ANCHOVY, St James — Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness on Sunday juxtaposed the employment-creation record of his ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) against that of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), suggesting that the performance of his Administration is superior.

“All I need to say to you, you remember JEEP, you remember that promise? At the time when they made the promise, unemployment was high, over 13 per cent thereabouts, and they promised that they would create employment,” Holness told a meeting of the JLP’s Region Four organisation at Anchovy High School in St James.

“What they did, they create some crash work programme; you remember that? Some of you might not remember and that’s the problem and that’s why we have to teach, that’s why we have to put these things back into the forefront of the minds of the people because they are relevant to the decision that you have to make,” he stated.

JEEP (Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme) was a national programme launched on March 22, 2012 by then Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

It was conceptualised to provide short-term employment, particularly for people at the lower socio-economic level but was not intended to be a permanent fix to the country’s unemployment challenge.

However, the programme was criticised, particularly by the JLP, which raised concerns about its execution, claiming there was a lack of transparency, potential for political bias, and questioned whether it was adequately addressing unemployment.

Holness told his audience that after examining the PNP’s record they should look at what his party has done.

“We implemented the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme; we implemented the National Service Corps; we made HEART training free for our youngsters — 120,000 of them got training,” he declared.

“We have summer programmes with over 15,000 to over 20,000 youngsters being employed throughout the government, but I want you to also appreciate that the way in which we ran the economy generated jobs naturally and organically, we didn’t have to create jobs artificially,” he insisted.

He also sought to press home his Administration’s management of the economy.

“… we ran it so well, it has generated jobs in the normal course of its operations and so when unemployment was 13 per cent or more under the PNP, unemployment today is 3.3 per cent, the lowest unemployment rate in the history of Jamaica,” he declared.

In a more localised assault on the PNP, Holness pointed to the water challenges that he said were inherited from the Opposition in the St James Southern constituency which had been held by the PNP for more than three decades before the JLP’s Homer Davis won the seat.

“Bear in mind that we didn’t create the problem and I will go a little further by saying that this constituency was held by the PNP for over 30 years,” he said.

“Of that 32 years, the PNP had 18 and a half years straight that they ran the country, they were on charge. There was no break in their term of office, they had State resources for 18 and a half years,” he added.

Drawing a comparison, he highlighted plans for work to be done in the area such as the recently announced $600-million improvement project that will impact the Shettlewood to Anchovy water supply.

“They ran the economy of this country for 18 and a half years straight and if you take what they have done for water in 18 and a half years, and you take it and you compare it to what we have done for water on our nine years, we doubled what they have done,” he declared.

Holness insisted that he had to take this approach so that JLP supporters and other voters would understand what has been happening so that they could make an educated choice.

He charged that the Opposition, having nothing of substance to campaign on, has been using other strategies to compete with the Government.

“They tried to play upon the frustrations and discontent and and real concerns of the frustrated voter to get the frustrated voter to not pay attention to all that we are doing and to vote in an emotional and probably sometimes irrational way,” he said.

“We have countered that because we have a resume of achievements that we showed to the public that cannot be contested,” he continued.

“So now their campaign has shifted from trying to deal with our record to trying to attack people individually,” he said.

“You see this with the school bus policy
— a policy makes sense, that is going to benefit the people
— they are trying to attack the policy. It never work and then now they trying to attack the person who is implementing the policy,” he said.

“I am here now pointing out to you, don’t get caught in this kind of false narrative and trickery that the Opposition is coming with,” he stated.