Bruce Golding
His crusade for political reform
In the early 1990s, after considerable reflection and analysis, Golding felt the need for reform of Jamaica's political system. He was concerned that the history of political tribalism had polarized the society and had prevented the people from uniting behind common goals. He embarked on a crusade both within the JLP and publicly for fundamental constitutional changes and major reform of our political culture and practices. Public response was overwhelmingly positive but much less so within the JLP some of whose senior members were reluctant to embrace his ideas for change.
He then announced his intention to form a new political party that would be "new and different, inclusive not exclusionary", committed to fundamental reform of our constitutional arrangements and political system. This gave birth to the National Democratic Movement and Golding was elected its first President.
Although there was strong support for the ideas espoused by the NDM it lacked the organizational strength to translate this into electoral support. In 2001 the NDM again fared badly in a by-election in North East St. Ann. Shortly after, Golding announced his resignation as president of the NDM.
Golding withdrew from political activity and in April 2002 started hosting a daily talk show “Disclosure” on Hot-102, replacing Wilmot Perkins’ “Perkins on Line”. The show was a significant success and by July of that year the All-Media Survey showed that it was second in ratings only to RJR’s Hotline.
Even during his tenure with the NDM, Golding always figured prominently in opinion polls as a possible leader of the JLP and this always gave rise to speculation of his return to that party. This speculation intensified after he was the keynote speaker at a G2K public forum in May 2002 and as guest speaker at fundraising events for JLP MPs Andrew Holness and Pearnel Charles.
