'PNP a bad penny'

WESTERN BUREAU:

Depicting the People's National Party (PNP) as a bad penny that turns up and wreaks havoc just when things are going good, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has warned Jamaicans against returning the Opposition to power tomorrow.

"Labourites, you can't let it happen this time around. Well-thinking Jamaicans, uncommitted voters, you can't let it happen," Holness appealed to the thousands of green-clad supporters at Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay, St James, last Thursday as the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) conducted its islandwide tour wrapping up its election campaign.

This was Holness' first public appearance in the historic square as prime minister, and it seemed as if he was bent on it being his best.

The country is ready to take off, he argued, bitterly cursing the PNP for what he said had become its modus operandi.

"Every time the JLP looks as if it is about to turn Jamaica around, here come the PNP to mash it up. Every time the country tek off, they come with bogus and samfie argument," he said.

Minutes later, it was a militant-looking Holness who declared that if the PNP meant the country any good, it wouldn't bother to contest tomorrow's election.

He is of the opinion that having laid the foundation for stability, it was now time to commence work on job creation, something he said Portia's Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme could not do.

Admitting there was need to fix the public sector, Holness worked at reassuring and quelling the uncertainty hanging in this area, stating that his Government was not about taking away anybody's job.

"We are about bringing jobs into the country," Holness declared.

Job creation

Among those jobs are an approximate 1,500 to be created in the energy sector and another 2,000 in an expanded maritime industry.

Holness said plans are also afoot for the development of tourism in Kingston and Port Royal and the south coast with at least one major investor eyeing Portland.

Outlining his plans for a Jamaica he "believes in", Holness said under his administration, free health care would continue, so would free education to students up to the secondary level.

He sought to allay the fears of pensioners and public sector workers, stating that he would sit with stakeholders before any decisions regarding their future are made.

Several times during his presentation, he used the word "hypocrisy" to describe the PNP's 'People Power' theme.

"They talk about people power. If they want to empower the people, they have to educate the people. Yet, they want to take away free education," he stated.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com