FORMER Prime Minister PJ Patterson told yesterday’s annual conference of the People’s National Party (PNP) that the party has no intention of turning back.

“We have proven the test of time. No matter, the power, the force, the enemy, the foe, we are not going to turn back,” Patterson told the packed National Arena in Kingston, as the three-day 77th annual conference of the ruling party drew to a close.

“Let us not tear ourselves apart, this is a time for love, this is a time for peace… Speak the truth and keep faith with the people, it will soon be time to reap the trust they repose in us.

“And lastly, this is no time to lose. Let us pledge to work harder, in full harmony, and remember that whenever the trumpet shall sound and the gate shall be unlocked, it will be a time for the PNP to dance,” he told the cheering crowd.

Patterson, who has become a virtual staple at the PNP’s annual conferences, again sought to lift the spirit of the faithful prior to the grand finale, the closing speech by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

“This is not a time to breakdown, it is a time for us to rise up and build. This administration led by Portia Simpson Miller has worked systematically to halt and reverse the deterioration in the economy and to improve the assessment of Jamaica so that we are no longer pariahs in the international community,” he said.

The PNP, he said, has had to overcome many challenges over the past seven decades, and has to do it again when the next election comes.

“We have to, when the right time comes, win again and show that the mission of the PNP will be fulfilled. So, this is a time for the party to grow and this is a time for the party to be stronger and mightier yet” he said, before quoting from the scripture Ecclesiastes 3, which speaks to a time to plant and a time to reap.

“Let us remember the good seeds that our party sowed, so that we can reap when the time of harvest comes,” he commented.

Patterson said that the right decisions have been taken by the PNP government, “but they are hard, as you know, and as we say ‘rain a fall but dutty tough’,”.

“We cannot afford to run the risk of having the reputation that we have developed for living according to our words to be undermined by any administration in the years to come. It is time for us to embrace one another, to embrace our youths who are the future of our party and our country, and to continue to promote respect and honour of our women, so that they reach their rightful place in the society,” he added.