Last Friday, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness spent much time driving home the point that development has no colour and that every Jamaican has an equal claim to the country’s tax revenues.

Dr Holness was addressing the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new-look Spicy Grove — a small, hilly and much ignored enclave in Oracabessa, St Mary, which has been transformed by major infrastructural upgrades in the community, including new roadways, water, and electricity.

Ordinarily this should not have to be a speech made by a prime minister, as it goes without saying. Neither can we in this space say why Dr Holness chose to go there and to spend so much of his address ramming home the point.

However, one possible deduction is that the development was happening in a division represented by Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) councillor, Mr Ramon “Big House” Henry, and that the prime minister felt the need to pre-empt any Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) member who would potentially be critical.

If we are correct in this, then Dr Holness is doing what a Jamaican leader should have been doing all along and should continue to do for the foreseeable future. Had this been the approach to Jamaica’s development, we would not have created the infamous garrison constituencies that have traumatised our country for decades.

Spicy Grove residents who spoke to the Jamaica Observer said that they had been living on the lands for years, and tensions arose after the landowner demanded that they relocate. For years the 60 families there faced uncertainty, with limited access to basic infrastructure. All that is about to change.

“I want to be clear that… development has no colour. Every Jamaican has an equal claim to the country’s tax revenues,” said the prime minister, pledging that his Government would be fair and inclusive, and development would be people-centred and guided by equity and national unity, not political affiliation.

“We are making improvements, we are making steps, community by community, we are improving. And every Jamaican can feel confident that it does not matter what their political persuasion is. Taxpayer money equal to Labourite and PNP,” said Dr Holness.

Prime Minister Holness noted that the transformation of Spicy Grove began with the Government’s decision to purchase the land on behalf of residents, followed by road development and ongoing efforts to formalise landownership and improve living conditions.

He stressed that there was no need for Jamaicans — no doubt he was thinking of PNP supporters — to fear when his Government intervened to improve their community, noting that none of the people in Spicy Grove could claim to have been displaced or made worse off.

He also noted that because of 50 years or more of informal settlements, the Government would have to reorganise those settlements, but on the basis that no one was made worse off and “where we move from chaka chaka to order”.

This is how we believe a true Jamaican leader should talk to his people. Of course, there will be party supporters who will point to those times when under a PNP Administration they suffered for lack of amenities. The tit for tat must not continue.

In that respect, the prime minister will need to be strong, courageous, and firm. If he does, future Jamaicans will call him blessed.