HOLNESS... expected to call constitutionally due general election this year
February 23, 2025
DON’T FALL PREY!
“Nothing doth more hurt in a State than that cunning men pass for wise.” — Francis Bacon, statesman and philosopher
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Especially in recent months, the Mark Golding-led Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has been demanding plans for a host of critical and national issues from the ruling Andrew Holness-led, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government. Has this great irony and cunning of the PNP really rang home to well-thinking Jamaicans? Why should it? It’s another great harbinger.
Understand this, too, with just about seven months before our 19th parliamentary election is due, the PNP is running out of ways to create panic, especially among the undecided voters in marginal constituencies who will soon play the lion’s share role in deciding whether the PNP can be trusted with the keys to Jamaica House. The effectiveness of the spread of fake news by some whose navels are planted at 89 Old Hope has waned.
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Lawfare, the use of legal action to cause problems for opponents has faded. Only fanatics have not condemned PNP-connected individuals who have berated Jamaica abroad. And threats of street protests have fizzled.
The PNP’s persistent calls for the governing JLP to make public its plans for many crucial national issues is the biggest piece of charlatanry that has been perpetrated by the PNP in recent years. Those of us who have the knowledge have a duty to warn especially well thinking Jamaicans about the PNP’s quackery. We must not allowed ourselves be bamboozled.
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Consider this: ‘PNP requests Gov’t’s ‘deportee plan’ ‘. Among other things, the news item noted: “[T]he PNP says it stands ready to assist with the formulation of this plan and is available once consulted.” (Nationwide News Network, January 31, 2025)
The PNP suggests that the Holness Administration has no plan. If this is an empty goal why has the PNP not scored? In a year in which a general election is a certainty, our Government-in-waiting has not put forward a plan on the mentioned issue, but at the same time is calling for the ruling party to release its plan on the said matter. “Tom drunk, but Tom nuh fool.”
Ponder this: The PNP has persistently demanded that the governing JLP make public its crime plan. Have you ever heard anything so utterly ridiculous? Which responsible Administration releases the details of its crime management plan for public consumption?
Is the PNP unaware that criminals create and consume media content. Yes, criminals read newspapers, listen to the radio, make videos, watch happenings on social media, and some are adept in using the Internet.
Data from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) show that murders declined by 19 per cent in 2024, compared to 2023. That means 246 fewer Jamaicans were murdered. All other major crimes also declined appreciably. Murders have decreased 24 per cent since the start 2025 compared to 2024. The best crime plan is one that works.
In recent months I have seen where the PNP has called for the Administration to release its plans for the growth and development of the economy, health, agriculture, transportation, education, markets, and local infrastructure, investment and commerce, and I could go on.
Then consider this: ‘Not a word! Crawford says PNP won’t reveal plans until elections are called’. The news item said, among other things: “PNP caretaker for St Catherine North Western Senator Damion Crawford has vowed that his party will not reveal the policy plans it has for the country until Prime Minister Andrew Holness calls the general election.” (Nationwide News Network, January 20, 2025)
This piece of effrontery from Crawford must not escape the notice of well-thinking Jamaicans. Crawford wants us to employ him, not the reverse.
Well-thinking folks must also not miss the fact that seven months away from the holding of a general election, the PNP has not shown to the public any fundable plans which forecast what Jamaica would look like if it were to form a future Administration. We must “tek sleep and mark death”. The mountains of promises which Golding and other PNP spokespersons have wholesaled over the last three years as they campaigned throughout Jamaica are mere hot air if they cannot be operationalised and funded in a timely manner.
LAST DITCH TACTIC
Recall in August last year, while speaking at a PNP Women’s Conference at St Hilda’s High School in St Ann, Opposition spokesperson on finance Julian Robinson predicted that Prime Minister Andrew Holness would have called a general election by the end of 2024. Even those who casually watch the swirling of our political tea leaves would have recognised that Robinson was merely trying to get a ‘forward’ (excite his audience), as we say in the streets. But, more importantly, Robinson was attempting to set the election agenda of Dr Holness.
Some political scholars posit that when Opposition parties fail to gain desired traction with eligible voters, especially in the run-up to a consequential election, they often resort to this last-ditch tactic.
Remember I had explained here previously that political tactics are not the same as strategies. Anyway, parties which are steering defeat in the face ramp up predictions and/or demands for the holding of a national election.
Wise incumbents stick to their strategies and adjust them based on prudent and realistic yardsticks.
Since the start of 2025, Golding, PNP president and leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, has called for the holding of a general election at several party rallies. While Golding has been beating the drums of a general election, certain voice notes from a central place and space recently gushed unto the public pavement. The voice notes, among other things, revealed that the PNP was short on money — a very vital ingredient needed to win a general election.
I discussed here the three Ms, money, message and momentum, previously. Five Sundays ago I said here that the PNP had not demonstrated that it had sufficient amounts of any of the three Ms to win a general election at this time. A scientific poll by Bluedot services, that was commissioned by Nationwide News Network, revealed last Wednesday that the PNP was trailing the governing JLP.
This is not a big surprise to those of us who have been carefully watching the local political tea leaves. Recall, for example, that in my The Agenda piece of October 6, 2024, entitled ‘The JLP has been caught trying’, I made these and related forecasts: “The Andrew Holness-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will win the upcoming general election, our 19th since universal adult suffrage in 1944, except there is a calamitous scandal in the JLP and/or catastrophic natural disaster which doesn’t allow the JLP enough time to recover and/or rebuild. Why? The governing JLP, among other things, has been caught trying. Bill Clinton, former two-term president of the United States of America, often said: ‘The American people don’t always need you to succeed, but they want to catch you trying.’ I believe the same is true of the Jamaican people.”
Well, there has not been any calamitous scandal in the JLP and/or catastrophic natural disaster which doesn’t allow the JLP enough time to recover and/or rebuild. I am, therefore, sticking to the mentioned forecast. I am not a political clairvoyant. I am not a pollster. I noted in the mentioned article how I came to arrive at the forecasts mentioned.
Some might wonder aloud, “From October 2024? That is early?” Some political scholars say voters typically make up their minds as early as two years in advance of a national election. Recall that in October 2015 I made a forecast here that the JLP would have won our 17th general election. The scientific polls at the time, and even days before the general election was held on February 25, 2016, indicated that the PNP was going to give the JLP a trashing. Remember this, for example: “The Gleaner front page of February 19, 2016, for example, screamed: ‘Forecast: PNP Win! — Portia set to remain PM after election, university team projects 40 seats for the PNP’. The PNP was defeated. The JLP went into the February 25, 2016 national plebiscite with 21 seats and the PNP with 42. The JLP did not lose any, and simultaneously gained 11 of the PNP’s. Again, I see no good reason at this time to change my October 2024 forecast.
Contrary to what some say, Jamaicans are much more mature and reasonable today. Folks don’t expect a century every time their political representative goes to the batting crease. What we vehemently resent, however, is nonchalance and disrespect for our trust or, as we say in the streets, “taking us for fools”.
There is no magic wand to wave and remedy all our problems. Those who claim they can solve all our problems in a jiffy are con-artists.
REMAINING TOP PERFORMERS
Two Sundays ago, on February 9, 2025, I named six of the 10 top performers in the Cabinet. These are ministers who, as I see it, are delivering results, tangible benefits, which are registering in the pockets and on the dinner tables of especially ordinary Jamaicans. Recall:
1) Daryl Vaz
2) Edmund Bartlett
3) Dr Horace
4) Matthew Samuda
5) Dr Christopher Tufton
6) Robert Morgan
These are my remaining four top performers:
7) Pearnel Charles Jr
Charles is doing a very commendable job at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. He has been dousing many potentially costly and damaging industrial disputes. This means the safeguarding of hundreds of millions dollars in value-added for workers and the economy.
Consider this: ‘96 Jamaicans off to Canada on farm work programme’ (
Jamaica Observer, January 4, 2025). The number of, especially, first-timers who are getting opportunities in this programme has risen appreciably over the last 15 months. Those who pour cold water on the farm work programmes urgently need to talk with some of the workers who have accessed them.
Charles did a marvellous job post-Hurricane Beryl regarding the speed with which relief cheques were processed and then handed over to hundreds of needy Jamaicans. On Charles’ watch the management/distribution of benefits via the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) has improved immensely.
8) Floyd Green
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining is one of the most crucial. Green is doing a praiseworthy job with little fanfare.
The rapid recovery of several areas of agriculture which were badly damaged by Hurricane Beryl shows that Green is on the job.
Consider these too:
* 2,500 irrigation kits for small farmers (Jamaica Observer, May 23, 2024)
* Ministry ramps up support for farmers hit by drought (Jamaica Observer, April 25, 2024)
* Over 2,819 hectares of damaged crops restored (Jamaica Observer, December 19, 2025)
* Poultry sector continues on growth path — Green (Jamaica Observer, January 21, 2025)
* Gov’t allocates $700 million to provide assistance to farmers, fishers affected by Beryl (Jamaica Observer, July 17, 2024)
* Fighting praedial larceny: Gov’t to spend $1.8b over three years on Agricultural Wardens Programme – Green (Jamaica Observer, October 22, 2024)
Mining seems to have gone dormant, though. The public should be made to understand why.
9) Kamina Johnson Smith
She is highly respected on the international scene. I think she has brought back respectability to the portfolio responsibility of foreign affairs and foreign trade. She thinks on her feet and is comfortable addressing numerous matters of national importance. She did a fantastic job by helping to source thousands of doses of the life-saving COVID-19 vaccine — 50,000 from India; 75,000 from South Africa; 65,000 from Mexico; and more.
It has been a long time since I have heard legitimate claims of Jamaicans being mistreated abroad.
I think her stewardship as a senator has been simply superb.
10) Marlene Malahoo Forte
The Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs has been in the news a lot lately, but some may ask: “How is it delivering benefits which are being felt in the pockets and seen on the dinner tables of ordinary Jamaicans?”
“Smaddification!” The term was coined by Professor Rex Nettleford of The University of the West Indies. If we cannot affirm the significance of our self-worth, our own history and the path ahead for ourselves, we are stunted.
The immense worth and work that Malahoo Forte has done in facilitating constitutional reform is commendable.
Consider this: ‘Review of Bill to amend Jamaica’s Constitution far advanced’ (Jamaica Information Service [
JIS] December 4, 2024). Malahoo Forte’s unflappable, yet gracious style makes her the “Titanium Lady” of the Cabinet.
*Fayval Williams, minister of finance and the public service, and Dr Dana Morris Dixon, minister for education, skills, youth and information, were appointed to new/expanded responsibilities for less than six months. For that reason their stewardships were not assessed in this article. In the near future they will be included.
Garfield Higgins is an educator, and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com
