The biggest Achilles heel of the People’s National Party (PNP), especially post-1962, is a demonstrated lack of competence in regard to the management of our economy. This is a grave weakness for a major political party in a self-respecting country and in a functioning Western liberal democracy, especially amidst today’s very serious global challenges.

It seems to me that 89 Old Hope Road is refusing to accept that the Jamaican society, as a whole, is quickly evolving in more positive and sustained directions, and that the PNP needs to join in the evolution.

Its leadership has been crisscrossing Jamaica for the last three years. It has blatantly neglected to use that great opportunity to convince especially discerning Jamaicans that 89 Old Hope Road has had the necessary equivalent of a financial Damascus Road experience.

Saul is still Saul. The Gentiles still fear him. The PNP simply does not get it that Jamaica, and indeed the world, has moved well beyond the political approaches of decades ago. Today, folks globally are no longer behaving like sponges with respect to the absorption of ideologies. Pragmatism is the dominant if not the only game in town.

ELDERLY IMAGE

As I see it, the PNP is severely handicapped by its elderly image. The findings of scientific polls have consistently shown in recent years that the PNP’s biggest support base is people between age 55 and 65. The majority of the PNP’s support base is elderly and its platform and political pitch are elderly too.

Last weekend the PNP had some divisional conferences which were streamed live. And the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) had some workers’ conferences which were also streamed live. It was obvious, except maybe to the willfully blind, that the JLP’s turnouts, in the main, were much larger and its supporters younger than the PNP’s. This obvious age differential may well be one of the primary explanations for the seeming unwillingness of the PNP to evolve.

Consider this from The Gleaner of April 1, 2025. The news item said, among other things: “Speaking during a PNP meeting in Royal Flat, Manchester, on Sunday, [Dr Dayton] Campbell said there has never been a time in the country’s history when an Opposition party had put out a budget.

“ ‘Never in the history of Jamaica… Never in the history of the world has an Opposition party put out a budget. Andrew Holness was leader of the Opposition for 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Go back and check, him never put out no budget; not one,’ declared Campbell.

“According to Campbell, Opposition parties participate in budget debates by outlining their plans for the country should they form the next Government

“ ‘That’s what every party in Opposition does. All of a sudden they want to trick the people,’ said Campbell.”

The PNP does not understand today’s zeitgeist. “For the times, they are a-changin’,” sang Bob Dylan, one of the greatest political and social commentators of this century and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Dylan’s song is widely regarded as a “self-conscious protest song”. It is often viewed as a reflection of the generation gap and the political divide marking American culture in the 1960s.

Dr Dayton Campbell, the general secretary of the PNP, just does not understand that Jamaica today is not Jamaica of decades ago. And Campbell’s Comrade Leader suffers with the same appalling lack of understanding too.

Mark Golding, Opposition leader and PNP president, in his most recent budget debate presentation, tried to sell Jamaicans an old worn-out donkey. Golding tried to convince us that the jackass he was selling was a Shire horse. By this I mean Golding presented a trailer-load of promises, but did not say how these promises would be funded. When he was mightily pressed to demonstrate how he would pay for his proposal of a new heaven and a new Earth, Golding made this most startling admission, which must serve as another serious warning to, especially, well-thinking Jamaicans.

Said Golding: “We didn’t present an implied budget for the coming fiscal year. We presented our proposals, our policy commitments for the next PNP Government, and we have never said that they would be implemented in the current fiscal year.”

Golding, the captain of the fielding side, committed a near-unpardonable sin. He hit the stumps while bowling. You see, some bowlers like to get very close to the stumps in a bid to bowl a stump to stump line. This sort of discipline is good and makes it difficult for the batsman to score freely, but many times bowlers hit the stumps with their bowling hand. As per the laws of the game, the ball is adjudged a no-ball, and the batsman gets a free hit. This means a great wicket-taking chance is lost for two deliveries, and the batsman has the opportunity to go after the bowler on the second delivery. Because this penalty is so costly, teams usually select the most experienced bowler to deliver a stump to stump line; this to greatly reduce the chances of the stumps being disturbed and precious runs being given to the batting side.

Truth be told, Golding has not demonstrated great competence as captain of the PNP since taking up that role. I have discussed many of his mess-ups and preventable mistakes here previously. Did Golding forget that the mentioned activity is literally called the 2025/2026 Budget Debate presentation?

Recall, Opposition spokesman on finance Julian Robinson did not present information on how the promises which he wholesaled and retailed during his budget debate presentation would be funded. Some Jamaicans, doubtless, were hoping that Golding would have stepped into the breach. This budget speech was, in fact, the last great opportunity for the PNP to positively pivot before the upcoming general election. Golding squandered it. I was not surprised.

Recall, I have also been saying in this space intermittently for nearly three years that the “PNP represents an unusable past. And that, after nearly three years of campaigning across Jamaica, the PNP was yet to say/show what Jamaica would look like at the end of, say, five years if the they were to get back the keys to Jamaica House”.

The PNP has warned us numerous times over especially the last three years that, “dem nuh ready fi the video light”. We must believe them, we would be foolish not to.

Dr Campbell and Golding clearly do not get it that a party that is too slow to change and/or reluctant to change soon wither and then die.

FOURS AND SIXES

In addition to Golding hitting the stumps, Golding’s fielders dropped several critical catches. These missed opportunities will cost them dearly. I believe the PNP will soon have to choose a new captain. This I forecast will take place after much political recriminations and bloodletting at 89 Old Hope Road, where the past seems to be the present.

Anyway, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, in addition to taking full advantage of the PNP’s carelessness in the field, hit some delightful fours and scintillating sixes in his marathon occupation of the crease. Between the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) and the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), near 11,000 spectators watched Holness’s impressive double century. I believe Holness delivered his best budget debate presentation since becoming prime minister.

The many fundable ‘goodies’ announced by Holness are ‘Google-able’. For me, though, the biggest highlight of the prime minister’s presentation was the commitment to introduce/expand the rural schools bus system for the upcoming school year.

“Holness said phase one is already under way, with the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) expanding services in Clarendon; Morant Bay, St Thomas; and Linstead, St Catherine, providing affordable transportation for students.

“Phase two will see 100 fully refurbished buses deployed across parishes, with 60 buses in September 2025 for the start of the new school year and another 40 buses by January 2026,” he further informed.

The prime minister said the buses will ensure equitable access, improved attendance, and enhanced safety while easing financial burdens on families. This is a godsend for hundreds of children, parents and teachers throughout Jamaica.

Daryl Vaz, the minister of transport and energy, is the right man on the bridge at the right time to manage this very crucial national project. I believe that if anyone can make it work, Vaz can and will.

This project is very important to me personally. When I attended primary and high school in rural Jamaica, like thousands of Jamaicans, I remember the days when”ductahs” forcibly pushed especially boys off of bus steps. I remember when I had to sit on the ‘firewall’ of the engine block of the then popular Toyota Hiace minibuses in order to get to school. I remember the cruel refrain, “No schoolers!” by ductahs.

Some adults said they were called ductahs because they were less than half of what they were supposed to be. I remember being overcharged many times by these cruel ductahs. I remember the horror stories of schoolgirls being abused, many sexually, on the public bus system. I am glad Jamaica is now serious about structurally halting the abuse which children in rural Jamaica suffer daily. I also remember getting to school late on numerous occasions. The number of times I got home late from school were many, albeit that a few times when I did get home late it was because Peter Gavaskar, me, and other boys played cricket on the Oracabessa Seventh-day Adventist grounds.

Believe it, some will ask how will a rural bus system for schoolchildren benefit Jamaica? When a parent knows that his/her children will not be abused while going to and from school, that individual is likely to be much more productive at the workplace. When the cost of transporting children to and from school is not a moving target, it enables parents to plan better. When a parent knows that his/her child is not subjected to lewd lyrics on a bus, that reality supports peace of mind. These advances enhance social and mental health and, by extension, national growth and development.

Macroeconomic advancement has a critical societal/sociological element to it. There is scholarly work which supports this view. Karl Polanyi, for example, a renowned economic sociologist called this perspective Embeddedness. He posited that economic activities are deeply embedded in societal norms, rather solely driven by market forces. The economy must serve society and not the reverse, he argued. Decent transportation is a social institution. Polanyi, in his seminal book The Livelihood of Man, argues that norms, etc, shape economic outcomes.

KEEP GOING FORWARD

Now that Jamaica has much more fiscal space — a welcomed consequence of repaying mountains of debt piled particularly by the P J Patterson Administration in the 90s — Governments going forward have not just a responsibility but a duty to protect our macroeconomics advances and, at the same time, ensure that those gains materially improve the lives of especially the majority.

On the basis of copious evidence which I detailed here previously, I concluded that the best team to competently achieve these crucial twin objectives is the present Holness Administration. Long ago I pointed out in this space that many scholars have posited that an Administration typically needs at least three parliamentary cycles — in our case a minimum of 15 years — to set in place foundational structures to secure generational advances. Jamaica, thus,needs to stay on her present path of economic, political, and social modernisation, as I see it.

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.

Garfield Higgins