Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the lies of the People’s National Party (PNP) can never overcome the truth of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) while outlining that the Labourites are well-thinking Jamaicans.

While speaking at the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) East Central St Catherine Constituency Conference on Sunday, Holness outlined that governments will have plans that ministers will try to implement, but noted that it’s the constituents that hold the leaders accountable.

“It is you that put the fire under the MP and put the fire under the minister. It is you, the supporters of the party, who have been our greatest critic that has kept us on our feet to ensure that when we come to face you for an election, we don’t come to you with promises; we come to you with achievements,” he said.

He also said that while the Labourites love the party, they’re not fanatics, indicating that they want to see evidence of what the elected representatives are doing.

“They want to see and hear what the party is doing, and if the party isn’t doing what they want, they make noise, and I know that that is the political organisation that I have, so I don’t need an opposition to hold me to account. My political organisation holds me and my ministers and MPs to account, and this political party, we put forward mechanisms where our people get to exercise not just their voice but also their vote in ensuring that the party in which they believe, that party delivers the achievements and the benefits.”

Holness stated that his party supporters are well-thinking individuals who analyse what they hear from politicians, and so he never undermines their roles and responsibilities. “I never take it for granted that when we draw a big tune and we say something exciting and you say, showa, I never take it for granted that you leave here fulfilled or convinced with gimmicks because I know that the Labourite is a thinking Jamaican.

“I know that the Labourite analyses what we say… The Labourite listens to everything that is said, and you go back to your community, and you raise it and you analyse it. And that is why the lies of the PNP can never change a Labourite. The lies of the PNP can never affect the mood of the Jamaica Labour Party. The lies of the PNP can never overcome the truth of the Jamaica Labour Party,” he continued.

Holness expressed confidence that the lies of the PNP will not affect Labourites but expressed that it is citizens who do not know the truth who will be impacted. “It will affect those persons who don’t know. PNP will believe their own lies because they are living in a delusion, but the danger is when they start to tell the lies to people who don’t know.”

The real threat to democracy

Furthermore, Holness stated the opposition party has outlined that the Jamaican dollar is not stable, but he noted that the period between 2016 and 2025 has been the most stable that the Jamaican dollar has ever been, as the country has seen the least depreciation in the value of the dollar since this period.

He said that the real threat to Jamaica’s democracy is ignorance in the population, which is further exacerbated by falsehood. “The other real threat is bad mind, and when you put ignorance and bad mind together, you have a real problem, but as I said, the middle of Jamaica, the thinking Jamaicans, they see through the lies and they see through the bad mind.”

The government building recreational parks in Jamaica

Holness also expressed that he ventured into politics to change and improve things and make people’s lives better. “That’s why I come into politics. So, when I look at my Jamaica, a country that had lovely parks and lovely botanical gardens, and then for many years of neglect, those parks and those gardens deteriorated to nothing. One of the dreams that I had, which I then turned into a vision, which I then had the opportunity to allocate budgets to, is to make sure that every parish in Jamaica has a park.”

Holness said his administration has built a park in St James called Harmony Park and is building the park in Portmore called Resilience Park. This follows a proposal in parliament to build parks and recreational spaces for the people of Jamaica.

However, he expressed that this vision to develop a national park in Manchester at Brooks Park has been met with strong disapproval from Mandeville Mayor Donovan Mitchell. “I find it some way that we can now build a park in the centre of the island, in Manchester, and for the life of me, I cannot understand why an elected representative, somebody who is supposed to be representing the best interest of the people of the area that elected him, comes and says he doesn’t want a park. 

“I have never heard a more backward kind of thinking than this, but as I said, when you put ignorance and bad mind together, it’s very dangerous. Because they don’t want the Jamaica Labour Party to have the political credit, they would rather deprive the people of their park for political power for themselves. What kind of leadership is that? They don’t choose you. They don’t choose Jamaica. They choose themselves. They are only about power for themselves,” Holness added.

The prime minister noted that the history of the PNP and their power-seeking behaviour can be likened to a dog chasing a car, and when they catch the car, they don’t know what to do with it.

However, he expressed the government’s commitment to improve infrastructure. “Our plan starts, first of all, with improving your infrastructure. Already we have started with the Braeton Parkway in Portmore. We’re going to be fixing up the Henshaw Road in Kingston. But most importantly, you need a new entrance into Portmore, and that is already being planned.

“We have over 30 acres of land in Naggo Head, and we are going to create the most modern tech park in Portmore at Naggo Head, and the Factories Corporation has already started the plans for that… You already know that we have started the Bernard Lodge project where 15,000 houses are going to be built, and I have news for you: between the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), another 3,000 houses are going to be built in Portmore,” he added.