Of late, the dual citizenship of Jamaican parliamentarians has held centre stage of political discourse. 

So many of Jamaica’s elite want to parachute out of the country if things take a turn for the worse.

How can you truly be committed to the betterment of Jamaica with that mindset and a foreign passport in your back pocket….or your purse?

Instead of addressing the ills of Jamaica and setting it on a course that will see vastly improved conditions for its citizens, parliamentarians are fixated on abandoning King Charles III as head of state and throwing off the yoke of Jamaica’s colonial past.

Hurricane Beryl brushed Jamaica and yet its utilities and infrastructure could not stand up to heavy winds and rains. Right there shows you where the country’s priorities should be. Dual citizenship battles do not help Jamaica.

Mark Golding, leader of the People’s Nation Party (PNP), has now decided to forgo his British passport, stick with his Jamaican one and pledge himself totally to the country of his birth.

This is a good move and it is to his credit that he didn’t take an age to arrive at this decision. The more cynical will say his hand was forced but that is neither here nor there.

Mark Golding is a decent, capable man and has the bona fides to be a Jamaican prime minister.

He comes from a good family with both parents committed to public service. His father was a notable orthopaedic surgeon. Mark Golding has distinguished himself as an attorney, attaining top honours at Oxford University as well as being top of his class. He is a proven businessman, carving out an honourable reputation in financial services. He has a loving family with a loyal, devoted wife and accomplished well-raised children. He is articulate and intelligent. He has the full support of the party and has seen the back of the fractiousness that crippled it a few years ago.

He has been outstanding both in his professional and political life. He avoids contretemps and has never been embroiled in salaciousness, skullduggery and unbecoming behaviour. He exudes a character of steadfastness and principled disposition. He is not given to histrionics, showboating or living his life vicariously on Instagram and social media. 

In September 2020, the Jamaica Labour Party crushed the PNP in the general election winning 49 seats and securing 57 per cent of the vote. Andrew Holness’ popularity was unassailable. Commentators said the PNP would be rendered to the political wilderness for at least two decades with Jamaicans rejecting the PNP, particularly millennials.

In November of that year, Mark Golding defeated Lisa Hanna in a PNP leadership race. Many said he had no chance of denting Holiness’s popularity and winning the next general election. He was not the Prince that was Promised, he was too intellectual, not street-smart.

We are now mid-way through 2024 and Golding has undeniably closed the gap. Jamaicans are taking to him; his popularity and favourability have grown. The business community consider him a credible alternative, he has unified the PNP and it now has belief that it can win again. He has put together an able alternative Cabinet that doesn’t totally cleave to experience. He laid a marker down at the local elections in February.

Lisa Hanna would have done well to get behind him and together return the PNP to that aphorism, “This is PNP country”.

Together, they would have been a Cat 5 hurricane.  

She chose not to and the PNP has prospered without her. She will remain outside the tent when she very well could have been a dynamic force both in Government and Jamaican politics-instead she will continue to be an “Instagram star” with plenty of views and lovely frocks.

Lisa Hanna will be no Cincinnatus and can’t count on the PNP calling upon her should Golding prove unsuccessful at the polls. 

Golding has a chance of forming the next government and it would not serve either him or the party that he held dual citizenship, particularly a British one, given his pronouncements on moving away from the vestiges of colonialism. He has to push ahead and take the battle to the JLP. He has done well so far, but the victory is by no means guaranteed. The JLP under Holness still remains a daunting foe, capable of holding on to power albeit with reduced seats in Gordon House. 

Mark Going has done remarkably well in less than four years when no one gave him a chance to turn the tide. He hasn’t put a foot wrong yet and he mustn’t start now.

For a while there, Golding maintained it was within his rights to hold the British passport. This was shortsighted. The optics here were everything.  

Andrew Holness is right when he says if you aspire to hold the main offices of State you cannot have dual citizenship, you have to pledge yourself to Jamaica and Jamaica alone.

You can’t have a bailout card if the going gets tough in Jamaica. Your loyalty can never, ever be questioned. Every fibre of your being should be burnished “Jamaican”. Gen Z and millennials see Mark Golding as prime minister material and he now has the sobriquet ‘Marky G’.

The wind is in his sails and he cannot be discounted. 

Your Jamaican passport may very well give you entry into Jamaica House. Be proud of it.