Did Seaga predict the future from 1994?

[Time]

The Seaga interview

Published: Monday | December 7, 2009



Seaga
Excerpts from an interview by Anthony Abrahams with then Opposition leader Edward Seaga on KLAS's 'Breakfast Club', which was published in The Gleaner on September 29, 1994.

Newspaper headline: 'Putting my career and life on the line'.
Q. Are you saying then that there are other reasons, apart from your report, for having holding Michael 'Dudus' Coke?
A. The fact that he is a gang leader, none of what is happening in West Kingston could have happened without his authority or without his vesting and I am the one that is getting the blame from communities around and from the public outside by saying, this can't happen unless Mr. Seaga sanction it. When I am unable to stop what is happening because they tell me I don't buy them guns and I don't give them shots and therefore I can't tell what to do.
Q. Well, it is a little bit more complicated than that Mr Seaga, what people are saying now has happened is that you have lost control over these fellows and that the 13 names you have given are the names of dissidents and that really these people have only heard so far that they are no longer doing your bidding. That's what been said.
A. "Well, let us make that clear now. I have no control over these fellows, no control whatsoever. That has nothing to do with politics. I have no lack of control in terms of politics in the constituency but I have no control over these 13 men who have a pattern of brutality that I will not tolerate, will not accept and will fight against. They have blown off the leg of a young girl who at 20 years old has to walk with crutches. They have killed two sons of one lady within three days, they have killed a seven-year-old, a nine-year-old boy.
They sent 15-year-old boys with pack guns into the Rema community in order to chastise, in order to mete out what they call justice. To fire six shots into a man and kill him and that sort of thing I am not going to tolerate it. I have no control over these 13 and I don't want to bear any responsibility for them. I don't want them to have any control over the constituency.
Q. Mr Seaga, from the information you have, can you say if and when these men are rounded there would be a sustainable calm and peace?
A. Calm and peace. There would be joy, there would be celebration in West Kingston. I have already called them together, them and others and told them that this has to stop and told them if you do not stop it then I would have another way to do so, and the other way I have to do so is to go to the police on the matter.
So they are not in any doubt as to what I intend to do and how I would do it for I have already told them that. I have told them that if 10 of you die not 10 people will follow you to your grave because you are so hated within the community. If these 13 are taken out of the community, the community would react with joy and celebration.
Q. This list of 13, Mr Seaga, are there only 13 people at the bottom of all this violence ... I mean. A. Seaga: "Yes, yes. They are the ringleaders without them we would have no problem whatsoever at this time in West Kingston."

[Rudi]

Well let's see Dudus was still for sixteen years after that interview and he (Seaga)became the head of the football team. Sounds like things were worked out to me.

[Reggaedoc]

I think Seaga is running scared of history. His legacy will not be a good one. Glad it will be revealed before he passes.

[Gamma]

he did say that he met with them. if he already knew that they were involved in MURDER why at that stage was he giving them an option?!!! he should have already gone to the police!

[Islandman]

Not much of a prediction if you ask me.

He said they are hated within the community - WRONG

He said there would be celebration if they were taken from the community - WRONG

The thing that is significant about this Seaga-Dudus fallout is that it represents the moment in history when the politicians lost control of the Dons.

[Islandman]

Technicalities, technicalities.....

I think Seaga really developed a different view of law and order after operating down there for so long. In his world it is WE who do not "get it".

[Muadib]

Seaga Legacy will not soon be matched, certainly not in the area of Nation Building.

[Islandman]

True. The building of the Nation of Tivoli Gardens will be unsurpassed in Jamaican history.

We still have hope that this will be the case.

[Gamma]

The thing that is significant about this Seaga-Dudus fallout is that it represents the moment in history when the politicians lost control of the Dons.

en punto!!!!

[Rockman]

Yes, absolutely true.
In fact Seaga encouraged jungle justice(persons said to be responsible for breaking into a particular school were ordered killed, some were innocent too) and Jim was his enforcer.







Blessed

[Muadib]

Your choice of Tunnel Vision merely weakens your position.

[Rudi]

Dem see and know what he sanctioned for his own political reasons and figured out they could do the same things for their own personal gain and no have to wait pon no guy. A guy have fi come wait pon me.

[ReggaeMike]

The Seaga interview

Q. Well, it is a little bit more complicated than that Mr Seaga, what people are saying now has happened is that you have lost control over these fellows and that the 13 names you have given are the names of dissidents and that really these people have only heard so far that they are no longer doing your bidding. That's what been said.
A. "Well, let us make that clear now. I have no control over these fellows, no control whatsoever. That has nothing to do with politics. I have no lack of control in terms of politics in the constituency but I have no control over these 13 men who have a pattern of brutality that I will not tolerate, will not accept and will fight against. They have blown off the leg of a young girl who at 20 years old has to walk with crutches. They have killed two sons of one lady within three days, they have killed a seven-year-old, a nine-year-old boy.
They sent 15-year-old boys with pack guns into the Rema community in order to chastise, in order to mete out what they call justice. To fire six shots into a man and kill him and that sort of thing I am not going to tolerate it. I have no control over these 13 and I don't want to bear any responsibility for them. I don't want them to have any control over the constituency.
[

Anybody notice how in his answer one has yet to find a refutation of the claim that he has lost control over them? He never said "I never had any control over them" only that (at the time) he currently "has no control" over them.

[ReggaeMike]

The Seaga interview


Q. Mr Seaga, from the information you have, can you say if and when these men are rounded there would be a sustainable calm and peace?
A. Calm and peace. There would be joy, there would be celebration in West Kingston. I have already called them together, them and others and told them that this has to stop and told them if you do not stop it then I would have another way to do so, and the other way I have to do so is to go to the police on the matter.
So they are not in any doubt as to what I intend to do and how I would do it for I have already told them that. I have told them that if 10 of you die not 10 people will follow you to your grave because you are so hated within the community. If these 13 are taken out of the community, the community would react with joy and celebration.
Q. This list of 13, Mr Seaga, are there only 13 people at the bottom of all this violence ... I mean. A. Seaga: "Yes, yes. They are the ringleaders without them we would have no problem whatsoever at this time in West Kingston."

So wait, according to Seaga himself, these people blow off the leg of a 20 year old girl, kill two boys aged 7 and 9 and fire six shots into a man killing him stone dead and he would only call the police as a last resort after gathering them together for a kumbaya session? Seaga must have been on crack and coke from waaaayyy back.