As I listened to Andrew Michael Holness taking the Oath of Office on Thursday evening, I could not help feeling overwhelmed with a deep sense of pride as a Jamaican. I even found myself becoming washed with goosebumps because deep down I felt a sense that this may be the beginning of a real chance for Jamaica to seriously find its way after 53 years as an independent nation.

Let me declare that Andrew Holness, as leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, has been the subject of numerous criticisms on my blogs, as well as in my columns published in the

Jamaica Observer. Let me also state that, under normal circumstances, had I been in Jamaica at the time of the election it is quite likely that I would not have voted for his party based on my political beliefs shaped by Michael Manley’s Democratic Socialist principles. That time, though, has passed and the election is now over.

In this post-election period, I am a Jamaican first and foremost, and my bet is on the country, not political party. I am under no illusion that in order for Jamaica to extract itself from its developmental malaise it is necessary for all of us to put aside our political differences and support the new Government and the country’s Prime Minister The Most Honourable Andrew Michael Holness ON.

It is patently clear that the new prime minister is intimately aware of the task that he faces over the next few years because what he won wasn’t an election, but the trust of the majority of Jamaicans who voted in the election, that he would do good by them.

I believe that he captured this quite well when he expressed thus: “The people of Jamaica did not vote in vain. They expect a Government that works for them and, by the same expectation, an Opposition that is constructive…With this mandate there is no majority for arrogance; there is no space for selfishness, there is no place for pettiness, there is no room for complacency, and there is no margin for error…”

Andrew Michael Holness, at 43 years of age, is still a young man with an opportunity to chart the kind of future for the thousands of millennial voters with whom he must have a similarly shared vision. That vision is of a space in a land where they can feel comfortable enough to raise their families and build a sustainable future for their succeeding generations.

The desire of every Jamaican is to be able to realise their best potential and their expectation from those who are elected to Government is to be provided with the environment within which that potential will be able to be realised.

In this regard he has to prune and deliver one of the “low hanging fruits” promised in his campaign; the removal of income tax from income earners of $1.5 million and less, as well as an upward adjustment to the National Minimum Wage to $8,500 per week. These deliverables will have to be addressed within the shortest time frame and represents putting runs on the board even as the new Government tries to get accustomed to the bounce of the pitch and the ferocity of the bowling.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness needs no reminding that he has to hit the ground running as each time he looks across the aisle in Gordon House he will have an omnipresent reminder of the political state of the country, given the closeness of his electoral victory. At the same time he will not only need to reach out to the nearly one million electors that did not participate in the elections, but also to the People’s National Party voters on the other side. I believe that he has demonstrated the required tenacity to get the job done, demonstrated in the way he marshalled his victory; winning over the millennial voters while confounding his critics (including myself) and skilfully outfoxing an overconfident People’s National Party. It is important that this tenacity become the hallmark of his leadership as the country needs it.

As one who has been among Andrew Holness’s harshest critics, let me use this medium to state my unequivocal support for him as prime minister of our country and leader of the Government of Jamaica. I can assure him that I will continue to use my writings to amplify his achievements in as much the same way as I will report on his and his Government’s follies. My challenge to the new prime minister is to “Go now and do the people’s work”.

By the way, the visuals of a “First Family” that will occupy Jamaica House does provide a refreshing image to Jamaican everywhere.

Richard Hugh Blackford is a self-taught artist, writer and social commentator. He shares his time between Coral Springs, Florida and Kingston, Jamaica.www.yardabraawd.com Send comments to the Observer orrichardhblackford@gmail.com.