Golding pays homage to PNP founders
Mark Golding yesterday accepted his ascension to the presidency of the People’s National Party (PNP), paying homage to the founders of the political movement formed just under three decades before he was born and immediately announced that his first task would be to heal the wounds of division in the Opposition party.
“I respect the foundation on which we stand, built by our founding fathers and mothers and by the great leaders who came after them. I value the creative energies and fresh ideas of our youth. I believe in a combination of old and new and in-between, and that is what we need for a stronger future,” Golding said in his acceptance speech at PNP headquarters on Old Hope Road in St Andrew.
Flanked by his wife Sandra and their children Benjamin, Tasmin, and Jessica, the St Andrew Southern Member of Parliament (MP), who polled 1,740 votes to defeat St Ann South Eastern MP Lisa Hanna to become the party’s sixth president, said he spoke with Hanna, who congratulated him, after the election results were announced by PNP General Secretary Julian Robinson and they had both agreed to meet and work together going forward.
He thanked Hanna for what he described as a “strong but collegial contest” and emphasised that he was ready to sit with her and her team.
“I want our teams to meet and have a good heart-to-heart, authentic communication about how we are going to build our party and make it strong,” Golding said in the question-and-answer session with journalists after his speech. “We need to have a process that brings everybody together; it must be very deliberate and we need to communicate it right down through the party, from top to the base, that we’re now one family under a big tent, united and strong moving forward together.”
In his address, Golding said he accepted the delegates’ endorsement with a “deep sense of humility and gratitude” and thanked his wife and children “for the unconditional love and support” they have given him as he steps “forward into a bold new era of national leadership”.
The delegates, he said, have made their mark for a leader who has a proven track record of delivering results, who is not divisive, and is inclusive.
Arguing that the PNP is different now from what it was a month ago, Golding said it is clear that the party’s members and supporters, as well as the people of Jamaica “are longing for us to bridge the gaps of discord that we’ve been experiencing for some time”.
As such, he said the party needed to create harmony out of that discord as, “The people of Jamaica are demanding that of us.”
“The foundation of our unity will be respect and love — love for our family that is the People’s National Party, and most importantly love for our country, Jamaica.”
The world, he said, is different from what it was a year ago. “Indeed, the world is different to what we knew it to be 24 hours ago,” he added and extended congratulations to US President-elect Joe Biden and his vice-president running mate Kamala Harris for their “historic victory” in the US presidential election.
Jamaica, he said, “deserves an honest, hard-working and committed leader who will lead with integrity and justice. The people of this country need a strong and united People’s National Party that truly cares for all Jamaicans, no matter where yuh come from, what yuh look like, where yuh worship, how yuh vote, and today you’ve chosen a leader who, along with our leadership team, will make it happen”.
Added Golding: “This is a new dawn of leadership, a new way of operating and communicating. Comrades, mark my words, our task will not be easy, and yes, the road will be dreary and the barriers strong, as our party song says, but at the same time Jamaica is also facing unprecedented challenges and untold hardships, and the Government is already struggling under the weight of the challenges.
“It is clear that the Jamaican people will soon be looking at us to lead the country out of this crisis. Our immediate task is to get our party fit and ready for the Jamaican people. Working together, steadfast in spirit, I know that we will make it happen, and the people of Jamaica will once again turn to the People’s National Party to take our country forward.”
He attributed his victory to the organisation and energy of his campaign and the message he took to delegates which, he felt, “resonated with them”.
Golding also extended a special word of gratitude to outgoing president Dr Peter Phillips “for all he has done to serve the movement” and said he was looking forward to working with him, as well as with former PNP presidents Portia Simpson Miller and PJ Patterson in the rebuilding process.
“This is a victory for the PNP,” he said. “I come from a place of genuine love for people and the desire to do all I can to ensure that all Jamaicans have a fair chance to achieve their full potential.”