News

‘Every day we get more united,’ says Golding ahead of PNP conference

Loop News

September 18, 2022 12:43 PM ET

4 mins read

Ahead of the public session of the People’s National Party’s (PNP) 84th annual conference, party President, Mark Golding, has declared that the political organisation is getting more united each day, resulting in comrades feeling “powerfully energised”.

In fact, Golding said the party is on a mission to not only tackle the real issues facing the nation, but forge alliances with its sister political parties across the Caribbean to become a powerhouse for regional integration.

“We are coming together as a party at a time when every day we get stronger, every day we get more united,” he stated.

Golding made the assertions at the PNP’s Evening of Excellence in Kingston on Thursday, where Prime Minister of Grenada, Dickon Mitchell, was the guest speaker.

Over recent years, the PNP has been affected by disunity, but Golding said he has implemented several strategies geared towards building unity.

Among those efforts was the Opposition leader’s inclusion of several Members of Parliament (MPs), such as Phillip Paulwell and Natalie Neita-Garvey, who did support him in his bid for the PNP presidency, as members of his (Golding’s) Shadow Cabinet.

Paulwell and Neita-Garvey currently serve as leader and deputy leader of Opposition business in the House of Representatives, respectively.

Golding, in emphasising that the party is now working as a united force, pointed to the energy that he said is being felt by its members.

“We’re so powerfully energised by what we are seeing happening in our party. We won’t let the naysayers and detractors kill our spirit,” he stated.

“We realise we are on a mission and not everyone is going to want us to succeed in that mission, but it is a just mission and it is the right mission,” added Golding.

He said the mission will be continued by him on his leg of the journey as party leader

“It (the mission) was bequeathed to us by our founding fathers, the Right Excellent Norman Washington Manley and the other leaders of our party who came after, and I intend to continue that journey and to run my leg as well as I can, because the people of Jamaica need a strong, progressive People’s National Party to tackle the real issues confronting our nation,” he further declared.

The PNP, under Golding, has been long calling for the Government to cap the ad valorem SCT (Special Consumption Tax) on petroleum products, to reduce fuel prices. 

The party president has also been calling on the Government to implement more social programmes for the poor, in light of rising food prices.

Meanwhile, Golding welcomed the presence of other regional political players for the PNP’s 84th anniversary, noting that it is his intention to make the PNP a powerhouse for regional integration.

“What a pleasure it is to hear how many of our brothers and sisters from the region, sister parties from across the region, who have come to be with us here,” said Golding on Thursday.

Continuing, he said: “It signals, I think, the thirst that exists for us to come together more closely and to find common ground so that we can move forward to great things, to really chart a course for the collective empowerment and upliftment of our regional people.

“It is indeed where we want to go. We want to become a powerhouse for regional integration and build the Caribbean that our forefathers thought we would be by now,” stated Golding.