something is wrong,” he told The Gleaner.

As if on cue, a group of young men who stood metres away just outside the National Arena were circumspect in their assessment, noting only that their energy remained low despite the buzz around.

“Right now, mi nuh know wah fi say ‘bout Mark Golding. Mi woulda rather Lisa Hanna. Mi a go try wid him still, you know, but mi woulda rather Lisa Hanna. No joke about that,” 28-year-old Kante, who was among the group, said of Golding’s defeated rival from a 2020 leadership contest.

“The younger generation a take over and them a say Brogad, so we want gi them one young, strong lady fi stand up to him,” the Trelawny resident added.

Thirty-year-old Shanice, of a Delacree Park address in St Andrew South Western, was of a different view, calling the PNP “exciting” under Golding.

“Mi feel like him a do a good job and it’s all about the PNP. Mi know and feel say we a go end up back in Government next election,” she stressed.

That outlook was reflective of the mood inside the National Arena, crammed at the onset with celebratory Comrades who clung to the every word of popular PNP figures, including Damion Crawford, former PNP President Dr Peter Phillips, and General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell, who stuck to the conference’s ‘Time Come’ theme.

“The time has come for the politics to return to thinking. The time has come for the politics to return to policies.

“We’re not going to say jook them with the quart o’ rum. We’re not going to say jook them with the $5,000 ... . We’re going to say jook them with policies,” said Crawford to applause.

Seventy-three-year-old Godfrey White, who said that he benefited from the policies of former PNP leader Michael Manley, bemoaned the stewardship of Prime Minister Andrew Holness, calling it the “worst of all” since Independence.

“Everything a raise; only dead naw raise,” he said.

Elaine Whyte, a senior of Mount Pleasant in Portland, said, too, that the Holness administration was failing the poor.

She said at $210, the most vulnerable are unable to purchase chicken back, which she viewed as an indictment on the management of the country.

“If mi never grow chicken, mi couldn’t eat chicken meat. A $3,000 a bag fi feed. Mi only hope we select Mark Golding as our prime minister and he work towards helping the people of Jamaica. It look like we coming back as a party, and I hope we get there,” she said.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com