My fellow Jamaicans,

The final moments of 2024 have come and gone, and today we begin a new chapter, the dawn of New Year brimming with promise and opportunity to chart a better course for ourselves, our families, and our beloved Jamaica. 

The dawn of a New Year is a call to embrace fresh beginnings, to reflect on the lessons of yesterday, and to step boldly into tomorrow with purpose and determination. 

As we step into 2025, we do so with hope in our hearts, even as we honestly and courageously acknowledge the challenges we face as a nation.

The past year has been one of mixed fortunes for our nation. On the positive side, our athletes raised their performance in field events to a new level, bringing glory to Jamaica at the Paris Olympics and showing the world the breadth of our talent in athletics.

We encountered the devastating Hurricane Beryl, which wreaked havoc in several parishes and caused major disruption to many lives, damaging homes, schools, farms and infrastructure, and setting back the economy.

We endured the ongoing man-made disaster of high levels of violent crime, robbing us of loved ones, putting communities in fear, stifling opportunities and casting a long shadow over the progress of our people. Every life lost to violence is one too many, and every family torn apart by crime is another blot on our record as a nation.

In 2025, we will face a year of intense political activity, as the country moves towards general elections. The nation’s leaders must set an example, by word and deed, that there is no place for violence and intimidation in our nation’s political affairs.

Our leaders must ensure that there is no repetition of the offensive and divisive rhetoric which sometimes soiled our national discourse in 2024 – it offends the spirit of One Love and violates the ideals of togetherness embraced in our nation’s motto – “Out of Many, One People”.

The police must conduct themselves with absolute professionalism – the nation is relying on you to reject partisanship in the conduct of your duty to serve and protect all Jamaicans.

We will continue to consult with and engage the people, bringing forward our vision for a better Jamaica and championing the causes that matter deeply to you:

• finding creative ways to cushion the crisis of the high cost of living from which the people are suffering
• improving the systems of education and training for our children and youths to build a productive and globally competitive workforce at all levels
• taking stronger action against corruption and holding accountable those who violate the public trust by scaping public resources for private benefit
• implementing more effective strategies for reducing violent crime,
• improving the experience and outcomes for people seeking health care in public hospitals
• bringing down the price of electricity, which is a national imperative for driving economic growth; and
• making our bureaucracy more efficient so that Jamaica is an easy and welcoming place to invest and do business.

For the remaining period while we remain in opposition, which by all accounts will not be long, we will continue to perform our national duty of vigilantly holding the government to account and defending the Constitution from any machinations which violate the principles of good governance and erode the rights of our people.

On the matter of constitutional reform, our position is consistent and clear. On the matter of our Head of state and our Final Court, Jamaica must move to full decolonization and the establishment of full sovereignty for our people. Our people must be guaranteed access to justice, which the current arrangement fundamentally deny.

We will not support a piecemeal approach to delinking from the UK monarchy. We will not support a mechanism for appointing the nation’s president which would allow the ruling party to install someone who does not enjoy the trust and confidence of all.

We believe that mechanisms for more democratic, participatory, transparent and accountable governance should be included in the reform measures, including the mechanism of impeachment, which has long been a point of bipartisan agreement and continues to enjoy strong support among the Jamaican people. And we would like to see mechanisms in place to enable our Jamaican Diaspora, who are so integral to our people’s welfare and our national fortunes, to participate more meaningfully in national development.

As we commence this New Year, I reaffirm our commitment to building a Jamaica that works for all Jamaicans, especially those who need the State to ensure equality of access to opportunity.

In the year ahead, let us draw strength from our many achievements as a nation, and resolve as Jamaicans to come together in unity of purpose to overcome our remaining challenges. In 2025, the silver jubilee of the 21st century, let us all commit to being a part of the solution, as each of us has an important role to play and building the greatness of Jamaica. 

On behalf of my family, I wish you and your family, and the whole Jamaican family, at home and abroad, a New Year filled with love, hope, compassion, and progress in all our lives.

May God bless you all, and may God bless Jamaica, land we love.

Mark J. Golding, MP
Leader of the Opposition