The governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has ripped into the general election manifesto of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), declaring it to be an AI-generated document filled with “copy and paste” of JLP ideas and policies that are already being implemented.

National campaign manager for the JLP, Dr Christopher Tufton, went as far as to dismiss the manifesto as nothing more than an “imitation”, as he and senior members of the party addressed the media at an afternoon press conference at JLP headquarters in St Andrew on Thursday.

Also addressing the media were Finance Minister Fayval Williams; Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, chair of the party’s Achievements and Manifesto Committee, who is also minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade; and Education Minister Senator Dana Morris Dixon.

They mocked the PNP for numerous typographical errors found in its manifesto, which is titled ‘Jamaica Love’, and the fact that the table of contents listed eight pillars on which the manifesto is built, while PNP President Mark Golding, in his address at the launch of the document on Tuesday night, spoke of 10 pillars.

All speakers, who are members of the Cabinet, claimed the PNP stole ideas from their areas of responsibility.

First up was Tufton, who spoke of “multiple spelling errors”. He said there were at least eight and noted that the PNP had criticised and mocked the JLP for spelling Jamaica wrong when it launched its “achievements” document on July 30.

“It clearly seems to have been a very rushed and hurriedly prepared document just by way of how it was laid out, and the errors that were in the document force us to conclude that not a lot of thought went into it, and clearly, the time that should have been spent, that one would expect from an organisation that is hoping to provide leadership in the country…,” said Tufton. He also described the manifesto as “confusing”.

“For us, the manifesto seems to have been a copy and paste, ranging from incoherent to major imitation of what currently entails and what this Government is doing,” added Tufton.

According to Morris Dixon, after reading the manifesto, “It was very clear to me that you could say that the PNP chooses the Jamaica Labour Party, that’s what I got from the manifesto, especially with education”.

Declaring that the Government was already implementing the recommendations of the Patterson Report, Morris Dixon said, “When you look at the manifesto, it is indeed a cut and paste of the Andrew Holness Administration’s policies.”

As it relates to numeracy and literacy, she told journalists that a few minutes after she was appointed minister of education on October 31, 2024, “I said that the goal of the Administration and my goal would be to focus on literacy and numeracy and to ensure that every child is literate and numerate before they leave primary school.”

Morris Dixon said that she read in the manifesto, “The PNP promises that every child can read, write, do arithmetic and reason by age 12. Sounds like exactly what I said on October 31, 2024.”

On early childhood education, she quoted from the manifesto: “The PNP is seeking to reintroduce structured early childhood screening from age three, to identify special needs early.” Morris Dixon said she recently spoke to the country about this already being a top priority of the Administration. She also noted that a new age four assessment has already been implemented across all basic schools “where we’re looking to do just that”.

In terms of special education, she said the PNP listed “a lot of what we’re already doing”.

The PNP has stated that it intends to build out diagnostic centres around the country as only two now exist. Morris Dixon noted that one is being built at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education, and the prime minister indicated at the JLP mass rally on Sunday that more centres are to be built out around the country.

She also accused the PNP of using AI to put together its manifesto, saying, “As I read the manifesto and I put on my hat as a former lecturer at UWI who used to have to mark master’s theses, I had to wonder ‘why did it sound so much like what we’re already doing’. It couldn’t just be that you cut and paste. [It had] all of the proponents of using artificial intelligence and so, as I went through it, I realised that this must have used AI. So I asked ChatGPT, I prompted ChatGPT to write an education plan for Jamaica …and when the results came, which I have here, [they] sounded just like the manifesto.”

For her part, the finance minister questioned how the numerous programmes/plans listed in the manifesto will be funded.

“The PNP made many promises in the manifesto and as the Jamaican people are pressing for the cost of those promises the PNP has hurriedly put out a cost. They said that their many promises will cost 10 per cent of discretionary funds,” she said and noted that there is no major line item in the budget called discretionary funds.

“So, for the PNP to be speaking of discretionary funds, it shows their fundamental lack of understanding of this country’s budget,” she said and questioned whether the PNP can lead the country “if they do not understand the budget”.

The foreign minister, meanwhile, attacked the PNP for being “insincere” in its use of the title Jamaica Love for its manifesto.

“I want to start with the title of the PNP’s manifesto and I want to make it clear that my view is that the title they have used is the most insincere and disingenuous title that the PNP could have chosen for their manifesto,” Johnson Smith stated.

“Why do I say this? They have spent the last three to four years tearing down Jamaica in every forum — whether domestically or internationally — maligning our systems recklessly without any concern as to the risk to which they have put our systems or our beloved country,” she said.

She accused the PNP of maligning the media, which, she said, resulted in Jamaica’s slippage in the World Press Freedom rankings. She also said the PNP has “accused us recklessly and baselessly of corruption”.

Johnson Smith said that apart from tearing Jamaica down internationally, the PNP has started its campaign “with the mantra of ‘blood and fire’, recalling one of the most politically-violent periods in Jamaica’s history, at a time when the Government is working relentlessly to restore peace. And then, as you approach the election date, you magically seek to print a document with the word love on it and the word Jamaica on it, and expect that the Jamaican people should accept that you are truly a peace-loving party and that you are truly a patriot… when all of your conduct over the past three to four years has crossed the line long ago, beyond constructive criticism and opposition, into unpatriotic and anti-Jamaican conduct”.

“It is disingenuous, it is insincere, and I want the Jamaican people to be clear that the PNP has shown you who they are,” she added.

“One document — slapdash, cut-and-paste, AI-generated, however you put it — is not sufficient to correct who they have shown themselves to be,” she said.