LEADER of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Prime Minister Andrew Holness has warned that his Administration is prepared to face head on people who spread lies and misinformation about it.

Addressing the party’s St Andrew East Rural constituency conference on Sunday, Holness argued that because his Administration has outperformed any previous People’s National Party (PNP) Government, nobody is claiming any more that “under PNP, things did better”.

According to Holness, Jamaicans now realise that progress is being made by the Government with the issue being how to get that progress to speed up, be sustainable, and to be spread widely and evenly in the society — and that is what his Administration is working on.

“But we recognise that what is happening in the society now is you are being fed with a whole heap of falsehood, lies, [and] misinformation,” said Holness.

“You have people who should know better — politically connected people — paying people to spread lies and rumours [and] to engage in character assassination,” added Holness as he pointed to the widespread use of social media in Jamaica and bemoaned that fact that many Jamaicans believe what is posted without checking.

“So what it does, it affects mood, it makes people start to think negatively, and so you end up with this conflict in your mind. You know the Government is doing well… but this artificially created mood in the country creates the conflict,” added Holness.

He told Labourities that the JLP will now have to go back to its base to respond.

“This Jamaica Labour Party is not the same Jamaica Labour Party of the ’80s. We are not going to sit by and allow the PNP to use false information to damage and attack the reputation of hard-working, decent Jamaicans who have given their lives [and] their energy to this country,” declared Holness as he vowed that his Administration would not be distracted from its mission to improve Jamaica.

Holness also told the cheering Labourities that coming out of the local government elections in February the JLP commissioned a review of its structure, its organisation, and its workers.

“So the party is now going through that process of preparing itself for the next phase of the mission of building Jamaica. You are going to see a different approach by the Jamaica Labour Party to its communication, and a different approach to dealing with its workers, and a different approach to campaigning,” said Holness.

He noted that the JLP has been the Government for eight years and argued that it is natural for a review to be conducted of what it is doing well, what it is not doing well, what has changed in the environment, and other changes.

Holness said the party will use the review to develop its corporate, connection, communication, and campaign strategies.

“The party is also looking at the performance of all its representatives — every single representative. You can’t take it for granted that because somebody looks good on paper that they are good on the ground. We can’t take it for granted that because somebody has a brand name you tek it and say, ‘That man deh must good.’ No, we have to be very scientific [and] very strategic in our approach,” said Holness.