Dear Editor,

Last week Prime Minister Andrew Holness broke ground for a housing development in Opposition Leader Peter Phillips’s constituency. It would have passed many people by if there wasn’t a certain level of irony to it.

Phillips, who has been the leader of a garrison constituency for decades, sat looking rather sheepishly as the prime minister spoke at the ceremony. I can only imagine what was going through his mind at the time.

But to see a Jamaica Labour Party prime minister breaking ground not in a marginal or swing seat, but a People’s National Party (PNP) garrison really reflected poorly on a man who has been in power for decades upon decades and couldn’t deliver proper housing to the people who vote for him time and again.

And then to make it even more farcical, the Opposition leader or his handlers really put up a tweet on Twitter saying he has been trying to get the development from National Housing Trust (NHT) for 10 years. Amazing! In those 10 years he took billions from the NHT for budgetary support, but couldn’t build a simple housing scheme in his constituency?

The question that then arises is: If he couldn’t deliver a housing project for his own constituency for over a decade, how is he going to deliver anything for Jamaica?

He and his party had the reins of power for decades and he couldn’t get it done, how can we trust him to get anything done for the entire Jamaica?

But what that shows is the core problem of the PNP — they can’t get anything done. It is always stuck or lost in the proverbial pipeline. The inability of Phillips to deliver a housing scheme for his people while in power is just a symptom of the wider problem of the PNP not being able to deliver for the people of Jamaica.

While it is highly ironic and somewhat tragic, it also shows the maturity and statemanship of Holness in allowing that project to go through. The Government could have blocked it — as the PNP has done to so many JLP initiatives when they take over from the JLP — but because this is a Government that cares for all Jamaicans, the people in Phillips’s constituency will now have a choice to own their own home. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? It sure is. It’s quite clear that everybody, even Phillips and the PNP, is feeling the prosperity under the JLP.

I think Phillips may very well agree with Holness when he says it’s better with the builder.

It’s a crying shame that a constituency that has repeatedly voted PNP can be held in such a low regard that it took a JLP Government to bring houses there — something as basic but important as proper housing.

For a man who speaks about creating a Jamaica that works for all, it sure looks bad when he can’t deliver for his own people. Jamaicans should take note of that.

Fabian Lewis

tyronelewis272@gmail.com