Phillips-Bunting race a non-issue
THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE PEOPLE’S National Party (PNP) puts a lot of importance on the contest for leadership between Peter Bunting and Peter Phillips that will take place on September 7. What, however, if the contest is really a non-issue?
Both Peters were part of the leading team that lost the general election in 2016. Their presence did not prevent defeat – the overturning by the JLP of a 21-seat majority. Before the election, the PNP was warned repeatedly that it would lose if it didn’t offer something to the electorate, but it refused to heed the warning. Nothing has changed in the approach of the PNP since then.
A close associate of Peter Bunting was brazen enough to admit, during a long, rudderless speech to a group of Kingston Patriots that “I don’t have any solutions ... . ”
As a senior member of the current leadership of the PNP, Bunting’s wingman speaks for the whole leadership of the PNP. Why should we, the people of Jamaica, take seriously a leadership contest of people who ‘have no solutions’?
Dr Peter Phillips’ record in the opinion polls, being the campaign manager of the losing PNP team in the last general election, as well as his lacklustre performance as party leader, signals that he is not fit for purpose.