WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — The general secretary of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) Dr Dayton Campbell has brushed aside criticisms of the party president Mark Golding.

“I see them say that they have some problems with my general and I understand the discomfort that Labourites have. I understand it because Labourites know that Mark Golding doesn’t come to scrape. They know that he made his money already and has come to serve. So, they know that they cannot mix him up in any corruption,” stated Dr Campbell during a PNP parish meeting held at the Sandy Bay Primary School in Hanover.

The meeting followed a tour of the Hanover Eastern constituency on Friday.

“Then, they know that behind him is a general who is not begging anybody for anything. I don’t want any contract. I don’t want any friends from anybody,” added Campbell, who noted that, “it is the people’s business that we come about. We come to ensure that the people can have a better life.”

“They say they have a problem with his complexion, when we say that our motto is out of many, we are one. They say they have a problem with how he talks. Then the whole of us don’t use English and patois when we feel like it?” questioned Dr Campbell.

“Then they get up and make up a story and say he was not born here when some of them and him go to school. They know that he was born here and is a true Jamaican. Then they want to argue about what he is dressed in and those things. It is a leader that we are looking for. It is the brain and the heart that we are concerned about. We want to know where the brain is and where the heart is,” stated Dr Campbell.

With that said, the general secretary pointed out that these issues are minute to the problems that the PNP is having with the leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Dr Andrew Holness.

“Oh, they are much more severe,” Dr Campbell said.

Dr Campbell referenced reports from the Integrity Commission (IC) before using the opportunity to highlight some of the achievements of Golding during the former Portia Simpson Miller-led PNP administration.

— Anthony Lewis.