Prime Minister Andrew Holness has indicated that the most serious challenge facing his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Administration is securing growth, prosperity and social progress within its political context.

According to Holness, having ensured the establishment of a competitive democratic political tradition by contesting the first general election under universal adult suffrage in 1944, establishing the independence of the state in 1962 and reaffirming Jamaica as “a free, independent, market-oriented and liberal democratic state in 1980”, the challenge is now to secure economic growth, prosperity and social progress, within this political context of being free, independent and being a market-based and liberal democracy.

Holness told JLP members and guests, who joined in celebrating the party’s 78th anniversary, “it is now the challenge and the focus for those political parties that have wrestled with trying to secure economic progress and economic growth within this context”.

He said that the primary success that the JLP Government has achieved so far, within this context, is the establishment of fiscal discipline within the economic space.

“The history books have not yet been written on this and, indeed, it is going to be contested, ‘When did it start?’ This push towards recognising that the management of our public financing were not aligned with proper economic policies,” said Holness.

The prime minister said that in 2009, while he was a member of the JLP Administration led by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the party wrestled with getting the economy on the right track.

“We started with the first debt exchange, which literally started the recognition that we could not continue with high interest rate policies. It started off with what we called the introduction of fiscal discipline. It didn’t end up how we wanted it to, and we went through a period from 2011 to 2016, where the country was engaged with the International Monetary Fund and established the fiscal rules,” declared Holness.

“We took over again in 2016. I took over as prime minister at that time and, since then, we have made as a primary focus of this Government for fiscal discipline; good fiscal management of the affairs of the country,” he said.

Holness also reminded the audience that this year marks his 10th anniversary of his elevation to leadership of the JLP, following the resignation of Golding in 2011.

He lost a general election he had called in December 2011, but after four years — 2012 to 2016 — as leader of the Opposition, he was returned to Jamaica House in 2016, and won with a widened majority of 49-14 in the most recent general election on September 3, 2020 for his third term as prime minister.

In terms of reshaping the party to meet the new challenges of Government, Holness explained that, after his loss in 2011, he was forced into introspection as to what the JLP really stood for, and what it needed to do when it was returned to Government.

“I commissioned a report on the party and did a very extensive study of the party and the issues affecting the party, and how we should correct them. What came across very clear from that study, was that the people were not so much concerned about ideology. People were more concerned about the results, so they were looking for a political party that understood their issues and would bring practical solutions to those concerns,” declared Holness.

He said that since then he has been involved in re-crafting the party’s message to the people, to deal with the issue which was not about just about the presence of poverty, but how the Government would bring an end to poverty in Jamaica.

Other speakers at the function at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston last week, included the party’s chairman, Robert Montague; General Secretary Dr Horace Chang, and Trelawny Northern Member of Parliament Tova Hamilton.

Six stalwarts of the party were honoured for serving. They included 95 year-old former Cabinet minister and Member of Parliament for St Andrew West Rural (1976-1989), Dr Mavis Gwendolyn Gilmour-Petersen, a medical practitioner who served as minister of education from 1980 to 1986, and minister of social security and consumer affairs (1986-1989) in the Administration led by then Prime Minister Edward Seaga.

The others were former Cabinet ministers Edwin Allen, Douglas Vaz and Anthony Johnson, former president of the Senate, Jeanette Grant Woodham; and former mayor of Kingston and Member of Parliament for Kingston Central, Ryan Peralto, who also served as general secretary and chairman of the JLP.

The function was also marked by the launch of a National Scholarship Fund which will be awarded to Jamaican students attending The University of the West Indies, the University of Technology, and Northern Caribbean University .