GoldingErica Virtue, Staff Reporter
Outgoing NDM President Bruce Golding has put to rest talks of his leaving the political party he founded almost six years ago.
However, Mr. Golding admitted to attending meetings with the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party to discuss a possible alliance with his National Democratic Movement, even though he had turned his back on the JLP six years earlier. The JLP wanted to have the NDM absorbed into the JLP, he said, but the NDM would have none of that.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week, Mr. Golding, who will demit the office of president on May 27, addressed his political past and future, plus that of the NDM, which is Jamaica's 32nd third-party.
In responding to questions about meetings between the NDM and the JLP for a two-party alliance to fight the ruling People's National Party, the 33-year political veteran said that the JLP was open to discussions. However, he added, that was only if the NDM was dissolved and absorbed into the JLP, a move he opposes.
"I could never accept that. (The NDM) could not compromise our independence as an organisation and we held firm to that," Mr. Golding declared. "And that is why everything fell through."
The man who left the JLP after 27 years, where he served as chairman, said there was no relationship between himself and Opposition Leader Edward Seaga.
"None," he said of the man who he sat across a table from last month to discuss a possible JLP-NDM coalition.
And although harsh words have been said about his departure from the JLP, Mr. Golding said he has chosen not to reciprocate.
And no matter what happens to the NDM, said the man once tipped to take over the JLP's leadership, "I've cleansed my political soul."
