Get over yourself, PNP, and stop the ‘badmindedness’
Dear Editor,
Against my better judgement, I wanted to believe that the People’s National Party (PNP) was mature and sensible enough to realise that the new Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government cannot fulfil all its promises in the less than 100 days since it took office.
I have only myself to blame for thinking that the PNP would quickly get over its electoral loss and put away its customary ‘badmindedness’. But it remains true that a leopard cannot change its spots.
No sooner had the JLP Government, led by Mr Andrew Holness, been sworn into office than the PNP started its propaganda against them. Opposition Leader Mrs Portia Simpson Miller avoided using the expression “I will be their worst nightmare” that she did in 2007, but she is no better. At her press conference on Wednesday she declared that the new Government should not be trusted to fulfil its promises as they were never meant in the first place.
It’s ridiculous to believe that any Government anywhere could carry out their promises in such a short time. It cannot be that the PNP does not know this. So it is deliberate, and that is an example of the ‘bad mind’ and political sabotage that has kept back our country for so long.
The PNP has aimed the brunt of its attacks on the minister of finance, Audley Shaw, in particular, calling into question his ability to deliver on the ‘$1.5-million income tax break’. Shaw has promised to pay it and he will, because he is a man of his word. He is not a reckless finance minister, so it has to be done in a way that will not hurt but benefit the country. I am sure that his budget presentation next month will demonstrate how astute he is.
The carping by the PNP propagandists is to distract attention from the fact that once again they have left the national coffers empty and once again, as in 2007, Shaw will have to come to the rescue. But he took us through one of the biggest financial meltdowns since the Great Depression in his first term as finance minister and he will do it again.
The PNP should know it can’t have it both ways. It can’t say that it is acting for the people of Jamaica and at the same time wish bad things to happen that would damage the country. Wishing for the minister of finance to fail or to not be able to deliver on the tax promise is not in the interest of those Jamaicans who are depending on it to get a badly needed break.
Get over yourself, PNP.
Elliot Penn
Kingston 5