KINGSTON, Jamaica — Hours after his resignation as chairman of the People’s National Party (PNP), Phillip Paulwell says he is not a supporter of tribal politics, while declaring that he holds no malice against anyone in his party who, he says, were responsible for him losing his United States visa.

“People will go to the US Embassy — people of your own ilk will go and tell lies about you. That’s how terrible the politics is. That’s how terrible the internal politics can be,” Paulwell said on Friday in a Facebook live video.

In 2019, Paulwell, along with Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Daryl Vaz, had their visas revoked by the US State Department.

Former United States Ambassador to Jamaica, Donald Tapia, disclosed this week on Nationwide News Network that he was doing his best to correct the injustice that was done to Vaz.

However, there was no such luck for Paulwell, as Tapia explained that he was not familiar with the senior PNP official’s case.

Despite the loss of his visa, which he attributed to “internal [party] politics”, Paulwell said he still wanted peace within the PNP.

“I bare these things and I still wanted peace [within the PNP]. I still wanted to ensure that during this period we elect our officers, that we could agree on four VPs [vice-presidents], and that we could carry forward that agreement, and that we wouldn’t have any upheaval with the regional leadership, the elections towards NEC [National Executive Council], and so on and so forth. We could have done these all without disturbances,” Paulwell shared.

And amid the purported wrong that was done to him, Paulwell attested to being a “sincere” person with a clean heart.

“You know despite what anyone wants to say about me, I can look in the mirror with a clean heart and hands and say, ‘I have been sincere,'” he pointed out.

“Sincere in standing up for the Jamaican people; sincere in leading a life of honesty; a life without corrupt motives and practices; a life where in my own constituency I work for peace for the killings you hear about to stop…” he elaborated.

The former PNP chairman, as well as party vice-presidents Damion Crawford, Wykeham McNeill, and Mikael Phillips, all resigned from their respective posts.

In a statement earlier on Friday, the senior comrades said they arrived at the decision after recognising the risk of another internal election before the wounds of the last presidential elections were adequately healed.

In his Facebook live video, Paulwell said that, “Today [Friday] has been another unfortunate day in the party.”

He added: “We’ve decided to step back and to allow the party leader [Mark Golding] to have his team. I am too weak to fight, and I know that it is going to get us know where, because we’re not going to be successful with half of the party working.”

Underscoring that he had done everything in his power to create unity in the party, Paulwell argued that if 70 per cent of the party was not “working together”, then PNP would not see power.

“Comrades got shot up in the 70s. Put their life on the line for the PNP, and today was a sad day for them because they are wondering, ‘Is this what we put our lives on the line for?’ Paulwell said, noting that he was not a supporter of tribal politics.

He reminded comrades, too, that the 83-year-old political organisation had “brought the most benefit and the greatest achievement to the country”.

“… And when we fight like this, what do we say to those who fought to keep us alive in the 70s and 80s and beyond? And why would we want to have half of the party?” he questioned.

While noting that Jamaicans were suffering from challenges such as a rise in oil and gas, Paulwell asserted that a viable Opposition was now important.

“… but a viable Opposition will not come about if we are disunited,” he lamented.

“The problem why we only have 14 members of parliament today is that our house was not in order. We were disunited, and it started back from about 2017 right through to the General Elections where we lost terribly…,” opined Paulwell.

“We’re not going to see the sight of power if this continues. That’s the reason why early in the new leadership of Mark Golding I pledged my full support to ensure that we have peace in the party.

“I have said to the party leader, I have said to the officers of the party, I’ve said to the committee that’s now in charge of unity that I, Phillip Paulwell, would leave this party if before the next election there is another [leadership] challenge in the party… I made that pledge,” he disclosed.

In relation to the Local Government polls, which are due by next year, the former party chairman warned that, “I know if you don’t go there [as] a team, dog nyam we supper in the upcoming Local Government Elections.”

“… And that’s the reason why I was quite clear — and I thought our party was quite clear [and] the officers of the party were quite clear — that we could not sustain another internal election,” Paulwell said.

“An internal campaign costs people money, but most importantly, it costs unity, and I thought the entire officer core — I know the existing VPs all of them [knew] — that we could not [or] should not get back into campaigning internally,” he argued.

Paulwell said that the money used for internal campaigning could be better used in a Local Government Election campaign.

“So I am saddened, because we were really working towards consensus. You know me, I believe in peace. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’, that has been my mantra over on this platform, but throughout my life,” he announced.

Paulwell, in the meantime, confirmed that while himself and the other three senior comrades have resigned, they will not be leaving the Opposition party.

“So yes, we have taken a decision, but we are not leaving this party. The PNP is me, the PNP is in you. We not leaving this party. We gonna continue here. Whatever I can do [and] my colleagues to make sure we do well in the Local Government Elections we gonna do it, but we not gonna bare any malice and cuss anybody. That is not what I am about, and that is not what we are about,” he explained.

But, Paulwell, who is also a former PNP vice-president, told comrades that the change the party required depended on them.

“We have to try to get things changed. A lot of it is going to depend on you, our membership, our core supporters, who will have to say, ‘Listen, you guys have to get your house in order,'” he suggested.

“It’s not a blame game. I am not going to be blaming anyone, but God knows I tried. I wanted to see the party coming together. I wanted to see us being able to get back into power, so that we can continue to provide good policies and programmes for the People’s National Party,” said Paulwell.

“So, that’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me,” he concluded.