Jamaican politics is a very serious matter indeed. Electoral contests swing back and forth between the National Party (JNP) and Labour Party (JLP), not infrequently punctuated by gunfire as party loyalists face off. In February, Labour’s Andrew Holness narrowly beat incumbent Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller with promises of honesty and growth that would turn the island into ‘the Silicon Valley of the Caribbean’ and provide an avalanche of jobs for unemployed Jamaicans. Holness had briefly served as prime minister in 2011 after Bruce Golding’s Labour government was forced to resign over its dalliance with drug kingpin Christopher Coke.
Holness ticks all the boxes for Jamaicans hungry for stability and respectability. He is a devout Seventh-Day Adventist and dedicated ‘family man’ with business experience. As such, he is unlikely to challenge the homophobic culture and anti-gay laws that continue to plague the island. The JLP’s close victory was a surprise, but proved that parties such as the JNP that get elected with populist egalitarian programmes but impose IMF-inspired austerity do themselves no electoral favours.
