In a bold move to reshape Jamaica’s political landscape, the New Jamaica Alliance (NJA) was launched as a unifying third party ahead of a general election. Formed through the merger of the National Democratic Movement, the Jamaica Alliance for National Unity, and the Republican Party of Jamaica, the NJA aimed to present a fresh, values-driven alternative to the two major parties. 

Published Tuesday, July 9, 2002

New Jamaica Alliance launched

The New Jamaica Alliance (NJA) was officially launched yesterday by the National Democratic Movement (NDM), the Jamaica Alliance for National Unity (JANU), and the Republican Party of Jamaica (RPJ).

Leaders of the three groups signed a memorandum of understanding at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, effectively merging them into a single party to contest the next general election, using the NDM’s logo.

Information on the candidates for the election will be announced in two weeks, said Dr. Barry Wade, a JANU convenor.

The Rev. Al Miller, chairman of JANU, said the NJA would have a president selected from among the leaders of the existing groups. He added that the NJA would be guided by a board of trustees consisting of seven to ten members from the Church and civil society.

He named three of the members who have been selected to sit on the board: the Rev. Sam Reid of Calvary Baptist Church, Montego Bay; Donna Duncan-Scott, CEO of Jamaica Money Market Brokers; and the Rev. Winston Stewart, pastor of Pentecostal Tabernacle, Wildman Street, Central Kingston.
“What we provide here today is an opportunity for our nation to move toward her destiny of being not just a good country, but a great nation under God,” the Rev. Miller said.

However, it appeared that there was some lack of consensus among NJA executives on whether the NJA was a political party. The Rev. Miller later confirmed to The Gleaner that it was indeed a political party. He said earlier that each group within the NJA would maintain its own identity.

In an apparent criticism of the two major political parties — the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) — the Rev. Miller, pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle in St. Andrew, said the NJA was a Jamaican “dream come true,” offering the country a new way forward as “more of the same failed medication cannot be relied on.”

“The system has allowed the few at the top to eat from the table of the good of the land and leave the majority at the bottom to fight for the crumbs that accidentally fall from the table,” he said. “The time has come for the table to be spread and all be invited to come and dine. To eat or not to eat must be by choice, not by chance.”
Both Hyacinth Bennett, president of the NDM, and Denzil Taylor, president of the RPJ, addressed the launch.

Ms. Bennett said the NJA would be advocating for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, similar to that established in post-apartheid South Africa.
The Rev. Miller said that talks for the establishment of such a commission were in the embryonic stage but that the NJA would be giving the matter serious attention.
Asked about the NJA’s finances going into the general election, he said that each of the three groups would seek its own funding as usual, and the NJA would also pursue its own financing for joint programmes.

In March this year, when JANU was formed, the group said its mandate was to bring together Jamaicans from different backgrounds and political parties to form a Government of National Unity that would serve for a parliamentary term.
Dr. Wade noted that while the NJA seeks to govern for one parliamentary term in the first instance, it will be up to the electorate to decide whether it should return for a second term.
 

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