NEW YORK, USA —The rival Global Jamaica Diaspora Conference, staged online, ended late Saturday but with signs that the dissident group is co-operating with the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

The group, which has been staging protest demonstrations in different United States cities to pressure the Jamaican Government for greater engagement with the Diaspora, has vociferously insisted it is not politically partisan.

But at least three of the main speakers at its online conference — coinciding with the Government’s 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Montego Bay, St James, last week — included the PNP’s shadow spokesperson on health, Dr Alfred Dawes; The University of the West Indies (UWI) professor of education policy, planning and leadership Canute S Thompson; and attorney Isat Buchanan.

Dr Dawes, who spoke last Wednesday (the final day of the MoBay convention), assured the Diaspora that the first hospital he would seek to have built, should he become minister of health, would be the long-touted Portmore facility in St Catherine.

“Given the current population of the area, along with the planned expansion — such as the Bernard Lodge development to come on stream — it is critical that such a facility is provided for the people of Portmore,” he said.

Dawes is a major partner in a private hospital that is near completion in Portmore.

Responding to frequent concerns about the high cost and the bureaucracy attached to getting donations of medical supplies to Jamaica from organisations and individuals in the Diaspora, Dr Dawes said he would also work to make it easier for those who want to assist Jamaica.

Professor Thompson, addressing another of the main grouses of the dissident group, said he would like to see a complete overhaul of Jamaica’s education system in order to make it more relevant to the current and future needs of the country.

He said the revamp should include, among other things, the provision of targeted support such as an assigned social worker to each school whose task would involve academic support, mentoring, and role modeling.

“An overhaul of the system is necessary as what we have now is a colonial system which is not serving the country well. We have a colonial system which emphasises rote learning, compliance, regurgitation and memorisation of facts, rather than a system which nurtures critical and radical thinking and innovation,” said Thompson.

Attorney Buchanan spoke on the constitutional reform talks, telling the conference it is critical that at the end of the process those at the lower end of the society have a clear understanding about what is in it for them.

Organisers claimed they had tracked close to 100,000 online participants for the week-long conference activities which covered topics such as education, security, crime, violence, constitutional reform, tourism and the economy.

The online conference by the dissident group was organised as a counter to the official 10th Biennial Global Jamaica Diaspora Conference which started on June 16, with the Government reporting registration at 1,200 people. No final figure on actual attendance has yet been given.