LONDON, England — Jamaica’s Opposition Leader Mark Golding, who is on a working overseas tour which has taken him here, and then on to the United States, is seeking to harness the Diaspora community.

On his arrival here on October 6, Golding told the Jamaica Observer of his main plans: “The primary purpose is to connect the Jamaican Diaspora here in the UK and also to connect with our fraternal party — the UK’s Labour Party — that has a long association with the People’s National Party (PNP),” the parliamentarian said.

Golding has so far met with general secretary of the UK’s Labour Party, David Evans, as well as David Lammy, shadow secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the UK, and member of the shadow cabinet, MP Dawn Butler.

He said that he is seeking to get a better understanding of the expectations, concerns and issues the Diaspora have of Jamaica. “This will help us to formulate our policies for the Diaspora,” Golding said.

With reference to the Diaspora having direct political association through voting, Golding noted, “We need to work out the parameters of how that would work. The Jamaica Diaspora is so big that it could effectively determine the outcome of a Jamaican election depending on how the voting arrangements are organised.”

He added that as a first step, Jamaica’s Senate should be expanded to have a Diaspora representative in it and over time look at whether it is possible to have other modalities for inclusion of the Diaspora in the overall parliamentary system. “I am very much in favour of the Diaspora providing persons to sit on public boards where they have the necessary experience and expertise, as they would provide and additional dimension to the governance of public resources,” Golding mentioned.

On the issue of crime in Jamaica, Golding said that there is the need for a balanced approach to crime fighting. He noted one such approach, “… the problem of crime in the country is not just about enforcing the law through oppressive policing methods, but we need to look at what are the reasons why so many of our young people are ending up going into badness, embracing the gun culture, and creating mayhem in the society.”

He noted that the root causes of crime in Jamaica includes weak family structures, and inequality in the education system in terms of standards. “We need to level up the standards in primary schools and early childhood education so that we have a situation where all our children entering secondary schools are literate and can think critically.”

Golding added that these children who leave primary schools are unable to achieve at the secondary level. “That is where our problem lies, so the solution in the medium term is solve those issues mentioned and in the short term, we need to strengthen the police force — they [police] are undermanned, we have significantly less police officers in the force than is authorised by law, despite crime and violence being the main developmental problem facing our society; we need to correct that.” He mentioned that the police need to be treated better, be more respected, along with the need for more recruitment, and laws that are well designed to tackle crime and violence.

Regarding the recent mass migration of teachers, the Opposition leader said, “We need to ensure that the teachers are treated with full respect. We need to prioritise their condition of work, access to devices.” Additionally, he said that there is now a review of teachers’ salaries underway and when that process is completed, he hopes the teachers will feel justified. However, “…even if the salaries are not as attractive as the UK, USA or Canada, as we are not a wealthy country, there are things that can be done to make the teachers feel that it is worthwhile staying in job, like the motor vehicle concession, special Internet packages, and getting part of their student loans written off by the State.”

Golding is in the UK along with a delegation that includes former Jamaica High Commissioner to the UK Ambassador Aloun Ndombet-Assamba, Members of Parliament Julian Robinson and Mikael Phillips, and Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Peter Bunting.

The delegation will participate in several stakeholder meetings, town hall meetings, and public cultural events celebrating Jamaica’s Diamond Jubilee. The delegation was also accommodated by Jamaica’s High Commission at the Jamaican diplomatic mission here.