People’s National Party (PNP) President and Opposition Leader Mark Golding says Jamaica is not a personal slush fund for politicians. Rather, public office is a sacred trust, not a ticket to enrichment.

Golding made the statement Sunday night as he addressed a large crowd in Oracabessa, at the PNP’s St Mary parish meeting where Chris Brown, Omar Newell, and Omar Woodbine were presented as the party’s standard-bearers to contest the parish’s three seats in the upcoming general election.

The statement was Golding’s ongoing swipe at members of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who he has accused of enriching themselves and their cronies on the backs of the Jamaican people.

“Our country is at a crossroads, and the people of Jamaica must now decide what kind of country do we want. What paths are we prepared to walk as a nation to get Jamaica right again, because the path we’re on, the JLP’s path, is not working for most Jamaicans,” Golding said.

“Cost of living is crushing families, corruption is running wild in Government, and while you are struggling to buy food and to pay your bills, Members of Parliament and ministers are enriching themselves,” he charged.

“We’ve seen it in the enormous pay rises that they paid themselves after they gave crumbs to the teachers — 20 per cent over three years — and now they’re saying to the public sector workers, zero per cent in the first year. What can go so?” he said.

His reference was to the more than 200 per cent salary increases made to all parliamentarians and other members of the political directorate at the local government level as part of the revised public sector compensation structure.

Initially the Opposition did not comment on the increases, but as public criticism mounted the PNP described the salary hikes as unconscionable and demanded that they be rolled back.

The Government, however, defended the move but Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness declined his salary increase and announced that he had “directed the Transformation Implementation Unit to remove the prime minister’s compensation from the new salary scale”.

At the same time, Golding said he would keep 20 per cent of the increase in his salary and distribute the remainder to “persons in need and other worthy causes”.

In his address on Sunday Golding said, “This country, our Jamaica, is not a personal slush fund for politicians. Public resources do not exist to serve a political party and the friends of the party; it exists to serve the people — all of the Jamaican people.”

According to Golding, the neglect is real in St Mary with the roads being in a disgraceful state. “Health centres barely function, farmers feel abandoned, young people have talent but no opportunities. And while your communities suffer this Government pours millions and millions of taxpayers’ money into public relations campaigns to seek re-election and enter contracts with their politically connected friends… this is not leadership, this is the betrayal of the people of this land,” Golding said, adding, “I believe that public office is a sacred trust, not a ticket to self-enrichment.”

The PNP president, who is seeking to become Jamaica’s 10th prime minister after the upcoming election, promised that the PNP is, “ready to end waste and greed, ready to restore accountability in Government, ready to lead the country with integrity, ready to rescue the country from the brink where this Government has carried it”.

According to him, it has now emerged that the prime minister has even more legal problems. He reminded that after the Integrity Commission’s investigation report of the probe of Holness was made public in September last year, he had told the prime minister to “tek weh himself”.

“You can’t run country and be in charge of Government with a cloud of this nature hanging over yuh head. I say to the Jamaica Labour Party as an institution [that] they need to do the right thing but they have decided to thug it out, and look what happen.

“All I can tell you is third term is imploding, it is not loading, because the people of Jamaica will not accept being governed any longer by a Government in which they can have no trust or confidence,” Golding declared.

He said it will be up to the PNP to clean up government.

“That’s why we will support the Integrity Commission and their work. We will support all the institutions that are there to enhance the governance in the country and make sure there’s transparency and accountability.

“That’s why we will introduce unexplained wealth orders and other instruments to ensure the legal framework is strengthened and corruption is out of the system of governance in the country,” said Golding.

He told his audience that the PNP plans to lead in a clean and decent way, “and we’re going to be a performance government”.

He declared himself to be a hard worker who has built law practices and two different firms which are listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

“I left all that to go into government because I want to serve my people, because my people have always shown me love and treated me with respect. And I want to show dem love too, and treat dem wid respect too, and uplift the nation and carry us forward because where we are now is not good enough.”

According to Golding, “Jamaica is capable of much better. We must believe in ourselves, put our shoulders to the wheel, and lift this nation to the higher heights which is our destiny.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Holness hit back at critics who have accused him and the JLP of enriching themselves.

After declaring that his hands and heart are clean, Holness said, “I have no inheritance or any endowment or any trust fund anywhere. Whatever I have, I have worked hard and honestly for it. I have never gained wealth by exploiting the people. And I want to say to you that my ethic is that I believe in working for what I have. By the sweat of my brow I shall eat bread, and that is the ethic of the Jamaica Labour Party — we work for what we have”.

He was speaking at the JLP’s St Andrew East Rural constituency conference. His wife Juliet is looking to keep the seat in the JLP’s win column. She’s being challenged by the PNP’s Patrick Peterkin.

This video grab shows a section of the crowd attending a People’s National Party St Mary parish meeting in Oracabessa on Sunday night.