Tweet
Torn loyalties - One Tivoli resident tells of her broken trust
Published: Sunday | June 6, 2010
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
TIVOLI GARDENS resident, Suzie, is the victim of an inner turmoil akin to the agony experienced by Scarlett Ohara from America's Deep South in the arresting novel Gone With The Wind.
Suzie is torn by loyalty to her influential area leader, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke; her member of parliament (MP), Bruce Golding, and the only community she can call home, just as Scarlett was torn by her love for her husband, Rhett Butler, and her beloved Tara - her one true haven.
Suzie never learnt how to trust outsiders, including the police. This will not come overnight, even with the many assurances and reassurances.
Her wretched mind continues to work overtime as she struggles for a redemption that will not come.
Suzie continues to be amazed that her real line of defence - not the marauding gunmen who barricaded the only sanctuary she knew - but Golding and Dudus - could not work their magic and wield their spell to keep her community intact.
The fictional character of Scarlett Ohara was born and bred in Georgia in the Deep South, just as Suzie was born and bred in Tivoli Gardens in western Kingston.
And, just as Scarlett was indelibly scarred by the American Civil War, Suzie's inner being was ripped apart by the tumultuous events that unfolded in western Kingston two weeks ago.
The Tivoli Gardens she knew is gone with the wind. The condition in which Tivoli Gardens has now found itself reflects Suzie's state of mind.
The dust has settled, the smoke has cleared, the tumult has hopefully ended and the mayhem receding, but an unbearably, agonising feeling lingers not too far from the surface.
Suzie does not know anywhere but Tivoli Gardens to call home. She has lived there all her life, so she is unable to imagine her community being transformed into anything else and she makes no bones about it - Suzie balks at the prospects. Around her are people she has known longer than she has known herself - some are no more.
But while she readily expresses her undying support for, and loyalty to, the Jamaica Labour Party, Suzie, in some ways, does not speak like the typical diehard, while in other ways she does.
"I could not get up and vote for the PNP," she says, as if the thought in itself was treasonous.
Recounts the pain
After vigorous prodding, Suzie speaks haltingly, at first, then flowed smoothly, as trust was gained. She recounts the pain that wracked her soul; the uncertainty she harbours and the sense of loss that continues to gnaw within - what had once been had dis-appeared before her eyes.
It is clear that Suzie has high regard for both Coke and Golding. She says some of her personal belongings were destroyed during the operation but that seemed to be the least of her concern.
Having been socialised in western Kingston, Suzie knows no fear of Dudus - for her Tivoli Gardens is operated on strict rules which are better enforced than those in the 'outside world'.
She allows superlatives to escape her lips as she describes Dudus and Golding - great leaders, willing to lend a helping hand when requests are made of them. But in the next breath, she is unable to grasp how her two heroes could have "abandoned their people" and leave her beloved community to suffer the pangs of hell.
"The boss (Dudus) and Mr Golding split justice, if you need help and ask (for it) you will get it from both of them," she says. "Him (Dudus) give people a start, if him know say yu serious."
Suzie reveals that in better days she had ready access to both men - both had assisted her in the past. She speaks feelingly of Dudus' ability to ensure the safety and protection of the people of Tivoli Gardens. Suzie strenuously sought to assure The Sunday Gleaner that residents were guaranteed a fair trial whenever the occasion warrants. She says Dudus was merciful, charitable and under-standing but stern on repeat offenders within the community.
Suzie asserts that if a car was stolen, within 15 minutes it would be returned with strong conse-quences for the perpetrator.
"No one could rape a woman and get away with it. What will happen now?" she laments, betraying a lack of trust for the conventional authority of the State.
Fears crime will spike downtown
She predicts that with Dudus out of the way petty robbery and some serious crimes that have been absent from the area for years will once again plague the downtown commercial district.
Suzie would not comment on allegations that Dudus extorted money from the business community to guarantee their protection.
But clearly disconcerted by what she foresees as a void that will be difficult to fill, Suzie predicts with ominous fervour, "a nuff robbery a go gwaan".
In the next minute, she wonders why Dudus refused to surrender to the authorities and save 73 lives in the process.
"The boss had nine months to deal with the extradition thing - nine months, so many people should not have died ...," the words trailed off.
She wondered whether Dudus could not have worked something out in the week after the warrant was signed for his arrest - but still she was not critical.
She would speak no ill of Dudus, just sorrowfully raising questions - trying to work out all sides of the equation, attempting to reconcile the hitherto unheard of thought that her beloved leader may have fouled up.
Similarly, in one instant Suzie expresses an appreciation that Golding's role as prime minister supersedes that of member of parliament, in a national sense.
But in the next, she questions why Golding failed to pull out the armed troops after 44 people had died. Suzie says she has already fired some of these questions in the direction of her member of parliament.
She is of the view that Golding was pressured to act, but wondered if he could not have moved earlier to ease the calamity that befell her people and the only place she knew as home.
She seems more dispassionate and detached as she compares former Member of Parliament Edward Seaga to Golding.
"He (Seaga) made us feel untouchable," Suzie declares. "He made us feel as if nothing or no one could touch us, but Mr Golding was a caring man," she says, in a clear attempt to compensate for the current member of parliament's perceived inadequacy as a saviour.
Suzie admitted that tempers are cooling and the relationship between members of the security forces have improved - although both sides are still wary of each other.
She says she was roughed up by tough-talking soldiers on the day they entered Tivoli Gardens, but still she harbours a preference for them over the police.
"The soldiers are more profes-sional, but me have a headache every time me see dem pass," she comments. JDF personnel were just about everywhere - traversing the streets of Tivoli Gardens with increasing frequency.
Suzie, the mother, harbours another real concern - for that of the children who experienced what to her felt like the holocaust swallowing up Tivoli Gardens. She cautiously accepts that armed men attacked the security forces in the lead-up to the operation, but claimed that many who died were not the bad men who held the area hostage for two days.
Suzie says the booming sounds of heavy weaponry that came from both sides - the mercenaries and the armed forces - continue to haunt the minds of all, but more so the children.
She reveals that the young ones continue to scamper for cover at the sound of a falling object or when a door slams.
"They are on edge, they jump at every sound," she declares.
Not her real name
Comment