Seaga unveils 'Change Pain to Gain' manifesto

JLP rally at South Parade, downtown Kingston last night. WINSTON SILL/Freelance Photographer

THE JAMAICA Labour Party last night unveiled 10 "public interest" programmes from its manifesto, 'Change Pain to Gain' at a huge public rally at South Parade, downtown Kingston, on which it is basing its bid to form the next Government.

Edward Seaga, the party leader, described the manifesto as "a revival of the need to create a comprehensive reform programme of change in which social programmes play a dominant role."

Six of the programmes ­ education reforms, health care, housing accommodation, roads and drain-age, water and welfare ­ have the central theme of dealing with social issues of primary concern.

Elaborating on the programmes, Mr. Seaga told a sea of green-clad JLP supporters:

• "Through educational reforms we must eliminate illiteracy in schools by offering quality education for all." Specifically, a JLP Government would remove school fees in secondary and basic schools.
• "Through affordable health care, we must ensure that the elderly, poor and vulnerable are not left to wither and die." Specifically a JLP Government would provide health services "to those who find it impossible to pay."
• "Through the provision of housing accommodation, we must eliminate slums and shacks by a 'shack attack'... pulling down the shacks and building houses." He added: "It is not enough to take the man out of the slum. We must also take the slum out of the man. This we will do by the upgrading and renewal of urban inner city and rural degradation, replacing uglification with beautification."
• "Roads can no longer be of concern only when election is near. Road maintenance must be given substantial funding to take place on a continuous basis so that road repairs will only be required to undo the damage of flood waters. We want the roads of the interiors to be in good condition all year so that there is little difference in surface of the highways and the byways.

Referring to "the haves and the have-nots" theme on which he made his entry into politics 43 years ago, Mr. Seaga said he had watched the nation move towards the goal of "one Jamaica of first class citizens only and move back, to and fro, shuffling forward to gain ground and slipping backward to where we started. Today, we are hardly better off than we were 40 years ago at Independence".

Declaring that "I am a man in a hurry; I cannot wait any longer," Mr. Seaga, who became 72 in May, said, "At this point in my life, I do not intend to leave behind me a legacy that shows little forward movement in creating a decent quality of life for the have-nots."

He said he may never see the vision completely fulfilled but he wanted to set this grand design in motion with all the safeguards to ensure that there was no more turning back.