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JLP caretaker gets rousing welcome at PNP meeting
BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Pandemonium broke out at the North West Manchester constituency conference of the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) at the Mile Gully High School on Saturday night when the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker for the constituency, Timothy Scarlett, walked into the meeting.
Sipping a cold Red Stripe beer, Scarlett, a leading Mandeville businessman and the JLP parish councillor for the Mile Gully Division, was surrounded and embraced for several minutes by a throng of orange-clad people as he walked through the school yard and entered the packed hall.
Jamaica Labour Party caretaker for North West Manchester, Timothy Scarlett (right), is welcomed on stage at the constituency conference of the People's National Party (PNP) at the Mile Gully High School on Saturday by Michael Phillips. In background is Lisa Hanna, member of Parliament (PNP) for St Ann South Eastern.
"This is history in North West Manchester... is the first time I ever seen this," shouted Irwin Facey, a parish council colleague of Scarlett, who was chairing the constituency meeting.
To the amused bewilderment of PNP bigwigs, including former vice-president Peter Phillips and his son Michael Phillips, who is to contest NW Manchester for the PNP in the next election replacing the retiring Dean Peart, Scarlett took the microphone from Facey and delivered a short address.
"Mr Phillips, I welcome you to North West Manchester...," said Scarlett whose words were at times drowned out by the crowd's roar. One man insisted on placing an orange cap on Scarlett's head.
"What we want in North West Manchester is progress and I am determined (to achieve this) whether we win, we lose or we draw... I am here to help to make the community better... all my ambition is to bring North West Manchester to better, that's all I want," he said.
"I just want to see development in North West Manchester... and if we can work together to make North West Manchester better that's all we want...," he added.
Shortly after, Scarlett was shepherded from the meeting by Comrades but remained for some time on the outside in conversation with several people under the glare of television cameras.
Confused PNP supporters clearly thought initially that Scarlett's arrival meant he was switching allegiance. Once it became clear that was not his intention, a few Comrades were less welcoming.
"If yuh nah seh PNP, yuh time expire," one comrade shouted at Scarlett.
Responding to the unexpected visit during his address, Michael Phillips wondered tongue in cheek whether Scarlett's gesture was "a change of how we practise politics or is part of transition". He was happy, he said, that his supporters had welcomed Scarlett "as comrades should do for anyone".
"Be it that he wants to cross the floor or be it that he wants to remain as the Jamaica Labour Party candidate we still welcome him (but) we just making him know that ... the PNP will still hold on to North West Manchester," said Phillips.
Peter Phillips, who has twice challenged in vain for leadership of the PNP, suggested that Scarlett's gesture as well as the "political maturity" of the people who welcomed him deserved commendation.
"I think it is important that we demonstrate that whatever the political persuasion, Jamaicans can live together in peace and harmony. That despite our political differences, we don't have to be hostile to the point of exclusion and violence because ultimately it is the interest of the Jamaican people that must be paramount," he said.
After decades in representational politics, Phillips said he had never witnessed such a move as that by Scarlett.
"I remember as a youngster when people from both sides used to visit each others' meetings, but that is a slightly different thing from coming to a political meeting and speaking on a platform," he said
It was perhaps reflective of the deliberate effort over recent years to lessen political tensions following the extreme political tribalism of the 1970s and '80s, said Phillips.
"It's a very desirable thing that the tension should be reduced," he said.
Would he visit a JLP political meeting in similar fashion? "I have never thought of it," said Phillips. "When I was younger I attended JLP street meetings. But I have never gone and spoken on a JLP platform and I don't have any such plans."
Wainsworth Skeffery, chairman of the PNP Region Five, also suggested that Scarlett's visit reflected growing political maturity. "Mr Scarlett believed he could be welcomed as an opposing politician in a PNP family, and nothing bad would happen and he proved that point. And I think this is a testimony to the maturing of the political culture in Jamaica," said Skeffery.
Asked whether he would consider visiting a similar JLP forum, Skeffery thought long before saying with a chuckle, "Let's put it this way, Mr Scarlett showed a lot of courage..."
The parish councillor for the New Green Division, McArthur 'Jimmy' Collins, claimed Scarlett's gesture reflected the good feeling that existed between the two political parties in the Manchester Parish Council.
"We understand at the Council that the bottom line is the people," said Collins.
BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Pandemonium broke out at the North West Manchester constituency conference of the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) at the Mile Gully High School on Saturday night when the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker for the constituency, Timothy Scarlett, walked into the meeting.
Sipping a cold Red Stripe beer, Scarlett, a leading Mandeville businessman and the JLP parish councillor for the Mile Gully Division, was surrounded and embraced for several minutes by a throng of orange-clad people as he walked through the school yard and entered the packed hall.
Jamaica Labour Party caretaker for North West Manchester, Timothy Scarlett (right), is welcomed on stage at the constituency conference of the People's National Party (PNP) at the Mile Gully High School on Saturday by Michael Phillips. In background is Lisa Hanna, member of Parliament (PNP) for St Ann South Eastern.
"This is history in North West Manchester... is the first time I ever seen this," shouted Irwin Facey, a parish council colleague of Scarlett, who was chairing the constituency meeting.
To the amused bewilderment of PNP bigwigs, including former vice-president Peter Phillips and his son Michael Phillips, who is to contest NW Manchester for the PNP in the next election replacing the retiring Dean Peart, Scarlett took the microphone from Facey and delivered a short address.
"Mr Phillips, I welcome you to North West Manchester...," said Scarlett whose words were at times drowned out by the crowd's roar. One man insisted on placing an orange cap on Scarlett's head.
"What we want in North West Manchester is progress and I am determined (to achieve this) whether we win, we lose or we draw... I am here to help to make the community better... all my ambition is to bring North West Manchester to better, that's all I want," he said.
"I just want to see development in North West Manchester... and if we can work together to make North West Manchester better that's all we want...," he added.
Shortly after, Scarlett was shepherded from the meeting by Comrades but remained for some time on the outside in conversation with several people under the glare of television cameras.
Confused PNP supporters clearly thought initially that Scarlett's arrival meant he was switching allegiance. Once it became clear that was not his intention, a few Comrades were less welcoming.
"If yuh nah seh PNP, yuh time expire," one comrade shouted at Scarlett.
Responding to the unexpected visit during his address, Michael Phillips wondered tongue in cheek whether Scarlett's gesture was "a change of how we practise politics or is part of transition". He was happy, he said, that his supporters had welcomed Scarlett "as comrades should do for anyone".
"Be it that he wants to cross the floor or be it that he wants to remain as the Jamaica Labour Party candidate we still welcome him (but) we just making him know that ... the PNP will still hold on to North West Manchester," said Phillips.
Peter Phillips, who has twice challenged in vain for leadership of the PNP, suggested that Scarlett's gesture as well as the "political maturity" of the people who welcomed him deserved commendation.
"I think it is important that we demonstrate that whatever the political persuasion, Jamaicans can live together in peace and harmony. That despite our political differences, we don't have to be hostile to the point of exclusion and violence because ultimately it is the interest of the Jamaican people that must be paramount," he said.
After decades in representational politics, Phillips said he had never witnessed such a move as that by Scarlett.
"I remember as a youngster when people from both sides used to visit each others' meetings, but that is a slightly different thing from coming to a political meeting and speaking on a platform," he said
It was perhaps reflective of the deliberate effort over recent years to lessen political tensions following the extreme political tribalism of the 1970s and '80s, said Phillips.
"It's a very desirable thing that the tension should be reduced," he said.
Would he visit a JLP political meeting in similar fashion? "I have never thought of it," said Phillips. "When I was younger I attended JLP street meetings. But I have never gone and spoken on a JLP platform and I don't have any such plans."
Wainsworth Skeffery, chairman of the PNP Region Five, also suggested that Scarlett's visit reflected growing political maturity. "Mr Scarlett believed he could be welcomed as an opposing politician in a PNP family, and nothing bad would happen and he proved that point. And I think this is a testimony to the maturing of the political culture in Jamaica," said Skeffery.
Asked whether he would consider visiting a similar JLP forum, Skeffery thought long before saying with a chuckle, "Let's put it this way, Mr Scarlett showed a lot of courage..."
The parish councillor for the New Green Division, McArthur 'Jimmy' Collins, claimed Scarlett's gesture reflected the good feeling that existed between the two political parties in the Manchester Parish Council.
"We understand at the Council that the bottom line is the people," said Collins.
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