Central Manchester residents pleased with constituency debate

Dave Lindo, Gleaner Writer

MANDEVILLE, Manchester:

THE POLITICAL debate between Central Manchester candidates Peter Bunting of the People's National Party (PNP) and Danville Walker of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), staged by Northern Caribbean University's media group on Wednesday, got high marks in terms of its quality from residence of the constituency.

Political analyst Kevin O'Brien Chang said, "It was a very high-level debate. It made us proud in Central Manchester to have such intelligent and articulate candidates. I am proud of the level."

Chang added, "I don't think there are many constituencies that you would have this level of intellectual and articulate solutions. They addressed the issues affecting the constituency as best as they could."

Civilised debate

Anthony Freckleton, editor-in-chief of Mandeville Weekly, was also pleased with the debate. "Both candidates conducted the debate in a civilised manner. They stuck to the issues and that was heartening," he said.

"It was a straight intellectual discussion and it pointed out to me that both candidates were aware of the immediate and long-term needs of the parish and the constituency. My one regret is that, in a format like that, they (candidates) weren't given enough time to elaborate, there was a rush from the get-go."

Bunting in his opening remarks said he recognised that the principal need of the constituency is jobs, especially for young people. He said assets such as human resources, education and health infrastructure are in place. "Today, I am pleased to announce that my vision for Central Manchester Centre of Excellence for the knowledge-based industries has been adopted as a national priority for the People's National Party. This was outlined in the manifesto launched this morning (Wednesday)."

Walker, in his opening remarks, also pointed to the problem of lack of jobs. "There is the problem of unemployment. The question is, what are we doing about it and what has been done over the last four years? Not much has been done. Yes, I believe ICT is the way forward, but there is a lot more, agro-processing, agri-business, not everyone here looking for a job is going to be able to work in ICT."

Walker said creative industries would provide more opportunity to a wider cross section of young people who would be able to find prosperity.

Attorney-at-law Howard Letman said he wanted the candidates to be asked about the plans for the bauxite industry. "I would have wanted to know if either party had any plans with regard to the restart of the Kirkvine (bauxite) plant, as well as Alpart. When Alpart is in operation, the majority of the expatriates reside in Mandeville and they contribute to the economy of the town. The operation of both Alpart and Kirkvine plants contributes to the economy significantly."

Both candidates spoke on the water problems affecting the constituency and their intentions of tackling that problem.

rural@gleanerjm.com