Walker and the JLP from the past

[Assasin]

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...8/news/n4.html

[Skeng DX]

Why the JLP?

So, why the JLP when he's coming from a PNP family background? He said he was not raised to be a tribalist; his father deliberately made sure of that. But he has joined the JLP at the invitation of Finance Minister Audley Shaw to come to Central Manchester because of performance over ideology.

"I remember being around for most of the 18 years of the PNP administration when the dollar was like a 747 (aeroplane)."

He said he remembers when the dollar moved from five to one and to levels where it climbed very fast. And when interest rates were so high, there were calls to bring it down to stir investments, and the arguments were the dollar would further devalue.

He said, on the contrary, under the JLP, in four years we have had a stable dollar, and the Net International Reserves is at its highest level. He noted that when the dollar was running away there was no growth, but now, in the worst economic period in the world, Jamaica has had growth in the first and second quarters of this fiscal year; and he thinks the third quarter will also reflect positive growth. His other reason for choosing to join the JLP is that crime is trending down.

He regards Prime Minister Andrew Holness as a "studied person who reads widely, has a steady hand for a young man and someone who is good for the country now. He has experience outside of politics and that is good".

Walker said he wanted to leave the divisiveness of the 1970s behind and felt inspired to want to put aside whatever remnants of divisiveness he had. "Garrisons are a blight of shame. You can't freely leave or enter them. Growing up on Bay Farm Road in my father's bakery, I saw it first-hand."

cont @ http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ews/news1.html