Golding commits to washing away beach access blues

Western Bureau:

Disgruntled Jamaicans are being promised that their long-standing complaint that they are being denied access to beaches - especially those that form parts of hotels and other private properties - will be a thing of the past if the People’s National Party (PNP) is elected to power when the next general election is called.

In a wide-ranging speech delivered by PNP President Mark Golding in Sandy Bay, Hanover, at the closing meeting of a Hanover road tour and parish rally on Friday, Golding declared there would be a paradigm shift from what he said currently obtains across the island with regard to beach access for Jamaicans.

Several fisherfolk and other Jamaicans have been complaining bitterly in recent years about being prevented from accessing certain beach areas. In many cases, they said the areas are ones they used to be able to access for years, but which have now been sold by the Government to private investors. In some cases, persons are being asked to pay huge sums for entry to the beach areas they used to access freely for decades before the surrounding real estate was sold or leased.

At the Sandy Bay Primary School playfield, packed with cheering party supporters, Golding argued that the next PNP government will be giving the people of the country equality and social justice, while also making life fair for each and everyone.

“For example, so many of the beaches of this country are not accessible to the people of the country. If one wants to go on a beach, and hold a little ‘meds’ and feel a little vibes with your family or whatever, many persons cannot do that, because it (the beach) is not accessible to them,” he said.

‘What is wrong with Jamaica?’

He noted that he has been doing some research on the matter, and has seen where, in other Caribbean countries with strong tourism industries just like Jamaica, their citizens have the right to access any beach in the country.

“So, I say, what is wrong with Jamaica? Why have we developed this model which excludes our people from access to beaches?” he asked.

Golding insisted that social justice demands that an honest conversation be held with the tourism sector and the captains of that industry, and a system worked out which would allow Jamaicans access to beaches. He said the weight of the law and the Parliament of the land should ensure that such access is allowed.

“My commitment to all Jamaica tonight, is that we (a PNP government) will change this paradigm and ensure access to the beaches of our land, to the people of this land,” he stated.

Short-term contracts

Turning his attention to the burning issue of short-term contracts being used in industries across the country, even for long-term employment, Golding insisted that that practice must end in the interest of justice for the working class.

“This use of short-term contracts, to keep people on short-term contract, so that you can have them like hanging from a string; and they do not get any security of tenure in their jobs; and you deprive them of benefits that the employment laws of the land intended them to have, but you not giving it to them; time come to cut out that,” he exclaimed.

“Time come to cut out the misuse of contract work terms in the country,” he insisted,

While arguing that contract work terms can be properly used in industry, Golding pointed out that when persons are hired for extended periods, working every day, they ought to have the full range of rights and benefits that the workers of Jamaica have fought long and hard for, and that the PNP played a major role in the past in ensuring those rights and benefits are guaranteed.

While outlining a number of achievements of the PNP during past administrations, Golding argued that “my commitment to you tonight, and to Jamaica, is that the next PNP government will deliver justice for the workers of this country, and will eliminate the abuse of the contract work form”.

He said the mission and dream of a PNP government, led by him, is to build a country where its people do not have to aspire to leave the island to have a successful life.

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