'Show us your way'
Published:Thursday | December 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
by Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer
Pointing to some of its achievements in the last four years, the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is asserting that it has placed the country on the path to prosperity.
JLP Leader and Prime Minister Andrew Holness said yesterday that while the JLP government has not created as many jobs as it wanted to, the country was travelling in the right direction.
"This is the way that we have embarked on and this is the way to prosperity. This is the way to, once and for all, solve the challenges we have had for the last 50 years," Holness said.
Taking a shot at the People's National Party (PNP), he added: "If the Opposition has another way, I would really want them to come and show me the other way."
Holness was speaking yesterday during a press briefing at the Courtleigh Hotel, in St Andrew, where the JLP listed, in a document titled Building a Better Jamaica, some of its accomplishments since forming the Government in 2007.
The document outlines some of the promises the JLP made in its last election manifesto and the ones the administration has delivered on.
These include crime reduction, poverty alleviation, the removal of user fees at public hospitals and a stable economic environment.
Promises delivered
According to Holness, the JLP has already delivered on more than 50 per cent of these promises.
"And if you were to take into account things we consider work in progress, it would be way above that (50 per cent)," he told reporters.
"Plus, you have to also bear in mind that we are in the fourth year of a five-year cycle," he added.
Responding to questions about the JLP's much-heralded promise of "jobs, jobs, jobs", made in the lead-up to the 2007 polls, Holness said Jamaica was not the only country grappling with the issue of job creation.
He said given the global recession and other external factors, Jamaica has done well when compared with other countries that have lost jobs.
"People understand that there are no short cuts, no short-term solutions to create jobs and Jamaicans must come to that understanding," he reasoned.
The abolition of user fees at public hospitals is another one of the JLP's election promises that have come under constant criticism as a result of the long delays in accessing health care and medication.
JLP Deputy Leader Dr Christopher Tufton conceded that the new policy has been plagued by delays, but argued that hundreds of Jamaicans are still benefiting.
On the issue of crime, Tufton said the administration has employed a series of policies and strategic measures to reduce major crimes by close to 36 per cent, bringing it to the lowest it has been in 20 years.