JLP gets massive conference crowd support
Published:Monday | November 27, 2023 | 12:11 AMErica Virtue/Senior Gleaner Writer
Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters turned up in massive numbers for yesterday’s public session of the party’s 80th anniversary conference, to show support for the party ahead of looming local government elections which must be held on or before February 29 next year.
Conference organisers had every reason to smile when they saw the strong turnout, which was visibly larger than the 13,000 the police estimated for the public session of the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) last September. However, the organisers could not have been prepared for the chaos outside at the access and exit points for individuals entering the arena.
Supporters attempted to strong arm security personnel as they tried to make their way into the National Arena, which was filled to the brim.
The large police deployment had its hands full preventing several fights from escalating on the outside, and officers seized several knives from individuals who attempted to make their way inside, armed. Inside, the political showpiece officially started when deputy chairman Dr Aundre Franklin took the microphone at 11:25 and introduced long-time conference chairman, Kingston Western Member of Parliament Desmond McKenzie.
The national anthem opened proceedings, followed by the party’s anthem, before the showpiece began.
McKenzie’s idiosyncracy for using past leaders’ middle names first continues as he said Bruce Orette Golding and Michael Andrew Holness. However, platform speakers could do no wrong in front of the adoring throng.
Among the early speakers, Young Jamaica President Rohan Walsh was a standout.
Speaking on message, he championed the party’s and Government’s achievements, repeating successes such as increased exports and record low unemployment.
Clarke’s goody basket
The crowd’s roar increased exponentially at the sound of the leader’s name. It was hard not to notice how speaker after speaker referenced the party leader as though speaking of a deity.
When Dr Nigel Clarke – the most politically active JLP finance minister without an official party position – took the stage, he came with a goody basket of a 100 per cent increase in the duty-free allowance from US$50 to US$100 for online shopping, and from US$500 to US$1,000 for customed goods. According to Clarke, Jamaica was becoming more known for how well it has managed the economy than just as a country of sand, sea and sun.
He said 927 doctors who were previously on contract are now part of the establishment and 10,000 persons are now with job security. By the time he was finished, it was standing room only inside the arena, but space upstairs only.
Walsh said the young people who are part of the organisation are concerned about employment.
“We have qualified young people who are tertiary graduates with first and second degrees. But we know as an organisation that there are concerns on the ground, but we know it will eventually trickle down, if we look at how the Government is dealing with the economy,” he stated.
According to him, the Government was able to increase wages for almost every sector of the economy so that individuals can have more in their pockets.
“That is a clear indication that the economy is getting better and we are coming out of that dark period of bad economic stewardship when the PNP was there,” he argued.
But the real theatrical moments would come shortly after, when Venesha Phillips, the PNP’s elected councillor for the Papine division, made her debut on the JLP stage with a screeching three-minute presentation, much of which could not be heard because of poor audio.
Phillips was embraced by some platform speakers and it appears her painful travails with the PNP are now over.
She joins Kari Douglas, councillor for the Trafalgar division, who crossed the floor shortly after the 2016 polls. The two newest PNP defections – councillors Ian Myles and Garfield James – made cameos, telling the crowd that they looked better in green and the bell is a signal of readiness.
‘Saved by the bell’
The councillors said they were drowning in the sea of lack of integrity but were saved by the bell. MP Kerensia Morrison bashed the PNP’s campaign slogan of ‘Time Come’, stating that the PNP could not tell the time because their watch batteries are not working. She said young people were interested in the politics of the JLP.
Agriculture Minister Floyd Green reeled off a long list of benefits and opportunities to the sector, especially small farmers, under the Holness administration. He was followed by Party Chairman Robert Montague, who was also on message reeling off a series of ‘Build by Labour’ institutions and policy initiatives when security personnel became busier inside the arena. It was not long after that party leader, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, entered the arena, to bell-ringing Labourites and accompanied by a confident, flawless, radiant and energetic Juliet Holness - his wife. Clad in a white body-fitting dress, Holness, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, danced on the platform as she greeted members.