MONTEGO BAY, St James – Arguing that there is widespread poverty in the country, Opposition Leader Bruce Golding has called for the introduction of what he called a “misery index” to determine the quality of life and the extent to which people are struggling to survive.

“We need an index that measures the agony, the suffering, the pain and the frustration that people are going through,” Golding told thousands of Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters at a mass meeting in Sam Sharpe Square, in this resort city on Sunday night. “We need a misery index to tell us what is happening to school leavers who can read and write and cannot find a job, and those who did their best in school and managed to get subjects, and yet they can’t find a job,” said the JLP leader.

He was speaking against the background of claims by the government that poverty has decreased from 30 per cent under the JLP in the 1980s, to 16 per cent at present.

The JLP leader said that despite the government’s claim, poverty has not been reduced, adding that it was evident that thousands of persons have been suffering and were badly in need of help.

“The pain, the frustration that people are going through is evident everywhere. You have farmers who are paying more than $2,000 for a bag of fertiliser. and those farmers who work hard and when you check it out, they spend more than what they earn,” Golding said. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, he added, was not interested in a “misery index”.

“Mrs Simpson Miller is not interested in quantifying the misery and that is why when I said that you should not pay school fees in September she (Simpson Miller) said that I am talking foolishness.

“I am not surprised that Mrs Simpson Miller does not have an appreciation for the level of misery that people are going through and I am not surprised that she is not interested in a misery index that would measure the pain and suffering that people are going through. You don’t need to go any further than in her own constituency to see the misery and suffering staring in the people’s face,” said Golding.

He promised that a future JLP government would alleviate the poverty and “liberate” the people from the PNP government.

“I am going to raise the expectations of the Jamaican people because we can do it,” Golding said. “We have a great country, we have a great people, any country that can produce a Bob Marley, a Marcus Garvey, an Asafa Powell, any country than can produce that kind of greatness… we can translate that greatness into the quality of people’s life,” the JLP leader said to tumultuous applause.