There is a popular saying in Jamaica that “pressure buss pipe”. This statement arises when an individual comes under stress and then there is a sudden emotional outburst. This popular Jamaican saying is now epitomised in Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Recently, Prime Minister Holness sought to explain the challenges being experienced by Jamaica and sought to summarise it using the term ‘PNPism’. In his diatribe, he blamed the PNP for engendering a culture of freeness and all the ills of the Jamaican society. These utterances are unbecoming of a progressive prime minister and are symptomatic of an individual under deep stress, and understandably so.

The prime minister is in the fifth year of his second term, and with less than nine months to go before the general election is constitutionally due, his political party, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), is trailing the People’s National Party (PNP) by 9.2 per cent, based on public opinion polls. The said poll is indicating that 58 per cent of Jamaicans are of the view that the country is heading in the wrong direction.

Additionally, Prime Minister Holness has found himself in a conundrum with the Integrity Commission, with regard to his statutory declarations, as these have not been certified. Momentously, it has been revealed that he is among eight parliamentarians who are being investigated for illicit enrichment. Frankly, I would not like to be in the shoes of the prime minister.

Notwithstanding the pressure that the prime minister is under, one cannot allow the bunkum that he has uttered to go unchallenged. As a proud member of the PNP and the deputy chairman of this noble institution, I have a duty to defend the legacy of this 85-year-old institution that has been at the forefront of Jamaica’s development since its establishment in 1938.

There are multitudinous legislation, programmes, and policies that I could delineate in this article; however, space and time would not allow, but as spokesperson on housing and sustainable living I have a duty to defend the stewardship of successive PNP administrations as far as housing is concerned.

Housing is a pre-eminent issue for Jamaicans. It is irrefragable that various PNP administrations have been at the forefront of Jamaica’s housing infrastructure as they seek to satisfy the needs of the citizens. From the 1950s, Norman Manley started the process of modernising Jamaica’s housing infrastructure. Thatch houses, wattle and daub, and bamboo houses were the order of the day. Up to the 1950s, most of the black population were still suffering from the deleterious effects of slavery and their housing conditions were abominable. This is why Manley started the first set of housing schemes to be built within the island, those of Hope Pastures, Mona, and Harbour View. These were to become the domicile of Jamaica’s burgeoning middle class.

The greatest transformation of the housing sector came in the 1970s. This took place when Michael Manley introduced the National Housing Trust (NHT). With the establishment of the NHT, workers would make contributions to a dedicated fund for housing and these funds would then be used to build affordable houses to sell to contributors. Since its inception in 1976, over 250,000 houses have been built, thus benefiting approximately one million Jamaicans. Indeed, the NHT has been one of the most successful public institutions in Jamaica and this is a PNP innovation of which we are extremely proud.

The primary mandate of the NHT is to build affordable houses for contributors. But the Holness-led Administration has concentrated over the past nine years on building houses that are out of the reach of ordinary contributors. For example, under his Administration we have seen the construction of Ruthven Towers where units were sold for almost $40 million and the development is bedevilled with lots of problems.

In the 1990s, the PJ Patterson-led PNP Administration continued the fine housing tradition of the party by accelerating housing construction under the NHT. Monumentally, Patterson introduced Operation Pride, another innovation designed to provide land and affordable housing to working class Jamaicans. Almost 60,000 families benefited from this move aimed at correcting some of the historical injustices that were meted out to black Jamaicans during slavery.

Patterson has not forgotten that his forefathers and mothers never received any compensation for the injustices of the most cruel and inhumane treatment to any race on Earth. Operation Pride did just that by providing affordable land and housing for thousands of Jamaicans, and you can just look at Melrose Mews, Bellaire, Norwich Heights, Long Mountain, and Pines of Karachi.

Interestingly, the Patterson-led Administration had established the National Housing Development Cooperation (NHDC), now the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), to drive Operation Pride. Under the Patterson-led PNP Administration, beneficiaries were able to purchase land for below $1 million for a lot. However, under the Holness-led JLP Administration, the HAJ, led by Norman Brown, sold lots on the market to Jamaicans for over $25 million. Some of these lots were sold in a development nestled between Pines of Karachi and Beverly Hills. Undoubtedly, such actions by the HAJ under the Holness-led Administration has contributed to the continued spiralling of housing prices out of the reach of ordinary Jamaicans. This is ‘brogadism’ at its core!

The Portia Simpson Miller-led PNP of 2012-2016 also embarked on a number of housing initiatives to assist the poor and marginalised. Under Simpson Miller we saw a continuation of Operation Pride. Transformationally, under her leadership, barracks housing that were used to house sugar workers across the country were removed and modern houses were built to improve the dignity of these workers.

So Prime Minister Holness and his Administration cannot speak to ‘PNPism’ and have that connected to housing, for example. The greatest transformation of the housing sector in Jamaica has taken place under different PNP administrations.

The prime minister boasts about building 300 social houses during his tenure. He has posited that the demand for social houses is approximately 8,000. Mathematically, Holness is averaging 33.3 social houses per annum, and with the demand for social houses at 8,000, it would take 240 years for this demand to be filled at this rate.

Our current leader, Mark Golding, has signalled what he will be doing as far as housing is concerned when he becomes the next prime minister of Jamaica. He has signalled to the country that he will be repurposing the current NHT to focus on building affordable housing. This will be made possible by stopping the annual extraction of $11.4 billion from the NHT to fund the national budget. We will be partnering with churches to build retirement homes for senior citizens. We will be introducing a rent-to-buy initiative, whereby young people and self-employed individuals, can own their own homes. We will be encouraging developers to invest in modern technologies that will build houses at greater speed and satisfy the demand for houses in the market.

Simultaneously, there will be a revamping of the former Operation Pride, which will now become the Programme for the Orderly Renewal and Transformation of Infrastructure in all Areas (Portia). Under the Portia initiative, the Golding-led Administration will be focusing on completing all those Operation Pride developments that have not been completed by this Administration and renewing communities all across the country. We will be tearing down zinc fences and replacing them with concrete walls, as well as building accessible sidewalks all across the country.

Summarily, the PNP will not allow Prime Minister Holness to define us. We are defined by the principles ensconced in our constitution and the programmes and policies that have been implemented by various PNP administrations since its formation in 1938. Housing has been among our seminal achievements, evidenced in the thousands of houses built by the NHT and the multitudinous families that have benefited from Operation Pride. We are coming again with transformational initiatives to build affordable houses for Jamaicans so that they can own a piece of this rock.

As deputy chairman of the PNP and spokesperson on housing and sustainable living, I reject this bunkum about ‘PNPism’ from Prime Minister Holness.

Professor Senator Floyd Morris is deputy chairman of the People’s National Party and spokesman on housing and sustainable living.