Political squabble as Holness blasts PNP for residential crisis
Published:Monday | October 24, 2022 | 12:12 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Member of Parliament Juliet Holness delivered a stinging rebuke of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) on Sunday, declaring that it has continuously supported the siting of Comrades on unsafe, marginal lands.
But Opposition Spokesperson on Land and Housing Sophia Frazer-Binns slammed Holness, calling her comments “reckless, demeaning, and partisan”.
Holness, who was guest speaker at the JLP’s Norbrook divisional meeting at Constant Spring Primary School in St Andrew North Central, said she has, for the past six years, observed the development in her St Andrew East Rural constituency.
“Everywhere in my constituency that is unsafe to live, Comrades live there. Yuh hear what mi seh? Everywhere in my constituency that it is not safe to live, Comrades live there.
“Everywhere where river going to wash away, Comrades live there. Everywhere that is a garbage dump, Comrades live there, and is not Labour Party put them there,” Holness, who said that she had to address the uncomfortable topic, told JLP supporters.
She said that it was time Jamaicans look around and see “who really cares about you”.
“Because the places they (PNP) put people to live, they would never live for a minute. They would never want to visit and walk through,” Holness, also a real estate developer, asserted.
Her comments come in the middle of a firestorm over the demolition of 10 illegally constructed, unfinished houses on Bernard Lodge lands on the outskirts of Clifton, which falls in the St Catherine Southern seat of PNP MP Fitz Jackson.
The demolition, authorised by Prime Minister Andrew Holness two weeks ago, has stirred mixed emotions among Jamaicans as debate rages about squatting.
Residents said they were duped into purchasing lands in what they thought was a legitimate transaction with state representatives.
School principal Suelyn Ward Brown, who has since been linked to the fraudulent sale of the lands, was last week charged with breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act, the Law Reform Fraudulent Transactions Special Provisions Act, and conspiracy to defraud.
“When you hear about this latest development that persons are selling illegally, everybody start to jump up and down and blame Government ... . Our housing policy under the Jamaica Labour Party is one where we fight for law, order, and decency,” the MP said.
“So we don’t want to see settlements develop where people don’t have nuh road. Them don’t have nuh light. Them don’t have nuh water. They don’t have any bathrooms and no sewerage to take it away,” Holness added.
The Clifton case has also renewed a national debate about land access and ownership.
Estimates of Jamaica’s squatter holdings range from 20 to 30 per cent of the country’s 2.7 milllion population.
Just over 700 informal settlements spread across Jamaica have so far been identified, according to the Squatter Management Unit, based in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, many of which are melting pots of Jamaica’s most sinister social, political, and economic ills.
Often, these communities are also hotbeds of crime.
“What this statement by Mrs Holness says is that only PNP live on gully banks. Only PNP people live in garbage dumps. Only PNP don’t have proper infrastructure. ... She should retract it,” Frazer-Binns said in a Gleaner interview Sunday evening.
She said Holness’ statement mirrors the Government’s action in addressing infrastructural issues in only JLP areas.
Frazer-Binns said under previous PNP administrations, Operation PRIDE, the Programme for Resettlement and Integrated Development Enterprise, was introduced to change the plight of persons living in less-than-ideal conditions. She lamented that it was discontinued by the Government.
“At a time like this, and particularly because the issue of a right to housing is a human right, then any attempt to play politics with it is really disgraceful and we’re most disappointed, but not surprised, that after what we witnessed in Clifton, the JLP Government would politicise this plight,” said Frazer-Binns.
Holness said her checks had revealed that there are approximately 100 unfinished Operation PRIDE settlements.
Operation PRIDE was launched in 1994 by then Prime Minister P. J. Patterson with the aim of resolving the shelter needs of low-income nationals, according to the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ).
Holness said that under the PNP, the housing programme left the HAJ with a $3.5-billion debt that the JLP Government has since reduced to $500 million.
She said that the Government is seeking to right the wrongs of the previous administration by fulfilling the housing needs of the population.
“So when you find yourself in a place that people complain and tell you seh you should have followed Operation PRIDE, we don’t follow certain things because when they did [it], $16 billion was spent, and when them audit it, them couldn’t find houses valued at more than $7 billion,” said Holness.