JLP is 74 and...
Dear Editor,
July 8, 2017 the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) turned 74 years old, having been founded in 1943 by its first leader, National hero Sir Alexander Bustamante.
The JLP has since had three succeeding leaders: Edward Seaga, Bruce Golding, and Andrew Holness.
The party won Jamaica's first general election after adult suffrage, and is the first party in the English-speaking Caribbean to have a woman as its chair — Madame Rose Leon, 1948-1960.
The JLP brought Marcus Mosiah Garvey's body back to Jamaica and named him the first national hero.
The party also brought His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie to Jamaica, saved the country from communism, and had the first official Whitehouse visit here and abroad.
The JLP is better at growing Jamaica's economy, handling education (HEART, National Youth Service), solving crime, and is tougher at fighting corruption (think Office of the Contractor General and Independent Commission of Investigations).
The JLP is considered Jamaica's conservative party based on its economic policies, morals and ethics. But when it comes to social issues many will argue that the JLP has gone far left on those matters.
If you mix both, it is now a centrist party, not a centre-right party, according to many.
I leave this issue to Jamaica Observer columnists Garfield Higgins and Michael Burke.
Teddylee Gray
Ocho Rios, St Ann
teddylee.gray@gmail.com
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