Government senator Marlon Morgan says “sober, cerebral and non-partisan conversation” is required concerning how to treat with land and housing challenges in Jamaica and address the longstanding issue of squatter settlements across the island.

Senator Morgan is also calling for the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) to abandon what he describes as “hypocritical partisan rhetoric” concerning land distribution and housing challenges in the country.

In a release Tuesday, he accused the PNP of lying to gain political mileage out of the dispute involving a private developer and residents in Coopers Pen, Trelawny, which resulted in the demolition of their homes last week.

He said the PNP’s rhetoric does not serve the national interest.

“When this unfortunate incident occurred, the PNP ran out with a series of lies which have been dispelled. They sought to blame the Government, then it emerged that there is no basis to do so and it was the private owners of the property who solicited help from the police to enforce their rights, which were affirmed several times by the Court,” Morgan said, adding “The PNP then today sought to say the Court order upon which the private owners acted had expired; that has also emerged to be a lie.”

He accused the PNP of seeking to “paint themselves as paragons of virtue and champions of squatters’ rights.”

Morgan said PNP Governments have bulldozed squatters, including in Hague, Trelawny, in 2014, when over 20 families, he said, were forcibly displaced from state-owned lands.

He noted that residents at the time lamented not being able to get in touch with the housing minister.

“The PNP then referenced a Court dispute and played up their so-called intervention; then it emerged that the Supreme Court had described their attempts to seize the land of a black landowner as iniquitous, insincere and an attempt to pervert the course of justice,” Morgan said. “The Court also surmised that the PNP Housing Minister and officials of the PNP administration targeted the private landowner because he is not of the traditional colonial landowning class in Jamaica and recommended that they emancipate their minds from enslavement and not breach the rightful owner’s constitutional rights.”

Senator Morgan says one of the lessons from what he called the PNP’s “attempt to exploit the challenges faced by people in Coopers Pen, a few years after the Court found that they had persuaded the people to unlawfully squat on land they do not own”, is that decisions concerning the occupation and distribution of land should not be driven by crude political objectives and that the rule of law must be respected.

“Another lesson is that it is time to abandon political rhetoric and allow for a cerebral national conversation about how Jamaica may best address housing and land challenges which face our population in a sensitive manner, while showing regard for the rule of law and upholding the dignity of our citizens,” Morgan said. “That is where the real conversation should take place. My appeal is that we put Jamaica first as we confront these longstanding challenges and work through solutions in the interest of our people.”