NaRRA bill clears Senate after long sitting; Morgan slams PNP stance on recovery authority

KINGSTON, Jamaica — On Friday, Government Senator Marlon Morgan said the People’s National Party (PNP) was treating the creation of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) like a “zero-sum game” and “a scorched earth strategy”. He spoke as senators considered and approved legislation to create the body that will steer reconstruction across much of the island after Hurricane Melissa struck last October.

“It is increasingly apparent that theirs is the view that for the Opposition PNP’s political fortunes to improve, positive, game-changing and people-uplifting things must not happen in Jamaica.

“Isn’t it obvious that the platform on which the Opposition PNP relies is one of political opportunism and vulgar exploitation of the people’s displacement, anxiety, impatience and socio-economic hardship, caused and exacerbated by the passage of Hurricane Melissa?” Morgan said in the chamber.

He also asked: “Isn’t it obvious that the Mark Golding-led PNP would prefer to weaponise and politically-exploit the people’s hardship, rather than cooperate and support the Government on the establishment of NaRRA?”

Morgan said that on the same date the PNP staged a media briefing “to grandstand, exploit the post-hurricane relief and recovery bureaucracy – peddling falsehoods in relation to the ROOFs Programme (including the embarrassing untruth that the Labour and Social Security Minister was away in Finland), Opposition Leader Mark Golding stood in the Parliament and called for a Joint Select Committee on this NaRRA Bill”.

He asked how the two moves could square: “So they lament the pace of post-hurricane relief and recovery in the morning, and by mid-afternoon they are calling for something that would only further delay the pace of the very relief and recovery they were bemoaning. What can go so Mr President?,” he said.

Morgan told senators that, at 11:10 am on 22 April 2026, the social media feed of Opposition Leader Mark Golding carried this message: “NaRRA is really a revamped attempt to inject higher levels of growth into the economy. Jamaica has faced very low levels of real economic growth for a decade. Promises like 5 in 4 were spectacular failures. We have had negative growth from economic shocks, but no structural shift to deliver high levels of growth.”

Said Morgan: “Apart from the blatant and disgraceful ill-will and mean-spiritedness laden in that post, aren’t those words from Opposition Leader Mark Golding quite instructive Mr President?

“Do they not put the Opposition PNP’s outlook on Jamaica and politically-motivated objection to NaRRA into better perspective?”

Morgan, known for sharp exchanges in the Senate, added: “What is particularly unfortunate, shameful and scandalous, is that, as a result of their partisan politics, the PNP MPs in the areas that were most devastated by the passage of Hurricane Melissa have abdicated by not supporting this NaRRA Bill.

“It is the clearest and most repugnant and egregious indication yet, that they put their partisan considerations over the interest of the very people they were sent to Parliament to represent – the very people they profess to care about”.

Before the measure was adopted following debate that ran close to ten hours, Morgan told the chamber: “This NaRRA Bill will be passed. The entity will be established and commence operations. NaRRA will be a resounding success. Jamaica will be rebuilt and our economy will grow. The people of Jamaica will be better off as they access jobs, enjoy a bounce in their livelihood, benefit from the convenience of more resilient and fit-for-purpose infrastructure and bask in the improvement of their quality of life; courtesy of their elected Government, whether the Opposition PNP likes it or not.