Lisa Hanna wants People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Paul Burke out.... Former culture minister says PNP needs to fire embattled general secretary

 Sunday, April 03, 2016

Lisa Hanna last week launched a scathing attack on People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Paul Burke, accusing him of mismanaging the party’s affairs and urged the National Executive Council (NEC), the party’s second-highest decision-making body, to sack him when it meets today.

Hanna, the Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, fired the heavy barrage of flak at Burke in an e-mail to PNP members a day after a parliamentary group meeting of the Opposition party, which is obviously still smarting from its February 25, 2016 General Election defeat to the Jamaica Labour Party.

According to Hanna, Burke had little or no visible functionality in the campaign that led the PNP to victory in the 2011 General Election.

However, in the aftermath of the 2016 defeat, she said that there is now a presumption that some people at the secretariat and in the officer corps levels seemed to have actively pursued a different path to PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller which helped to contribute significantly to the loss. “Paul Burke is now seen as the face of the party; a face and leadership style the voters of this country, and most members of the party, have rejected,” Hanna wrote in the e-mail, a copy of which was shared with the Jamaica Observer.

“For any organisation to survive and be relevant to successive markets it must change with the times and seek modern approaches to getting things done,” Hanna said.

“This does not mean changing its philosophy, but it does mean repackaging the message and, more importantly, having the right people in the right positions to deliver the message and with the talent to get the job done,” she added.

“Any objective job description of the general secretary would include creating a positive brand image of the PNP, efficient political organisation, motivation of the staff and Comrades at the secretariat, upholding the constitution and discipline within the party, and most importantly winning elections... I say without fear of contraction (sic) that he has mismanaged each and every one of these areas,” Hanna wrote.

Burke has been under fire from fellow Comrades, some of whom have sought to blame him for the election defeat, even as many in the party have admitted that a range of missteps contributed to the loss. more