BROMPTON, St Elizabeth — Opposition Senator Peter Bunting says the aim and mandate of the People’s National Party (PNP) is to build a national alliance of progressive people across all classes in an effort to collectively improve the lives of Jamaicans.

“We have always been an alliance of the progressive elements in all classes even while our mission has been the upliftment of the disadvantaged masses,” Bunting told a PNP Region Five Executive Council Meeting in Brompton, on Sunday.

He sought to allay fears that the PNP — formed in 1938 and now in its second-consecutive term in opposition — is anti-business.

“The party is not opposed to any element in the society, we are a party that wants business to be successful and to thrive, and to innovate, and to employ people, and to help Jamaica grow,” he said.

Bunting’s comments follow recent controversial remarks by Opposition Member of Parliament Lothan Cousins that the private sector is biased towards the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and that black Jamaicans should not support the JLP because of its alleged links to the socio-economic elite.

Bunting, a wealthy investment banker, called for people of wealth and social standing to use their positions of privilege to improve the conditions of the masses rather than seek to maintain the status quo.

“The truth of the matter is that a Kern Spencer (PNP Region Five chairman) or a Peter Bunting, or a Mark Golding (PNP president and Opposition leader) is not satisfied to say we have done better for ourselves and our families. It is insufficient unless we can show [that] we have used this relative success… to help those who haven’t yet crossed that bridge,” said Bunting.

He urged the PNP to place emphasis on social and political education for its supporters and other Jamaicans as part of the process of socio-economic advancement. He applauded Golding for what he said was the party president’s intention to do so.

“To uplift people you have to start by raising their level of social and political consciousness,” said Bunting. “It has always been the approach of the People’s National Party, and I am happy that our current comrade leader is willing to take this on, because it is not something that we must apologise for. It is something which draws a distinction between the PNP and the JLP, going back almost to our formation,” added Bunting.

He claimed that the masses of the people are better off when the PNP is in Government. Bunting argued that the JLP lost popularity in the 1960s despite strong economic growth for the country at that time, largely because of alleged acts of repression and poverty. Repression, he said, included persecution of Rastafarians at Coral Gardens, St James; the banning of Guyanese University of the West Indies (UWI) professor, Walter Rodney; and the bulldozing of a West Kingston slum.

“Indeed, those of us who are on the older side like myself will remember that the PNP came to power under Michael Manley in 1972, because of things like Coral Gardens, because of the banning of Walter Rodney, because of the bulldozing of Back-O-Wall. These were all the things that the Jamaican people rejected in the 1960s through to 1972, even though on the face of it — on the basis of the statistics — the economy was growing at unprecedented levels. But it did not trickle down to the average Jamaican,” said Bunting.

That experience influenced the Michael Manley-led PNP Government of the 1970s to attempt wide-ranging socio-economic reforms to support the poor and disenfranchised, Bunting said.

“So it was for that reason in the 1970s [that there was] all the legislation that the party enacted to support women, children, the unborn, the elderly, workers, students and small entrepreneurs. This was the reason for the whole raft of legislation to attempt to address the inequalities in the society at the time,” he said.

Bunting said that the issues that are dividing the Jamaican society appear to “more subtle” now.

“…But we can see from the hundreds if not thousands of teachers who are migrating, similar for nurses, similar for police officers that the status quo is not good for the majority of our people. The majority of our people remain over-represented in poverty and under-represented in income, wealth, status and acceptance, that is the truth,” he said.

He argued that the PNP should not refrain from speaking what it considered to be “truth” simply because it made people in positions of power and social standing uncomfortable.

“The reality is that when you speak truth to power, power is not going to welcome it. Power is going to become uncomfortable. We must not apologise for demanding better for the people of Jamaica,” he added.

Bunting criticised the Government for what he believes is an insufficient response to cushion the economic hardship being faced by Jamaicans.

“Paying debt and balancing the books are important, but unless it ultimately deals with the conditions of the people, it is just maintaining the status quo. If the people are in crisis then any democratic society must attempt to cushion the crisis that the people are in,” he said.