Duncan Sutherland says JLP failings should be on a PNP government's to-do list

Head of the PNP's women movement Patricia Duncan Sutherland says party speeches highlighting problems in Jamaica are meant to signal what the party needs to do if it's elected to office. 

"Nobody takes pride to talk about what doesn't work in Jamaica," she told hundreds of cheering supporters inside the National Arena for the party's 86th annual conference in St Andrew.   

Duncan Sutherland said poorly resourced hospitals, a failing education system in which less than 20 per cent of high school students graduate annually without passing math and English, and soaring living costs will focus the party on what issues need tackling. 

Her comments sought to contextualise criticisms from the platform before her speech and the deluge expected leading up to the presentation of party president Mark Golding. 

Parliamentary elections are due by September next year, and Duncan Sutherland said it should be celebrated that 21 of the party's constituency representatives are women. 

She is the party's MP-caretaker for St Andrew Eastern, a seat currently held by the JLP's Fayval Williams, who is also the education minister. 

"The PNP is committed to change ...to create hope for Jamaica... not just PR hope," she said, referring to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party administration of Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness.  

That was a similar sentiment from the PNP UK group, whose representative slammed the administration as being "corrupt and heartless". 

According to her, Jamaicans need government that "will not enrich themselves" at the expense of poor people. 

Golding is expected to address the orange-clad Comrades later on. 

Party groups and affiliates and senior party figures are delivering speeches. 

Earlier, PNP chairman Dr Angela Brown-Burke said the conference was likely the last before the national elections.

- Jovan Johnson

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