Professionals leaving Jamaica are not cowards — Bunting Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

Opposition Senator Peter Bunting is insisting that professionals, including teachers, should not be characterised as being “cowards” for migrating in search of better lives, as they are not only seeking better opportunities for themselves, but also their loved ones.

Bunting has also suggested that based on the number of professionals leaving the country, it is an indication that Jamaicans are not pleased with the Government’s ability to address the social and economic issues affecting the country.

“These teachers are abandoning schools in droves not because they wouldn’t want to stay, but the conditions that they’re being asked to serve under. They cannot sacrifice their own families for that,” Bunting claimed.

He was addressing a People’s National Party (PNP) conference in North East Manchester on Thursday.

Bunting cited a report from TheGlobalEconomy.com that ranked Jamaica as second out of 177 countries on the 2022 edition of its human flight and brain drain index, and asserted that the island’s nurses, doctors, police and university graduates are also leaving the country.

“Don’t blame them (for leaving). They’re not cowards! They are looking out for their families who they have the first responsibility to,” he said.

In turning to the Island’s economy and cost of living, the Opposition Spokesman on National Security said the promises by the Government are not being met.

He pointed to the 2016 promise of five per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in four years as an example.

According to Bunting, the PNP remains undeterred in speaking on the myriad of issues affecting the Jamaican people, despite some people being critical of his and the party’s activism.

“…Those who work on six-month contracts for 20 years straight who don’t have any of the protection of the labour legislation that Michael Manley put in, they need the People’s National Party to speak on their behalf,” he suggested.

“The farmers in North East Manchester, in fact, all over Manchester, St Elizabeth, Trelawny and Clarendon, who paying $1,500 for a bag of fertiliser, need the PNP to speak on their behalf, and there is nothing that’s going to deter us from doing that,” declared Bunting.

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