‘Families should be off-limits in PNP leadership contest’—Lisa Hanna
Al Edwards / Our Today
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People’s National Party (PNP) presidential aspirant Lisa Hanna is calling for a greater degree of civility during campaigning in the upcoming race to determine the organisation’s next leader.
The contest is due to take place this Saturday in Kingston.
The popular Lisa Hanna is going up against the former Minister of Justice Mark Golding. Should she be successful, she will be the second female leader of the party following Portia Simpson Miller.
Hanna has drawn attention to the level of animus directed at her family, particularly her son and made it clear that children should not have to be subjected to this. She further added that she has had to read a slew of untruths about herself both in mainstream and social media.
Speaking at a press conference at the PNP’s HQ, Hanna said of those besmirching her name: “Some of them might not even be supporters of either side but just create accounts on social media, in particular, to denigrate, eviscerate and bludgeon people’s identities and their families.”
“Going forward, there [have] to be sanctions, especially for members who can be identified, who willingly go into the media and decide to discredit any candidate without any proof,” she argued.
Hanna is right on this point and Jamaican politics must guard against the approach taken by America where nothing is off-limits.
During the current presidential race, both Joe Biden’s son Hunter and President Trump son Barron have drawn unfavourable scrutiny and been subjects of unsubstantiated claims.
The proliferation of social media has played a big part in this unedifying departure from decorum which now sees people posting spurious pronouncements that are invariably unsubstantiated.
This has to be examined and a determination made to prevent political discourse sliding to even further unseemly levels.
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