PROSPECT, Manchester — Likening him to a “learner driver” the Opposition People’s National Party served notice last Thursday night that it will be seeking to tag Andrew Holness as inexperienced and lacking in judgement in the build-up to parliamentary elections, widely expected within months.

Party ‘elder’ and former Cabinet minister, KD Knight, led the way as speakers at a political meeting in Prospect, south Manchester suggested that the 39-year-old Holness, the man designated by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) parliamentary group to take over from outgoing prime minister Bruce Golding, had been immature as Education Minister and member of Parliament.

They zeroed in on Holness’s months-long stand-off with teachers over the appointment of his advisor Alphansus Davis as head of the Teachers’ Services Commission, the agency which has responsibility for appointing school principals.

Knight, who has been assigned by the PNP to supervise the party’s campaign in St Elizabeth, and who told comrades in Prospect that he would be prepared to give up his law practice in the interest of the campaign, drew parallels between the Teachers’ Services Commission and the Police Services Commission.

“We (PNP) want to know why he (Holness) put his personal advisor to head the teachers’ commission, what was his motive?” asked Knight.

“Comrades, understand the seriousness of it, can you imagine if the Minister of National Security put his personal advisor as the head of the Police Service Commission? The police would revolt (because) that would be interference.

“Now what’s the difference?… the teachers told him, and they told him, and they told him. It took Bruce (Golding) to reverse this position. So when you examine his (Holness’s) track record, you observe he is not a man who stands on the side of principle,” said Knight.

The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), which is represented on the Teachers’ Services Commission, had insisted that the appointment of Davis as head of the organisation resulted in a conflict of interest. The JTA refused to participate in the work of the commission, leading to a long delay in the appointment of several school principals.

The issue was resolved recently with the resignation of Davis as advisor to Holness. This is reported to have followed the intervention of Golding.

At last Thursday night’s meeting, former head of the JTA, Michael Stewart,was among the platform speakers suggesting that Holness had fallen short in his handling of the matter.

“We (JTA) had told him (Holness) that it was a conflict of interest and we remained resolute until we were called in by Bruce a few Mondays ago and the decision was rescinded,” said Stewart, who PNP sources say has an interest in political representation in south Manchester.

Wensworth Skeffery, who chairs the PNP’s Region Five, inclusive of Manchester and St Elizabeth, argued that Holness’s handling of the issue was clear evidence that he was unfit to head the Government.

“If dat man mek such a silly mistake can you give ‘im a country to run?” asked Skeffery, who, like Stewart, is a teacher. “Whether you young or old if you nuh have no judgement you are not competent to run a country…,” he added.

Stewart also sought to bore holes in the popular perception that in other respects Holness had done a good job as education minister. He argued that “no provision” had been made by the ministry of education for the ASTEP initiative, which is meant to correct illiteracy among children 12 years and over.

Also, he claimed, the Career Advancement Programme (CAP) for teenagers who were at risk of missing out on a rounded education was “not sustainable” because of inadequate resources.

Skeffery alleged that Holness had set a bad political example in his constituency of West Central St Andrew in the 2007 election campaign. Skeffery asked “if you can’t bring unity to a constituency, how you expect to bring unity to a country?”

Knight, who claimed his advice to Golding to “pack your bags and go” during the ‘Dudus/Manatt’ enquiry earlier this year had finally borne fruit, said the PNP would be paying close attention to Holness’s conduct in every sphere.

“We are going to examine the track record of that learner driver… this is just the beginning of the examination, because we going to examine not just how he has performed as Minister of Education, we are going to look to see how he has performed as an MP, we are going to examine the constituency. We are going to see if like how we can walk up and down in any constituency in St Elizabeth and Manchester, if the constituency he has anybody can jus’ go walk up and down in there,” said Knight.

“When Bruce Golding fired the Public Service Commission we are going to examine what he (Holness) said when that egregious wrong was done,” he said.

“…When Bruce Golding offered his resignation last year, he (Holness) was one of those who said to Bruce ‘don’t resign’, so you have to examine his principles. What does he stand for, when you hear that Bruce resign this year, we understood that all of them rejected it, so what does he stand for, what is the principle that guides him?” said Knight.

Another former Cabinet minister and a former Member of Parliament for Central Manchester, John Junor, said Holness’s job would be complicated by what he claimed was the nature of the JLP, which required the “iron fist” from its leader.

“Can you see Andrew Holness telling Mike Henry what to do?” asked Junor, who will coordinate the PNP’s campaign in Manchester. He also suggested that Jamaica’s economic problems, including a problem-plagued arrangement with multilateral lender, the International Monetary Fund, would prove too much for Holness.

Junor urged his PNP comrades to prepare themselves for an election before year-end because, “if dem don’t call it, dem cyah’ cross it… they can’t cross that IMF divide…”