PNP backs record

THE PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) yesterday stoutly defended its record of the 1970s, brushing aside comments made over the weekend by former party stalwart Dr. D.K. Duncan.

Duncan, a former general secretary of the party, charged that many of the atrocities being committed in the society today, could be traced to measures instituted then by the PNP administration.

But while conceding that his party had made some mistakes, PNP president and Prime Minister P.J. Patterson stressed that they "had had tremendous successes" and made clear he would not be following Dr. Duncan's lead.

"I don't have anything to confess and I will not be confessing anything," he told NEC delegates. "I simply say, and I say it publicly. Nobody, if they are truthful, however maligning or malicious they may care to be....can ever say that I participated (in) or subscribed to any decision by the party or the Government in the 1970s that was intended to bring terror to the people of Jamaica," he told a meeting of the party's National Executive Council (NEC) in Ocho Rios, St. Ann on Sunday.

"And as I reflect on those days, I say my conscience is clear and I feel that whatever I stood for then and stand for now, my position has been vindicated," Mr. Patterson stated. He urged his party not to be "dragged into any side issue". "Don't get involved in any witch-hunt or recrimination. We have a record," he remarked.

The PNP president's views were echoed by The Patriots, a group of young professionals associated with the party. Suggesting that Duncan's opinions stemmed from personal differences he had with the late Michael Manley, the group of young professionals announced pride in what it described as the party's revolutionary achievements.

Without stating specifically what they were proud of, the group launched a personal broadside at Duncan, saying "it notes the schizophrenic behaviour of Mr. Duncan as it relates to his political hopscotching."

Meantime, the NEC has reaffirmed its satisfaction with the achievements of the party in the 1970s. It rejected the suggestion that the PNP administration had ever planned or executed any form of terror on the Jamaican people.

At last Friday's 23rd anniversary dinner of the Jamaica Labour Party's West Kingston Development Committee, Mr. Duncan, former Minister of National Mobilisation in the 1970s PNP Government, accused his former 'comrades' of failing to contain crime, instituting instead, stop gap measures such as the 1974 Suppression of Crimes Act and the Gun Court Act.

He apologised for not opposing these Acts more vociferously then or simply walking away to make a point.

The result he said is an entire generation of police officers who, as a result of the provisions of the Act, abused the Jamaican citizenry, especially those from inner-city communities. He lambasted the Government's short-sighted approach to crime fighting by pointing to the numerous squads introduced over the years to quell the problem, but which have failed. He also accused the Government of practising state terrorism.

In pointing to the recent bloody conflict in West Kingston which left 27 people dead, Dr. Duncan said: "Whereas in a particular point in time the Suppression of Crimes Act allowed them (the police) to just kick off you door, come in, and gun-butt you and take you to jail, now, them come in and gun-butt you, and shoot you in you head."

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