PEOPLE’S National Party (PNP) President Dr Peter Phillips says he is convinced that the way forward must be to embrace the vision of equality and justice for all Jamaicans advocated by the party’s founding president, national hero, Norman Washington Manley.

But first, says Phillips, Jamaicans must accept that “profound changes are needed to Jamaica’s social and economic fundamentals” which, as they currently exist, have facilitated deep-seated inequalities and injustices.

Phillips told his audience at the inaugural Norman Manley Lecture at the Golf View Hotel on July 4 — the 124th anniversary of Manley’s birth at Roxborough in Manchester — that the aim should be to get to where all Jamaicans feel there is a place for them.

“There will be no real peace until every Jamaican feels that Jamaica works for them,” Phillips said to loud applause from the audience, including former prime minister and PNP president, Portia Simpson Miller, who was formally honoured at the function.

Phillips said that recognition motivated his decision on becoming party president and leader of the Opposition earlier this year, to set up two commissions — the land ownership commission, and a youth employment, innovation and new economy commission.

A third commission focusing on education will be set up shortly, Phillips said.

“In our view, the issue of land, economy and… the issue of education surrounds the heart of what causes the inequalities in Jamaican society in the first place…,” Phillips said.

The aim of the commissions, according to the PNP president, is to ensure that when the next PNP administration forms the Government, it should hit the ground running in terms of its priority tasks.

“We intend that a future PNP Administration should not spend its first months trying to decide what to do, but should be able to begin from day one, to institute the revolutionising of Jamaican society,” he said.

Volunteerism would be key to the PNP’s efforts to point a way forward for the country, Phillips suggested.

“We need to once again build the army of volunteers such as was built in the early years of the PNP; we need to recommit ourselves to study and analyse Jamaica’s society and develop policies that will be radical policies, not in the sense of ideological radicalism, but in the sense of going to the heart of the persistent inequality that still scars Jamaican society to a great extent. Ours is a mission to build a new and better Jamaica that works for all…,” he said.

Summarising the work that would be required of the various commissions, he said that “the land ownership commission is mandated to recommend radical and effective strategies, systems and mechanisms to significantly improve and facilitate legal ownership of land by Jamaicans”.

Phillips argued that too many people have lived on land, sometimes for generations, without getting a title to that land. He noted, too, that 700,000 Jamaicans were listed as squatters or informal settlers.

“Forty per cent of agricultural producers don’t have title to the land on which they produce, we have to change this reality in our time,” Phillips said.

The youth employment, innovation and new economy commission was mandated to develop the “appropriate economic policy framework and action plan to modernise and transform globally competitive areas of the Jamaican economy in the short and medium term, to leverage the energy and talents of Jamaican youth for the transformation of our economic life”, Phillips said.

“Within this framework we expect to see new sectors of the economy develop — sectors which are based upon knowledge and innovation and that can improve the standard of living in the countryside and urban areas,” he added.

Modern technology should be used to harness the potential of music, entertainment and sport, he said.

“We need to also look at the possibilities of nutraceuticals, including ganja, technical development including animation, high-level skills of (high-tech) services not just call centres… and in tourism… moving into the communities and care services,” Phillips said.

Regarding education, which Phillips pointed out was a shining example of achievement during Manley’s seven years as leader of pre-Independent Jamaica from 1955 to 1962, inequalities remained deeply embedded, he said.

“Despite the gains in securing educational access to high school, there is still no doubt that we suffer too much as a country from the effects of what is still a two-tiered educational system with a minority of schools achieving excellent performances and too many schools languishing with substandard performance… ask any parent about GSAT (high school entrance) results and the anguish that so many feel depending on which school their child has been selected for,” Phillips said.

“We are allowing too many of our children’s life chances to be settled at that point. We need to ensure that we don’t leave behind, as we are doing now, some 50 per cent of school leaving cohort… without adequate certification. As a consequence of this failure of our educational system, some 70 per cent of our labour force has no certification whatever and this in a world that is described as knowledge driven.,” the Opposition leader said.

The inaugural Norman Manley Lecture followed the annual civic ceremony at Roxborough, marking the national hero’s birth.