Amid sharp criticism of her leadership style and falling popularity reflected in recent opinion polls, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller was yesterday confident of winning the next general elections whenever she calls them.

At the same time, the prime minister defended her fondness for physical contact with persons from all walks of life, suggesting that her style helps to combat the coarse sensibilities of much of the population.

“I have been criticised for hugging and kissing too much, but I will not stop. Nothing can beat the power of the human touch,” Simpson Miller declared to applause from guests attending the Rusea’s Old Students Association awards luncheon at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

The prime minister, in her guest address, said that while she has not been responding to all concerns in the country, she was diligently working behind the scenes, and would make her efforts known at the right time.

“Jamaicans are tired of the chatting, chatting, chatting,” she said. “They want deliverables. That’s why I am not talking too much. Anytime I address this nation, you will see the amount of work I have done and what we have achieved during the few months I have been prime minister.”

Simpson Miller and Rheima Hall, wife of Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall, were conferred as honorary members of the Rusea’s Old Students Association.

Both the governor-general and Errald Miller, the prime minister’s husband, are past students of Rusea’s.

Expressing outrage at the levels of rape and attacks with weapons by schoolchildren in recent times, the prime minister urged the past students to mentor today’s pupils to change violent behaviour and to assist young parents as well.

She also called on politicians to stop pointing fingers at each other and unite around the issue of youth crime.

“How did we end up with children being traumatised by violence being committed right before their eyes?” Simpson Miller asked. “How did we end up with children raping children, children killing children. teachers being assaulted and killed?”

“Even if we were to devote half of the national budget to education, pay parents to send their children to school and fill the schools with teachers with PhDs, it would not be sufficient to transform the quality of life in our country. What we need is a change of heart as well, among a critical mass in our country.”

Simpson Miller also suggested that as prime minister she was being judged by higher standards because of her gender.

“When a woman is given a responsibility, she works 10 times as hard as the men, no disrespect to the men,” she said. “What some are able to get away with, and what some can do and are hailed as great, some of us cannot. But I will never be deterred, because if you think I am working now, wait until after a certain event,” she said, in an apparent reference to the upcoming general elections.