People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding has embraced democratic socialism, the political philosophy championed by former PNP leader and Prime Minister Michael Manley in the 1970s, declaring that changing times are creating renewed interest in the ideology.
Golding, addressing the PNP’s Greendale Divisional Conference on Thursday night, said the philosophy was gaining traction even in the United States (US), where, he argued, there was growing recognition of the need for governments to put people’s interests ahead of those of powerful individuals and groups.
“Things and times are changing because we need government that looks after the interests of the people,” Golding said.
He questioned who would have imagined that democratic socialism would be adopted in the US.
“The people see that we need government that looks after the interests of the people because the world has a lot of power vested in people who are only looking after themselves and those who support them,” he continued.
Golding invoked the legacy of Manley, whom he described as a hero, praising the former prime minister for the work he did to transform Jamaica’s social fabric.
He said the PNP, under his leadership, would build on Manley’s legacy while pursuing an economic model centred on ordinary Jamaicans.
NEGATIVE GROWTH
Golding also launched a broadside against the Andrew Holness-led administration over Jamaica’s economic performance, claiming that the country had recorded three consecutive quarters of negative growth.
“We have had three consecutive quarters of negative growth, and it is not any small negative growth, it is substantial negative growth,” he asserted, adding that the Planning Institute of Jamaica was projecting another quarter of negative growth.
“That is why we need a party that is committed to the upliftment of the people and that is our mission,” Golding said.
He said his economic vision was based on a bottom-up approach, with people placed at the centre of economic growth.
“We have to transform the economy from what it is, which is an economy which is not delivering for the people to an economy that creates opportunity for people to rise up and achieve their hopes and dreams and the centre of this economy must be the people.”
Golding said the PNP would seek closer integration between the private and public sectors in training, with incentives for businesses to employ and train young people and upgrade the skills of existing workers.
“Our policy is to integrate the private sector and state sector when it comes to training, so that we incentivise businesses to take on young people and train them or unskilled existing workers.”
He argued that such an approach would be more practical than relying solely on training programmes that may not correspond with current labour-market demands.
Golding also placed early-childhood education among the key pillars of his vision, questioning why some children were leaving primary school unable to read.
“We have to set early childhood education and invest in it, so that the young people them, by the time they reach [age] 7 or 8, them can read,” he argued.
He renewed his commitment to a first-in-family university scholarship programme, expansion of the school-feeding programme and subsidised bus fares designed to empower local taxi and bus operators – policies previously outlined in the PNP’s election manifesto.
On housing, Golding reiterated the party’s position on people occupying captured or informal lands, arguing that many were victims of a colonial system that failed to provide formerly enslaved people with adequate access to land.
“We are not into bulldozing people off land. No, that is an Andrew Holness Labourite policy,” he claimed.
He signalled that a PNP administration would continue Operation PRIDE and the land-titling process.
Golding also pledged to change the law governing the period of continuous occupation required before a person can acquire land through adverse possession.
The current law provides for 60 years of continuous occupation in relation to government land.
Golding said he had been seeking to change the period to 25 years but had encountered difficulties in bringing a private member’s bill to Parliament.
BLOCKED BY SPEAKER
According to the PNP president, the bill had been blocked on more than one occasion by the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
He also outlined a proposal to reform student financing by having the Government assume greater risk for students borrowing from the Students’ Loan Bureau.
Under the proposal, repayment would be capped at a specified percentage of a graduate’s actual income, reducing the burden on persons whose earnings may not be sufficient to meet conventional loan repayments.
Energy, he said, was another area in which successive governments had failed to adequately address Jamaica’s needs.
Golding said the PNP would continue to promote renewable energy as part of a strategy to reduce the country’s energy costs and vulnerability.
He also identified logistics as a major opportunity for Jamaica, saying the country was poised to become a vibrant logistics hub and that the PNP had the blueprint to properly develop the sector.
Agriculture would also form part of the party’s economic strategy, with Golding promising that the contribution of small farmers would be placed at the centre of the sector’s development.
The PNP president said further details of the party’s policies and plans would be outlined at its annual conference scheduled for next month.
Meanwhile, Spanish Town Mayor Norman Scott was returned unopposed as chairman of the Greendale Division during Thursday night’s conference.
editorial@gleanerjm.com
