Jamaican Twitter users are calling Prime Minister Andrew Holness to task for ’empty’ comments made on Friday (May 28), as the government renews attempts to pacify a raging firestorm over the staging of Mocha Fest in Negril.

Holness, speaking at a floral ceremony for late leader and mentor Edward Seaga on the commemoration of his 91st birthday, argued that while the government is duty-bound to ensure equality under law, the Mocha Fest controversy highlights a ‘two Jamaicas’ dilemma perpetuated islandwide.

“There is a particular situation that has come on our radar this morning, one that I have to pay careful attention to because it throws up something that we are always contending with marking our society—the unequalness of our society; the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’,” he began.

“Why is it that some people are allowed to party and others are not? This government has a duty to ensure that the law is equally applied, both to those who ‘have not’ and to those who ‘have’,” the prime minister added.

Holness then indicated that citizens should ‘read what they will’ from his statements, but the Jamaican Government is in the process of ascertaining whether it was “complicit in any breach of its own law”.

The prime minister has called for a report following the government’s probe into the 2021 Mocha Fest staging, on the background that nearly all agencies expressed obliviousness as to how it was approved.

Notably, Edward Seaga famously gave speeches about the ‘haves and the have nots’ in both his earliest and last day in Parliament.

Twitter users, however, were not having it and continued to slam the Holness administration for glaring hypocrisy when the country’s reeling entertainment industry waits with bated breath to resume operations.

Among the criticisms, Jamaica’s vocal Twitterati argued that for too long, citizens have been making sacrifices to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) only for tourists to come and benefit, locking out locals just to disregard the same prevention protocols that see ‘regular Joes’ slapped with fines and jailed.

More reactions:

Rick’s Café, the epicentre of the viral videos and images circulating of Mocha Fest, has apologised to the Jamaican public for hosting patrons who disregarded anti-coronavirus protocols, partying without abandon.

Rick’s Café, in a statement on Friday (May 28), chalked up the footage of a sold-out Mocha Fest to overcrowding.

See related content:

• JTB responds as backlash grows over Mocha Fest, official probe launched
• Rick’s Café apologises; Mocha Fest outrage piling up on ‘hypocritical’ government
• Beenie Man calls out ‘double standard’ amid Mocha Fest controversy