A week after Andrew Holness beat back a challenge to his leadership by Audley Shaw, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) boss still has his arms open to embrace his opponents. But the window of opportunity, he cautioned, is closing fast.

Holness’s statement comes in the wake of refusals by Shaw and one of his key supporters, Edmund Bartlett, to accept posts in the shadow cabinet.

In the previous shadow cabinet Shaw served as spokesman on finance and planning, while Bartlett had responsibility for tourism.

While Bartlett apparently was peeved at being offered the responsibility for foreign affairs and foreign trade, Shaw said he could not accept the finance portfolio until a number of issues of concern to him were resolved.

One of the issues, Shaw said, was Holness’s desire for all Opposition senators to resign, while the other was the JLP Secretariat’s claim that two deputy leaders — Dr Christopher Tufton and James Robertson, who both supported Shaw — were not duly nominated.

In the case of the senators, Shaw claimed that Holness really wanted to get rid of Tufton, while in relation to the deputy leaders issue, Shaw said there was clear evidence of the nomination of both.

“I believe that these issues are being used to pursue a non-unifying path, especially against Dr Tufton, which I find totally unacceptable,” Shaw said in a letter to Holness last week. “In the circumstances, I cannot accept assignment as shadow minister until the two identified issues are resolved.”

On Thursday, at the Jamaica Observer Press Club, Holness said that, in addition to making their views known on the leadership, the delegates also voted for the party to move beyond the problems that have dogged the 70-year-old movement in the past, namely disunity, factions, undermining, and divisiveness.

As such, a strident Holness said he will be moving forward, and it behoves those who are bent on holding the party back to make a decision as to whether or not they will be getting on board or be left behind.

“The door is open if they decide to come on board, but the longer they wait, the farther this train will move,” Holness told Observer reporters and editors.

Holness said the door has been left open and his hand extended, however, unfortunately Shaw and Bartlett, who would be the two most senior members of the contesting team, baulked at the prospect of serving in the shadow cabinet.

“Now, while they have said publicly that they will not accept, and whilst it is very unusual, bordering on disrespectful, that the letter denying the acceptance of the offer to serve in the shadow cabinet was made public just about the time I was announcing the shadow cabinet, I am not going to take a negative interpretation; I am still interpreting the move as that they are considering the offer,” Holness said.

Quizzed as to how long he is prepared to await their decision, Holness said the nature of politics is fluid and it depends on some political imperatives.

“There are some imperatives that are moving very swiftly. Today (Thursday) I will meet with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) team and, depending on what comes from that, then a definite decision will have to be made,” Holness said.

According to Holness, the problem is not with the base of the party, the workers, councillors and local leaders, but at the senior level where members are not prepared to accept the democratic mandate which has been given.

He noted also that none of the delegates have withdrawn from the party, despite the candidate they supported in the recent leadership race.

“As far as I know, all the delegates of the party want to see the party return to stability, and I think that those persons who are posturing publicly should take their cue from the delegates of the party,” Holness said.

He reiterated that the delegates have exercised their democratic franchise in electing their leader.

“They spoke clearly, loudly and unequivocally; they spoke with a sense of certainty and endorsed a direction that the party should go,” Holness said.

During the heated campaign, Holness said he promised the delegates to do everything within his power to ensure the party is united and has since kept his word.

“I have extended my hand to all, and I have also sought to hear everybody’s grouses, their stories, their views and perspectives,” he said.

This, he insisted, is to ensure that there is an opportunity for everyone to come on board.