KINGSTON, Jamaica — Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley has criticised People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding’s support for democratic socialism, warning that Jamaica cannot afford a return to what he described as the economic hardships of the 1970s.

Fitz-Henley, who chairs the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Communication Taskforce, was responding to comments made by Golding at a PNP meeting in the Greendale Division of St Catherine.

Golding was quoted in the media as saying that the PNP under his leadership has embraced democratic socialism, the political philosophy championed by former Prime Minister Michael Manley’s administration in the 1970s. Golding argued that the ideology has seen renewed global interest, including in the United States.