The PNP's Opportunity for Change and Renewal is Now

Jamaicans have given the People's National Party (PNP) an opportunity to renew itself, which it needed desperately. It's a time to divorce old values and practices that have been held on to by the old guards, that do not augur well for a political organisation and, most importantly, our democracy.

It will certainly take some time for those who were intimately involved in the election campaign to fully accept what occurred on February 25. It will be a difficult next few months readjusting, refocusing and restrategizing. It will take a lot of patience and courage.

However, anyone who means well for the party should see this an opportunity to begin a process of renewal towards restoring confidence among the party's members and the Jamaican people. They should appreciate that they too have been given a mandate, a mandate to rebuild the great movement that they love(d) and had pride in (you'll see why I say rebuild later).

I reckon one important step in this process of renewal is a change in leadership (and I'm not saying everyone needs to be booted and all at the same time). I imagine it will take some time before those in power, who served our country and the party for many years, make space for individuals the delegates and electorate desire to see steering the ship.

I see great potential in some elected representatives of the Lower House and those who will become Senators. The individuals who will be so named must give us a glimmer of hope that purpose, hard work, competence and independent thought as well as transformative leadership will be rewarded rather than loyalty and length of service. Sadly, this is how many people now see the PNP; as an institution that is arrogant and unresponsive and does not necessarily act in the best interest of the country. We also need assurance that the party will hold its officials accountable to fulfilling their roles and responsibilities.

The status quo cannot and must not be maintained.

I look forward to seeing people like Damion Crawford, Imani Duncan Price, Patricia Duncan Sutherland, Raymond Pryce, Floyd Morris, Angela Brown Burke and Mark Golding in the Senate.

One sincerely hopes that this opportunity will not be squandered and characterized by bitterness. One hopes that the party will take some time to do some serious introspection and a decide on a way forward that is both good for the country and the party.

I encourage the party's hierarchy to espouse and coalesce around a set of values - not individuals - that eschew arrogance, entitlement, complacency and divisiveness.

Now is the time.