Aspiring Presidential candidate of the People’s National Party (PNP) is seeking to remove the perception that the party condones corruption.
Phillips in an interview with the Gleaner stated that “the bedrock of integrity and the reputation of the PNP have been the exemplar of integrity in political action. The integrity of purpose, and personal integrity of its membership, that reputation has frayed in the public’s mind,”
“I believe … the loss of that reputation for the PNP has undercut an essential foundation of the party, laid by N.W. Manley, and has helped to overshadow, in a bad way, the reputation of the party,” added Phillips.
According to Phillips, under his leadership, allegations of corruption will be probed and there will be remedies and consequences.
“Any party which has membership of hundreds of thousands, you will have people of all kinds of dispositions.
“The challenge to leadership, which is often a very lonely challenge, is not to say you can guarantee that every single person will conduct themselves in the most upright fashion. But, that wherever and whenever breaches of codes of conduct come to light, remedies will be pursued and consequences will apply,” declared Phillips.
“We still have a great degree of follower-ship, support and trust, but it was a trust that was unquestioned, and we need to rebuild such a reputation that trust is as unquestioned tomorrow as it was in times past,” added Phillips.
Phillips continued by stating that the PNP was formed out of “the idea of using the best in our communities and combining their energies to build those communities, and through the building of those communities, build the nation”. This, he said, should have happened “out of a sense of civic organisation rather than out of the sense that they would be paid.
“But an idea has developed and taken hold of the entire political process in many places, where there is need to be rewarded by pay for doing political work, as distinct from recognizing that there are expenses and you (the party) have to reimburse, especially in the face of economic difficulty,”
