KINGSTON, Jamaica – A group of young Jamaicans have taken their protest against the construction of a prison, with a £25-m input from the United Kingdom Government, from tweets on social media site Twitter to the streets of the Corporate Area.

The group has identified themselves as the “Articulate Minority”, a phrase People’s National Party Chairman Robert Pickersgill used to describe vocal social media users in November, 2014.

The protest was staged approximately 300 metres away from George William Gordon House in downtown Kingston, where Parliament was in session. There were some 20 people gathered.

A total of 1,200 tweets have been tweeted using the hashtag ‘Articulate Minority’ between September 29 and today, with the protests reaching over 200,000 users on the social media platform, according to statistics from Hashtracking.

Placard-bearing protesters could be seen along Duke Street and had reportedly been receiving support from passers-by as well as popular Jamaicans such as Christopher “Johnny” Daley.

Meanwhile, on the inside of Parliament, Minister of National Security Peter Bunting stated that the Government is yet to sign a deal regarding the prison transfer proposal. He went on to describe leader of the Opposition Andrew Holness’ statement regarding prison and schools as narrow-minded.

While outside Parliament, protesters were saying they were never consulted by the Government to articulate suggestions.

Bunting insisted that the prison has at its core of it concerns the human rights of the convicted, and that a deal will not be signed without extensive consultation and debate in Jamaica and the Diaspora. He also moved to assure that the prison transfer agreement would not be an additional burden to taxpayers.

“Those who criticize it have no solution,” Bunting stated in Parliament today.

He went on to state that he does not take orders from Holness, which resulted in the Opposition members of Parliament walking out.

David Wright