MONTEGO BAY, St James — Former People’s National Party (PNP) President Dr Peter Phillips has bashed Minister of Information Dana Morris Dixon and Finance Minister Fayval Williams for what he described as misleading remarks made during last Tuesday’s political debate on the economy.

“On the night when dem talk bout the economy, I hear two ministers assault the truth in the most wicked way that the good Lord hate, and they can’t get weh wid it,” Phillips told scores of Comrades at a PNP mass rally in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, Sunday night.

Phillips, who served as finance minister from 2012 to 2016 in the Portia Simpson Miller-led Administration, was obviously offended by Morris Dixon’s claim about the PNP’s stewardship of the economy.

“One of them said that the PNP’s last Administration took a wrecking ball to the Jamaican economy. The only wrecking ball that was around was in her brain that night. Mek I tell you about the facts, because it is just not true what she seh,” Phillips said.

He also launched a broadside against Williams for blaming the PNP for imposing a wage freeze on public sector workers.

According to Phillips, it was the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which demanded the measure as a precondition for a rescue programme, after the economy had been wrecked under the JLP which controlled the Government from 2007-2011.

He argued that the public sector workers accepted the wage freeze because they trusted the leadership and integrity of Simpson Miller, and pointed out that her Administration demonstrated transparency by creating the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) and opening the country’s books to the public.

“And all of them [public sector] did, because they trusted the Government of the People’s National Party. The minister of finance should do better than that. If she don’t know her history I want [to] ask Damion [Crawford] [to] register her in a little school and give her some extra lesson out there.

“The economic stability that now exists in Jamaica was established by the People’s National Party during the Administration led by Comrade Portia Simpson Miller. A we do it inna the PNP! It was established after the previous Administration, led by [former Prime Minister] Bruce Golding… mash up and wrecked the economy of Jamaica,” added Phillips.

He charged that the Golding-led JLP Administration failed an IMF programme in 2010, which caused international lenders to cut Jamaica off.

Phillips added that current Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness knew of the crisis as he accompanied Golding to Washington to meet with the IMF and returned to a JLP meeting in Mandeville, Manchester, where he warned the country to expect “bitter medicine”.

“We in the People’s National Party Administration passed every single IMF test that was put there, every single one, and we met the structural benchmarks including some big legislation that strengthened the fiscal responsibility framework. And a lot of that is due to Mark Golding who worked day and night, through the night, to make this happen.

“So mek a tell… two ministers [Williams and Morris Dixon] some facts. In 2010 inflation was 12 per cent, in 2016 annual inflation was down to 3.7 per cent. The NIR (Net International Reserve)… [which] was less than US$700 million in 2013, was US$2.7 billion by the time we reach 2016,” a pumped-up Phillips said.

He said that while the economy grew by two per cent in 2016 under the PNP, the Holness Administration has failed to reach that mark in the past decade.

The former finance minister also pointed out that in 2015 Bloomberg, the international provider of financial news and information, ranked the Jamaica Stock Exchange as the best-performing in the world.

Phillips said he attended the Sam Sharpe Square mass rally because he believes a Mark Golding-led PNP will prioritise economic growth, raise the tax threshold to $3.5 million to help ordinary Jamaicans, implement a major land titling programme, transform education to ensure every child masters the basics, and lead with honesty and integrity in governance.

“Indeed, we are all here tonight together because we are determined to march to progress and build a better Jamaica of our hopes and our dreams. I am here tonight because I am a blood and fire Comrade. And remember on that day, come Wednesday, put your X beside the head,” Phillips said to wild cheers from the sea of orange-clad, horn-blowing Comrades.

Scores of Comrades gather in Sam Sharpe Square, St James, for the PNP’s mass rally on Sunday. (Photos: Philp Lemonte)