THE New Jamaica Alliance (NJA) yesterday promised to abolish personal income tax, introduce mandatory paternal testing to ensure child maintenance and make significant constitutional changes if it were to win the next general elections.

“Not only will we ensure a fixed election date, but we will also abolish personal income tax because tax on income constitutes a disincentive to individual effort and enterprise,” Hyacinth Bennett, the NJA president, told journalists at a news conference in Kingston.

The newly-formed political party — a merger of the National Democratic Movement, the Republican Party of Jamaica and the Jamaica Alliance for National Unity — called the news conference to present its manifesto, its executive and 20 candidates to contest general elections that Prime Minister P J Patterson said would be held this year.

The NJA’s income tax proposal was actually a policy position enunciated by the NDM when it was formed in 1995. However, it failed, like the party’s position on constitutional reform, to generate widespread public support and all but forced the NDM off the political radar screen.

Yesterday, Bennett said that if the NJA was given the mandate to govern, it would eliminate the tax over a five-year period with a reduction of 20 per cent each year starting from their first full calendar year of administration.

“Additionally, profits that are reinvested in approved productive ventures will also be exempt from tax,” she said. Turning to the NJA’s executive body and 20 candidates for the upcoming elections, Bennett said she had been told that elections would be called on August 29, so her party was preparing itself to be an agency of change.

The presentation of the manifesto, she said, represented a new way for Jamaica as well as a covenant for the Jamaican people.

“Our manifesto represents a covenant. It is a solemn agreement with the people of Jamaica to build a new way, a new day and to build a new JA,” Bennett said. “It is the prescription for the new way out of Jamaica’s mountain of problems. It is the prescription of real change.”

On the issue of child maintenance, Bennett said the NJA would facilitate free and compulsory testing for mothers who would like to ascertain the biological paternity of their children.

“… When that status is established, then child maintenance comes automatically,” said Bennett, adding that her party would be lobbying for equality for women and the underprivileged.

Other proposals in the NJA manifesto are:

* increased expenditure on education to about 20 per cent of the national budget over five years;

* dismantling the one-man rule system by the separation of powers, with the appointment of a president and a prime minister;

* a fixed election date for every five years;

* constitutional reform; and

* a fund of US$200 million, redirected from borrowed funds, to provide low-interest student loans to tertiary level students. The amount allotted to tertiary education would be deployed to early childhood, primary and secondary levels.

According to Bennett, while the NJA had produced its manifesto, there were still some issues on which it had decided to consult the public before stating a position.

Said Bennett: “We believe that no party should legislate or lay proposals forward without first consulting with the people and so we intend to commission a national poll on the following six issues”:

* the decriminalisation of ganja;

* the decriminalisation of homosexuality;

* hanging;

* gambling;

* constitutional reform; and

* a truth commission.

Bennett, as president, is responsible for all political matters and for leading the candidates into elections. She will also be working closely with chairman, Reverend Al Miller. Both were yesterday announced as the chief spokespersons for the movement but with Miller’s focus being more on chairing meetings and acting as a mediator within the alliance.

The rest of the executive committee comprises vice-chairman Reverend Clinton Chisholm; vice-president Denzel Taylor; secretary Michael Williams; and treasurer Charlie Baboolal. There are also 15 other persons on the executive — five each from the three groups forming the alliance.

Yesterday, Miller flayed critics who, he said, were arguing that the party started its activities too late.

“To those who say it is too late, it is never too late to do what is right, to follow your convictions and to take a stand for truth,” Miller said. “To those who say to vote for the alliance is a wasted vote, the only votes that are wasted are those that are not cast or cast against your convictions.”

He also issued an appeal to patriotic persons with integrity to consider becoming involved with the NJA.

The 20 candidates named by the party yesterday are:

Appollone Reid — St James North West

Cornel Cameron — St James East Central

Earl Powell — St Elizabeth South East

Harold Smith — St Elizabeth North West

Lorane Ferguson — St Mary South East

Reverend Leeroy Campbell — St Ann South East

Arlene Campbell — St Ann North East

Michael Asher — St Ann North West

Binroy Elliot — Manchester Central

Clinton Dietrich — Manchester North West

Valton Simpson — Clarendon South West

Andrade Sinclair — Clarendon South East

Hyacinth Bennett — St Andrew West Rural

Curtis Campbell — St Andrew West

Lillian James — St Andrew West Central

James Francis — St Andrew East Central

Peter Townsend — St Andrew South East

Hugh Thompson — St Catherine South West

Denzel Taylor — St Catherine South

Pepon Ruddock — St Catherine Central.