YEAR 12: GOVERN JAMAICA TODAY, PRIME MINISTER HOLNESS- NOT THE PAST. By Richard Hugh Blackford

Today marks the beginning of year two of the Jamaica Labour Party’s third consecutive term in office under Prime Minister Andrew Holness. It also marks the start of the Administration’s twelfth uninterrupted year directing Jamaica’s economic management, social policy and political stewardship.That is an important reality, because anyone who only recently began following Jamaica’s politics could be forgiven for believing this Government has just arrived at the wicket—that it is beginning its first term and discovering the country’s problems for the first time. It is not.After eleven uninterrupted years in office, the Government must own Jamaica’s present condition: its achievements, yes, but also its failures, its unfinished work and the growing anxiety facing ordinary Jamaicans.

STILL CAMPAIGNING AFTER ELEVEN YEARS Pick up the newspapers, listen to the talk shows, watch the news programmes or log on to social media, and one is met with a barrage of political attacks. The targets are not simply the People’s National Party, which is in Opposition and plainly struggling to find cohesion and direction. Much of the attack is directed at Michael Norman Manley; a former Prime Minister who died on March 6, 1997.

Manley retired from political leadership five years before his death and handed the leadership of the PNP to P. J. Patterson. He served as Prime Minister in the turbulent 1970s, winning a landslide election in 1972 against Hugh Shearer and then suffering a similarly decisive defeat to Edward Seaga in the violence-ridden 1980 election. That history is real. It must be studied honestly. But it cannot become the permanent excuse for the failures of a government that has been in uninterrupted office for eleven years.

THE 1970S ARE NOT 2026 The Jamaica of the 1970s existed in an entirely different world. It was a Cold War era. Jamaica, like many small developing countries, was caught in global ideological and geopolitical struggles. It was a time before the internet, before the modern digital economy, before today’s advances in science, technology, communication and education. Attempting to compare every challenge in today’s economy with the conditions of the 1970s is a futile exercise.Democratic Socialism ceased to be Jamaica’s governing doctrine more than four decades ago, and Michael Manley has been dead for nearly three decades. Neither can explain away the problems confronting Jamaicans in 2026.

The Administration needs to stop campaigning against ghosts and begin governing for the living.

THE PNP DOES NOT CONTROL JAMAICA’S RESOURCES The PNP is not the Government’s central problem- if any problem at all. It is in Opposition. It does not control the national budget, the ministries, the public agencies, state contracts, public procurement or the machinery of Government. So why is the Administration still campaigning as though an election is around the corner; one year after its 2025 victory? Why not govern with the authority that comes from three consecutive terms and eleven uninterrupted years in office? The Government does not have to respond to every utterance from the PNP. It does not have to build its political identity around attacking a party that presently has no power to implement or prevent Government policy. Jamaica needs leadership focused on solving today’s Jamaica problems.

JAMAICA’S PROBLEMS ARE PRESENT-DAY PROBLEMS The country is still dealing with the consequences of Hurricane Melissa. Families and communities remain in recovery mode. The United States economy is showing signs of weakness, with obvious implications for Jamaica’s tourism, remittances, exports and investment prospects. Jamaica itself is experiencing low growth, a rising cost of living and growing uncertainty among households.

The economy has not delivered meaningful broad-based growth over the past eleven years. Returning to pre-COVID levels cannot be presented as a major economic triumph; that was recovery, not transformation.

The Government’s effort to raise J$5 billion through the bond market was not fully subscribed. That is not a trivial matter. It should provoke serious questions about investor sentiment and the Government’s economic outlook.

Meanwhile, food security is a concern for many Jamaican families. Inflation continues to punish workers, pensioners and small businesses. The BPO sector is in difficulty, with significant amounts of purpose-built office space now vacant and no clear plan for how those losses will be replaced.

These are not PNP problems. They are Jamaica’s problems.

ANNOUNCEMENTS CANNOT REPLACE SOLUTIONS Jamaicans cannot live indefinitely on announcements, glossy brochures and public-relations exercises. The poor cannot eat political propaganda, and the unemployed cannot live in press releases. Equally, the family trying to rebuild after Hurricane Melissa cannot sleep beneath a bridge to nowhere.There is hardly any visible effort to seriously bridge the widening gap between those with influence and opportunity and those who are barely surviving. What Jamaicans are too often receiving are promises, ceremonies and announcements of plans that never seem to reach the communities most in need. After eleven years, the country deserves more than a permanent election campaign.

GOVERN JAMAICA TODAY Year twelve should be a moment of reflection for the Holness Administration. After all, it has the power, it has the resources; and it MUST take hold of the responsibility given to it by the electorate.The priority now must be jobs, housing, food prices, education, health care, hurricane recovery, investment, productivity and real hope for poor and working-class Jamaicans.

Michael Manley cannot fix the economy. Democratic Socialism cannot repair damaged roofs. The PNP cannot be blamed for policies and decisions made by a government that has held office uninterrupted for more than a decade.

Prime Minister Holness and his Administration must focus on Jamaica’s problems today.

Not the past. If I may borrow a line from a comment on one of my recent posts: "We're all brothers and sisters, and this deep divide that is being pushed at us is only to benefit those external forces who would dearly love to enslave us once more." Please follow me for more in-depth analysis of Jamaican public policy, social justice, governance, and national development.