OPPOSITION Leader Andrew Holness says that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), under his leadership, will not follow the conventional opposition role to “oppose, oppose, oppose”, but would instead provide oversight, advocacy and public education.

“The conventional view is that the opposition should oppose, oppose, oppose and be cantankerous, but that is not for us. That will not help Jamaica out of the difficulties that we have found ourselves in,” Holness said.

The Opposition leader made the comment during an interview with editors and senior reporters at the Jamaica Observer in the newspaper’s boardroom on Monday.

“There is a certain level of theatre that people expect in politics. There is a certain level of personality politics that attracts people to it and we cannot ignore that. That is important because politics is not just about economics and numbers. Essentially, politics is an emotional endeavour, so there is a sense that the Opposition has to appeal to the emotional instincts and often-times it is the eager emotions that is appealing, which is to oppose, oppose, oppose and be cantankerous,” Holness said.

“But I think that Jamaicans are coming to the understanding that where we are now in our history is that we need leadership, not just leadership in Government, but leadership in the Opposition, as well, if we are going to change our country for the better,” he added.

Holness said even if conventional wisdom is that the Opposition should only oppose, leaders who know better and who want change will have to take the risk of engaging their supporters and bringing them to an understanding that there is another path that will lead Jamaica to its destiny much quicker.

“That’s what I am trying to do,” the Opposition leader said.

However, he cautioned that the JLP was not prepared to be a sacrificial lamb in the process because the party understands that in seeking to win votes it will have to interact with and engage the populace.

“We say that the role of this Opposition can be described in three terms: oversight; advocacy; and public education,” he explained.

Holness said this approach was discernible from its participation in the current budget debate, in which the presentation of its spokesmen have focused on offering solutions.

“We decided to take a solutions-based course, so all our presentations were centred on solutions,” he said. “We feel that it is our duty to show the people of the country that there are solutions to our challenges and that, if we use our minds and place our resources, we can come up with valuable, workable solutions.”

He admitted that not all the proposals he had included in his speech were new, but pointed out that the objective was not to bring new solutions to the table, but to get the Government to acknowledge that there were good ideas out there that they had simply not acted upon.

“We still did our oversight and our advocacy, but we offered solutions,” the Opposition leader insisted.