The following is a statement to People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding.

President Golding, you must be feeling disappointed having not won a majority to form the next Government, but stand firm, your destiny is yet to be fulfilled.

It is ironic that my two favourite party leaders have the same surnames — former Prime Minister Bruce Golding being the other. You both took the reins of your respective parties when hopelessness was rife and you share the same selfless approach to politics.

When you became leader of the PNP in December 2020, the party had just been decimated by a colossal loss to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, people were not in the mood to change Government or join long lines to vote at the risk of contracting the life-threatening virus.

You took the helm of the PNP after a likely but, in my opinion, weak challenge from Lisa Hanna, who has since walked away from representational politics. Hanna, many believed, lacked the leadership and organisational capabilities to lift a party from the brink of becoming obsolete. But as the hard worker and astute businessman you are, you saw the potential of the PNP and you went about the process of uniting the party.

The task was rough. You were scoffed at and ridiculed, even by members of your own party, but you kept going — house to house, group to group, region to region, and conference to conference. The party began to heal, albeit slowly, and you began to gain respect within the party from many who once doubted your leadership.

The PNP, under your leadership, went on to take back several municipalities during the local government elections of 2024, including the prized Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC). The party celebrated as it had amassed the popular vote nationally and won more divisions than the JLP overall. You took the credit for the success, and rightly so. You even started surging in public opinion polls and people were now thinking of the possibility of you as a future prime minister.

The JLP took to the offensive and started the attacks on your ethnicity, and when that didn’t work, it went after your now-renounced British nationality. I believe you handled this issue poorly and it cost you some “street cred” as they would say. You ought to have been straight with the people once the matter was highlighted. Most informed Jamaicans know you did nothing legally wrong and as such there was no duress, but you should have chosen Jamaica before the JLP turned it into a winning mantra for its campaign.

When the prime minister lead a walk-out on your 2024 budget presentation at Gordon House, your willingness to complete your speech on the streets was a master stroke. Many people saw you as a true and devoted statesman and started to take you seriously. We will never forget that iconic picture of you in your three-piece suit on Duke Street sharing your presentation with the common folk. You inspired a riotous crowd of mostly women supporters into singing an old rallying cry from the days of the party’s founding president, Norman Manley. They shouted that they were “blood and fire” Comrades and they will “fight” the Labourites.

I believe that speech and those Comrades who protested with you gave legitimacy to your leadership and called you to your purpose. It was a rallying cry from a people tired of corruption in Government and desperate for a leader to lead them to a better Jamaica. Your campaign team was brilliant to compose the “blood and fyah” song that, in my view, encapsulates your mission. I particularly liked your promise of ensuring easier access to ownership of land for the masses of the people.

You and the PNP took back 14 seats in the September 3 General Election, which is a win in my book. The PNP lost nothing. You cannot lose what you did not already have, but you won what you had lost in 2020 and even 2019 with the shocking win in Portland Eastern. As a result, we now have a Government with a much slimmer majority and a prime minister who is still not certified by the Integrity Commission, which is bizarre to say the least.

Your mission is clear, stay the course and hold the fort. You have no business resigning. You became a Member of Parliament in 2017; compared to most you are a relatively new politician. Your time will come! This now-weakened Government will not govern for too long as I am of the view that with a stronger Opposition the “truths” will come out and there will be need for an early parliamentary election.

To those calling for your resignation, I ask: When did the PNP become a leader-centric movement? The party of Norman Manley and OT Fairclough was formed to advocate for the masses of the people and as Manley aptly said: To achieve this mission the party must “organise, organise, organise”. This will only be achieved with unity of purpose and a continuity of the work that you have started. Any new leader or leadership contest within the party will only lead to destruction.

Stand firm, President Golding, you are fighting for a cause!

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