Mandeville, Manchester – The policy priorities sound very familiar.

Like the other contenders for leadership of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) and Jamaica, Dr Peter Phillips says joblessness, poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, crime and instability of family and community will be among the many problem areas to get the most urgent attention in any government to be run by him.

Indeed, says Phillips, resolving such problems must be the “mission of this generation”.

And, arguing that his party was the natural organisation to lead the way in the completion of “that mission”, Phillips told party delegates in Manchester and St Elizabeth on Sunday that a revival of “political education” by the PNP was a must. This, he said, would help to boost the sense of “patriotism” and “love of service” among PNP followers and by extension the wider society.

Claiming that “our country is scarred by a sense of irresponsibility among too many people” and that “the family is unravelling across Jamaica”, Phillips suggested that the principles and objectives of the PNP provided a guide towards resolving many of the country’s social ills.

In order to serve their country to the best of their ability and play their part in the resolution of the myriad problems, Phillips argued, party workers, followers and others needed to understand and be reminded of what the PNP was about.

“The party needs to find a way to transmit its understanding of its principles and objectives and what is special about the PNP . because if you don’t know why you are PNP, if you don’t know what makes the PNP special and different from all other parties, then you might as well be anything,” he said.

“I grew up in a party that paid special attention to political education and we need to return political education once again to the centre of the People’s National Party. because, hear me, if somebody only works for the PNP because you pay them, then if somebody pays them more they will work for them. if you can be bought you will be sold.,” he added.

Phillips and his ‘solid as a rock’ team addressed more than 100 of just over 160 Manchester delegates at a luncheon at the International Chinese Restaurant in Mandeville, before moving on to the Junction Guest House in south east St Elizabeth where again, more than 100 of 186 St Elizabeth delegates turned up at a dinner.

Phillips, like other leadership contenders – Portia Simpson Miller, Omar Davis and Karl Blythe – are in the final stretch of their drive to woo close to 4,000 PNP delegates who will elect the successor to outgoing party president and prime minister, PJ Patterson, on February 25. Whoever wins the favour of the party delegates will be asked to serve as prime minister until parliamentary elections which are not constitutionally due until next year.

In attempting to “sell” the idea that he was the best candidate to replace Patterson, Phillips and his team claimed he was the man who would be best able to unite the party, following what has already been a bitterly divisive campaign.

Minister of Health and Manchester member of parliament, John Junor, insisted that to the extent that Phillips commanded most support in the Parliament, in the Cabinet and among the leadership of the government and party, achieving unity would come most easily to him.

Additionally, Junor, Education Minister Maxine Henry Wilson and Foreign Affairs Minister KD Knight said Phillips had served with distinction at every level of the party and was a “proven performer” having “excelled” in the ministries of Health and Transport. Phillips was praised for ‘selflessly’ taking on the “difficult” National Security Ministry when many felt he was “a sacrificial lamb”. They said he was now laying the “groundwork” for long-term resolution of the crime problem.

Junor questioned the contribution of Simpson Miller, noting that though she had led the influential PNP women’s movement for a long time she did not have the support of the leadership of that organisation.

Junor, while noting that “she is a very, very popular politician” also questioned Simpson Miller’s contribution as a Minister. Simpson Miller, currently Minister of Local Government, Youth and Sport, has served in a number of other Cabinet positions including Minister of Labour and Minister of Tourism. Junor observed that “at least” as Minister of Water and Housing, Blythe had been a “performer” and Davies was “the best finance minister Jamaica has ever had”.

As has become customary in the campaign, Knight elicited plenty of laughter but also muted displeasure among some who clearly believed his comments bordered on malice, when he threw jibes at Simpson Miller’s competence.

Henry Wilson warned that supporting Simpson Miller just because she was “a woman” was inherently dangerous. Competence and “capability” must be the criteria, she said.

– myersg@jamaicaobserver.com