Having observed the political manoeuvrings of the past four years, it strikes as appropriate to draw attention to a pattern in the People’s National Party (PNP) concerning racial slurs and epithets hurled at officers and supporters of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Younger supporters of the PNP, most likely unaware of its antecedents, may be surprised to learn that this is nothing new to their party of choice, for in the early 1990s came the rise (no pun intended) of a black nationalist group that was said to have hastened the retirement of former President Michael Manley. He himself said there appeared to be attempts by said group to remove him from the party’s history books as well. This is only relevant because it should advise the reader that race-fuelled debates are not unfamiliar to the walls of 89 Old Hope Road.

Indeed, over the past four years, senior PNP officials have made a series of disturbing public utterances that well-thinking Jamaicans would do well to soundly reject. The first that comes to mind was on July 21, 2019 when former PNP deputy general secretary and then caretaker for St Elizabeth North Eastern Basil Waite referred to supporters of the JLP as “likkle nasty nayga dem who ah call themselves Labourite” in the presence of former PNP President Dr Peter Phillips on a political platform in St Elizabeth. He later apologised for his comments at the prompting of the Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown.

In Clarendon North Western on December 4, 2021, it was current party President Mark Golding’s turn as he referred to JLP Chairman Robert Montague as “di likkle bwoy Montague”, a reference best left for the reader to form an opinion. Be that as it may, the political ombudsman found it appropriate to fine Golding $20,000 and instruct him to apologise to Montague for this utterance. Regrettably, it seems this directive fell on deaf ears.

According to the January 27, 2022 publication of The Gleaner, PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell stirred further controversy and furore with the comment, “So like Bobby Montague is the leader of the black section of the Labour Party.” Dr Campbell, to his credit, saw it fit to walk back his comments and apologise.

The gaffe of the third quarter of 2022, however, belongs to Clarendon South Western Member of Parliament (MP) Lothan Cousins. While the inaccuracies within Cousins’ diatribe have been dissected at length, it is important to highlight a few points likely to benefit the reader interested in the truth.

Firstly, it is mischievous at best to imply that the JLP is unappealing to poor, black youth as it was under the Sir Alexander Bustamante’s JLP Administration that the body of Marcus Garvey was repatriated to Jamaica, where he was declared our first national hero and, in 1966, the JLP-led Government of Jamaica invited Emperor Haile Selassie to make a State visit. Bustamante himself, founder of the JLP, is famously known for his advocacy of the rights of shipyard workers, cane farmers, and others who would comprise the workers class or considered the common man.

This spirit of advocacy continues via the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) and is threaded within the very fabric of the JLP. For reasons such as these, and others, people, such as myself, take grave exception to that inference by Cousins, which he has not seen fit to withdraw.

It seems that PNP President Mark Golding attempted to indirectly walk back MP Cousins’ comments, but erroneously implied (in my opinion) that tension between the Jamaican State and Rastafari was a function of JLP leadership that came to an end in the early 1970s. Golding would do well to acquaint himself with the writings of PNP stalwart and historian Arnold “Scree” Bertram, who, in his 2016 book titled NW Manley and the Making of Modern Jamaica, wrote: “Norman Manley was convinced that a critical mass within the Rastafarian movement had become a danger to society because it had smuggled arms into the island and had trained individuals in [their] use.” If this is to be taken as true — and I have no doubt in this regard — it would be deceptive to suggest that tension between the State and Rastafari is because of the JLP rather than a feature of a time that is hopefully behind us for good. There was also mention of the hanging of particular individuals, but this is best left for another day.

All considered, it is my view that the senior members of the PNP should lead by example and refrain from making statements that require clarification or unqualified apologies. While I find civil society’s deafening, but unsurprising, silence on Cousins’ utterances regrettable, they have been consistent in their bias towards the Peoples’ National Party. I hope to be proven wrong, one day.

Ryan Strachan is a stockbroker and president of Generation 2000 (G2K), the young professional affiliate of the Jamaica Labour Party. Send comments to president@g2kja.com.