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‘It’s about performance’ - Danville tells why he chose the JLP
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Danville Walker was yesterday formally introduced as the Jamaica Labour Party's candidate for Central Manchester, and immediately declared the JLP as the "party of performance" and said he is driven by a desire to help transform his country for the better.
"This is not about ideology, it is about performance," Walker, former Commissioner of Customs and before that, director of elections, told a mixed audience of some of Central Manchester's leading citizens, hardcore JLP supporters and journalists in Mandeville.
"This is not about ideology, it is about performance," Walker, former Commissioner of Customs and before that, director of elections, told a mixed audience of some of Central Manchester's leading citizens, hardcore JLP supporters and journalists in Mandeville.
The meeting — advertised as a press briefing — was chaired by Cabinet Minister Daryl Vaz and attended by several Cabinet colleagues, including Finance Minister and JLP Deputy Leader Audley Shaw, who formally welcomed and introduced Walker as one who "will lift the quality of leadership" in Jamaica.
In a lively presentation, mixed with good humour, a relaxed Walker said he had chosen the JLP as his vehicle for a role in active representative politics because "I have a brain and I can think".
He argued that despite the global economic recession, the JLP in its four years in office since 2007 had managed to achieve macro-economic stability inclusive of low inflation, low interest rates, a stable dollar and was also managing economic growth.
"Low inflation, stable dollar, low interest rates, growing economy... that is progress," declared Walker to ecstatic applause from party supporters and well-wishers.
By contrast, he declared, the People's National Party (PNP) in its 18 years of political power prior to 2007, had presided over "the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich".
Using gardening as an analogy, Walker said the Jamaican people could not be expected in a context of drought to rehire a gardener whom they had fired for non-performance "when rain a fall" .
He told journalists following the meeting that he had chosen Central Manchester, where he will be up against Member of Parliament and the PNP's General Secretary Peter Bunting, because of the challenge it represented.
Noting that Central Manchester was struggling with the downturn in the bauxite industry and projections that in any case bauxite reserves could be exhausted in "20 years", Walker said: "I wanted to be in a place that needs my industry and intellect to find a way to solve the employment issues, the crime issues and the developmental issues".
"Central Manchester has tough issues and I know I can work on them, that's why I pick here. I love a challenge, I could have always negotiated for some easy seat but no, I will take here ..."
Earlier, watched by his wife, mother and young son, Walker, who was born and grew up in South Central St Andrew, touched on a range of issues including dual citizenship and the need to dismantle political garrisons which he described as a form of slavery for those who live in such communities.
Forced to resign as director of elections in 2008 because he was found to be in breach of Jamaican law by virtue of being a citizen of the United States, Walker told his audience that while he had since renounced his US citizenship, he considered himself a member of the Jamaican Diaspora. He believed it would be his responsibility to also represent that group, he said.
Jamaicans abroad, he emphasised, loved their country dearly. "We never ever really leave Jamaica," he said.
A forceful Walker told journalists that parliamentarians had been hypocritical in the way they had approached the dual citizenship issue.
He criticised the failure of the Parliament to deal with what he clearly considered an anomaly in the way the law stipulates that Jamaicans who are citizens of the United States and other non-Commonwealth countries should be treated, as against Commonwealth citizens who can contest Jamaican elections and hold positions such as that of the director of elections.
"America is no more alien than Canada is," he said, arguing that if there is a constitutional problem, "then fix it".
He insisted that should he enter Parliament the dual citizenship issue would be high on his list of priorities.
"My son was born here and he is an American citizen... it means a lot to me, I will never let them get away from it because to me what it (the controversy over dual citizenship) represented was hypocrisy," he said.
He claimed that many parliamentarians are Canadian citizens and British citizens... "almost every lawyer in that House who studied overseas has a British passport and they are talking about principle..."
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1d2e9lPpL
In a lively presentation, mixed with good humour, a relaxed Walker said he had chosen the JLP as his vehicle for a role in active representative politics because "I have a brain and I can think".
He argued that despite the global economic recession, the JLP in its four years in office since 2007 had managed to achieve macro-economic stability inclusive of low inflation, low interest rates, a stable dollar and was also managing economic growth.
"Low inflation, stable dollar, low interest rates, growing economy... that is progress," declared Walker to ecstatic applause from party supporters and well-wishers.
By contrast, he declared, the People's National Party (PNP) in its 18 years of political power prior to 2007, had presided over "the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich".
Using gardening as an analogy, Walker said the Jamaican people could not be expected in a context of drought to rehire a gardener whom they had fired for non-performance "when rain a fall" .
He told journalists following the meeting that he had chosen Central Manchester, where he will be up against Member of Parliament and the PNP's General Secretary Peter Bunting, because of the challenge it represented.
Noting that Central Manchester was struggling with the downturn in the bauxite industry and projections that in any case bauxite reserves could be exhausted in "20 years", Walker said: "I wanted to be in a place that needs my industry and intellect to find a way to solve the employment issues, the crime issues and the developmental issues".
"Central Manchester has tough issues and I know I can work on them, that's why I pick here. I love a challenge, I could have always negotiated for some easy seat but no, I will take here ..."
Earlier, watched by his wife, mother and young son, Walker, who was born and grew up in South Central St Andrew, touched on a range of issues including dual citizenship and the need to dismantle political garrisons which he described as a form of slavery for those who live in such communities.
Forced to resign as director of elections in 2008 because he was found to be in breach of Jamaican law by virtue of being a citizen of the United States, Walker told his audience that while he had since renounced his US citizenship, he considered himself a member of the Jamaican Diaspora. He believed it would be his responsibility to also represent that group, he said.
Jamaicans abroad, he emphasised, loved their country dearly. "We never ever really leave Jamaica," he said.
A forceful Walker told journalists that parliamentarians had been hypocritical in the way they had approached the dual citizenship issue.
He criticised the failure of the Parliament to deal with what he clearly considered an anomaly in the way the law stipulates that Jamaicans who are citizens of the United States and other non-Commonwealth countries should be treated, as against Commonwealth citizens who can contest Jamaican elections and hold positions such as that of the director of elections.
"America is no more alien than Canada is," he said, arguing that if there is a constitutional problem, "then fix it".
He insisted that should he enter Parliament the dual citizenship issue would be high on his list of priorities.
"My son was born here and he is an American citizen... it means a lot to me, I will never let them get away from it because to me what it (the controversy over dual citizenship) represented was hypocrisy," he said.
He claimed that many parliamentarians are Canadian citizens and British citizens... "almost every lawyer in that House who studied overseas has a British passport and they are talking about principle..."
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1d2e9lPpL
him learn di quote dem arready!
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