Seaga OPPOSITION LEADER Edward Seaga, confident that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), will pull off a victory in the next general election, has been courting expatriate Jamaicans in New York, United States to invest in Jamaica when the party takes control of the Government.
Addressing Jamaicans in New York on Saturday during an "Up Front and Close" campaign meeting in Brooklyn, Mr. Seaga said the team was there "to do something special to ensure that when we take over the reins of government we will generate growth."
The "Up Front and Close" tour, which was primarily aimed at encouraging investment in Jamaica when the party takes power, was taken to business people in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.
According to the JLP, the overseas meeting was also being used as an instrument of reconnection to keep Jamaicans in the diaspora in touch with the party, and to win new friends for Jamaica.
During the meeting, which also took the JLP touring party to Mount Vernon where Mayor Ernest Davis presented the JLP leader with the key to the city, Mr. Seaga stressed the need for growth in the Jamaican economy, noting that Jamaica has failed to average positive growth during the past 10 years.
"If we failed to grow at a time when the United States had its best period of boom in recent history, what will happen when the US is in trouble?" asked the Opposition Leader. "We want to put Jamaica in such a good position that if the US economy falls off we will not be affected badly," he said.
Mr. Seaga said that one of the JLP's top priorities when the party returns to power would be to restore justice in Jamaica. Referring to the police killing of seven men in Braeton, St. Catherine on March 14, this year, and the Government's response to the findings of Amnesty International, Mr. Seaga said he was happy that a recent poll, commissioned by The Gleaner, showed that the majority of Jamaicans supported the stance taken by the international human rights body.
"The number of atrocities being committed by the state is appalling," he said, noting that the reduction of crime would be high on the agenda of his administration.
During a question and answer discussion, Mr. Seaga was asked about Jamaica's crime problem and how he planned to address it. The Opposition Leader said that "when we were in government, the murder rate was somewhere about the 400 mark annually. But from 1990 the murders have climbed to the frightening level of an average of over 800 annually. Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates in the world. The reduction in crime will result from development of the economy. That is one of the reasons we are undertaking this mission, so we will have a head start at restoring the economy when we take government," Mr. Seaga said.
