New Year Message from Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle

While, for a few persons, 2024 was a very good year, for far too many of us, it was a year in which we were touched by losses, challenges, and disappointments of some kind.
It was especially so for the UPP, as we suffered attacks and setbacks from without and within.

But we believe the biblical saying: that what was intended for evil will ultimately turn out to be good – for the Party and for the Nation, as a whole.

Our setbacks have shown that we are a time-tested, resilient institution. That we are a “no retreat, no surrender” people. And that wherever one falls, two will show up to fill that space.
For demonstrating that the United Progressive Party is here to stay, I want to thank our faithful, loyal, and committed Members, supporters and friends … those of you who believe in unity and in progress, and who are determined to carry this great institution forward, come what may.

Thank you. You are the wind beneath the UPP’s wings.

I also wish to pay tribute to our supporters who departed this life in 2024, and to acknowledge their service to the Party and to the Nation. They served faithfully and well; and I pray that we who follow the path they forged might prove as faithful as they were to the cause.

Fellow Citizens and Residents: Usually, I see my New Year’s Address as an opportunity to recall the previous year’s promises and to assess how well the Government kept them – if it did so, at all. However, this year needs no review, no reminder, to persuade us that we were worse off on December 31st than we began on January 1st, 2024.

Just ask the households that still struggle to put food on the table, given the steady increase in supermarket prices.

Ask those who, even over the Christmas Season, were “cooping” water from APUA.
Speak to the senior citizens who are still waiting for the long-promised increase in their pensions. And to the former LIAT workers still waiting for their severance.

Listen to the essential-service providers, like the nurses, the police officers, the sanitation workers who are overworked and under-resourced.

Check with the small businesses and the contractors who visit the Treasury every Friday and leave empty-handed, and the farmers who are still looking for meaningful concessions so they can improve productivity.

Observe the young people who left school two-three years ago and are still searching for a job, any job – and who do not even have adequate sporting facilities to engage them.
Sympathize with the sick and the disabled, who cannot access the medical care they desperately require.

And empathize with the people of Barbuda, who stand to be dispossessed of their patrimony and deeply held community traditions.

These are the bitter realities.

Meanwhile, my colleagues and I are challenged every day to meet the needs that the Gaston Browne Administration ignores, while the “sweets” are shared within the Cabinet circle.

We cannot only look back, however. As we prepare to go to the polls in 13 days, we must consider the future; and the St. Peter By-Election is offering Antigua and Barbuda a chance to change direction early in the New Year.

We heard the skeptics’ advice to “sit this one out;” but we soundly rejected that notion. The United Progressive Party believes that the people of every single constituency are worth fighting for – especially when they have been taken for granted for the last 70 years.

Therefore, we encourage all the communities across St. Peter to lend support and to vote for a change in the fortunes of this neglected constituency.

Like St. Peter, the Nation of Antigua and Barbuda has been stagnating for too long. Even as the Prime Minister boasts of record increases in the collection of taxes and Customs duties, our standard of living has been falling lower and lower every year.

The prosperity he boasts about has not trickled down into workers’ pockets. It is not seen on our roads. Nor at the hospital. Nor on the school plants. Nor in the government offices.
While we, the living, suffer, even the dead can find no relief. Their bodies are condemned to stony ground while the cemetery – now eight years overdue – waits to be completed.

While our Caribbean neighbours are accomplishing significant economic growth, all we get from the Prime Minister is “fat chat” about GDP-and-debt ratios. No side-work. And on top of that, his Administration refuses to stand up and give an account for our taxes in Parliament.

The sins and omissions of the last 10 years must not be allowed to continue. The political putty-and-paint job the Government puts on just before every election needs to be stopped.
On this first day of January, we must resolve that this year will not be like the last: That 2025 will be the year we demand honesty, accountability, transparency, proper governance, fairness, safety, and services from the Gaston Browne Administration.

And if it refuses to deliver, then this must be the year we resolve to remove the Administration. …

Fellow Citizens and Residents, back in October I announced that I would name the first 10 Candidates and Caretakers who are expected to represent the Party in the next General Election. However, owing to certain circumstances, this had to be delayed.
Please note that I will be taking the opportunity to do so, in Parham, on Thursday night, January 2nd, during the United Progressive Party’s first public rally of this By-Election campaign.

Together with Brother George Wehner, the Team, and the Party, and the constituency of St. Peter will begin to rise, and I invite and encourage you all to attend this event and to rise with us.

Let us make 2025 the year of positive and progressive change. Let us commit to fostering and promoting unity in the interest of the country we love and the people we have promised to serve.

Once again, on behalf of my family and the United Progressive Party, I wish all citizens, residents, and visitors a Happy New Year; and may God redeem and bless the Nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

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