Ho points out JLP ‘bad treatment’, as she outlines plan for Church Pen Division

Following on from the July 31 divisional conference where she was formally unveiled to scores of Comrades at the Cool Breeze Entertainment Complex, Ho spoke with Old Harbour News.

She is the fifth PNP candidate in the last two decades who will try to unseat the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) that has been in control of the division since 1998.  

The Church Pen native remains undaunted, however, by the staggering odds stacked against her as she detailed her plans for a division last held by the PNP when Lloyd Beeston defeated the JLP’s Norman Boyd in the 1990 Parish Council Elections.

Among Ho’s immediate plans if elected at the next local government elections, anticipated to be held in the first half of 2022, is a school nutrition programme, an annual summer school, the improvement of and creation of new recreational spaces and a sustainable employment initiative that will provide jobs locally as well as overseas.

“We must do more for students. No student should be turned away from school if they can’t pay their school fee,” Ho tells Old Harbour News.

“We are going to have a system in place where parents who are struggling, a part from getting funds from PATH… ensure that student’s school fees are paid, [if it’s] even 50 percent. Some students are going to school hungry, so we will have a breakfast club. We plan to have two locations in the division where children can eat their breakfast before going to school, even if it’s a cup a tea and bread sandwich, so they can learn better instead of trying to learn on empty stomachs.”

Turning her attention to jobs, Ho said unemployment rate is high in the division. She said she will use her status as a dual citizen – which is permitted under the Jamaica Constitution at the local government level – to her advantage to improve the lives of constituents in the division.

“For our young people we don’t want to see them walking around doing nothing. It’s either you’re in school or you’re working. We don’t want to see especially young men sitting idle on the side of the road,” she said after chastising the crime strategy of the Andrew Holness administration.

“We want people to see the change that we’re bringing. As a returning resident and being abroad for over 22 years what I’m bringing to this community is what I learn from overseas,” she added. “I see in America where the Americans do help out a lot with charity. And I’m sure members of the diaspora will help me like they did with my conference.”

Along with her team of committed workers, Ho said she intend to embark on a beautification project that will seek to make the division the most beautiful in the constituency and among the most envied across the country. She indicated further that she will lobby strongly for improved lighting in communities where such a service doesn’t exist or is woefully inadequate.

“We need to light up the place more, so people will feel a little more secure. People are working late at nights, they are coming home and have to be walking in the dark,” said Ho.

She lamented the poor road conditions in communities such as Sweetsop Lane, Lloyd’s Pen, Nightingale Grove and Marlie Mount, arguing that many residents of these communities exercise their constitutional right by participating in the voting process “but still getting the same bad treatment from the Jamaica Labour Party”.

Special effort will be made, she said, to improve the aesthetics of the Church Pen Cemetery which reached its capacity many years ago and is now closed save and except for burial lots purchased in advance.

“Even though it’s closed, we need to fix it up, clean it up, put some flowers at each tomb and allow families to visit their loved ones so they don’t need to walk through bushes,” Ho explained. “So even though their loved ones are gone we still have to respect the dead and still show some love and sense of dignity even though they are gone.”

“So my plan is to make Church Pen Division a much talked about area known for its beauty,” added the former Miss St Catherine Festival Queen.

“I want to be a councillor not just for the People’s National Party I want to be a councillor for everybody in the Church Pen Division. It’s been years now a lot of promises have been made by the Jamaica Labour Party and nothing has been fulfilled. So now a true councillor is here and we’re going to make Church Pen Division the division we want it to be.”

She continued: “As a resident of Church Pen, I want to be so proud to tell somebody I am from the Church Pen Division.”

Ho, who grew up in Sharper Lane in the division was ushered into the position after a long search for a suitable candidate that the party believes is capable of reversing a decades-old trend of JLP dominance.

Incumbent JLP councillor Mark O’Connor is aiming for a fourth straight term after winning in 2007.