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Brown Burke was wrong … Speaker Holness too

The unholy move by Member of Parliament for St Andrew South Western, Angela Brown Burke, to lift the most sacred symbol in Jamaica’s Parliament – the Mace – has again rammed home the point of the relevance of things that continue to be worshipped by Jamaican legislators.

The Mace adopted from the British Parliament long before all members of Jamaica’s current population were born, was ‘disturbed’ by Brown Burke during a marathon sitting of the House of Representatives last Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, to deal with the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority Bill, causing a massive furore, which led to name-calling and finger-pointing.

As the instrument that is officially recognised by the Parliament as that which, among other things, facilitates debates and allows laws to be passed, the Mace has significance which the offender knew about.

Brown Burke, though not the first in Jamaica’s history to have done something similar, broke a straightforward rule that she agreed to respect when she was first appointed to serve the people at that level.

Yes, she was protesting what she called the lack of respect and recognition that she, and some of her colleagues, said was being meted out to the Opposition that she remains a senior member of. There might be justification in that, what with the recently implemented restriction by members of the use of their microphones, and instances in which it becomes visible that Speaker Juliet Holness was not being completely fair in terms of which members are allowed to express themselves. However, considering all that, the Mace, with Holy Grail-like significance, was not a good enough reason for it to have been lifted from its resting place.

The sin that was committed in the incident that involved Brown Burke was when the Speaker uttered ‘Outside, outside’ in an obvious directive to Brown Burke that she should exit the chamber. That was out of order. You just do not speak to a member like that.

What followed was a far more sober approach, in the Speaker instructing the Marshall, Captain Wayne Blake, the poor fellow being so confused at the time, to follow the process and evict Brown Burke the orderly way, as the rules allowed him to, considering too, that he also has powers of arrest like a police constable.

The appointment of Holness as Speaker, for those who came from Mars yesterday, was not, from the beginning, a smart move by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, her husband. Never before have I seen anything like that, and even if there were, it would not have made sense. There would always be conflict about unfairness and decisions driven largely by pillow talk. Juliet Holness, from the beginning, should never have accepted the job.

Based upon how she has performed thus far, she has been found wanting in arriving at many of her decisions. It is expected that the Speaker ought to be neutral. But only a fool would accept that. People are never neutral in anything. But they can be fair, and that is what we all should expect of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate. What we face now is unfairness from the House, and the Senate, the latter headed by Thomas Tavares Finson. They see colour before everything else.

I was happy to have witnessed House speakers like Michael Peart rough up his own People’s National Party colleagues whenever they stepped out of line. He would just give it to them in a respectful way. 

Pearnel Charles (Sr) was also fair while he served the House for the final time from 2016 to 2020, even though he wore a disgusting headpiece, or wig, that looked more like a badly designed fowl nest, to reflect the style of the colonialists.

Before them, there was attorney-at-law and former president of the Cornwall Bar Association Headley Cunningham from Westmoreland, who not one PNP MP could mess with while that party was in Government between 1989 and 1993, when he sat in the Speaker’s chair.

Close to serving around three years as Speaker, I recall Cunningham even suspending Government minister KD Knight from one sitting for, according to Cunningham, appearing to defy the laws of the House. Cunningham rescinded his decision after he had returned from a recess, saying he had reconsidered that his actions may have been a bit harsh. 

Reverend Stanley Redwood was the fairest President of the Senate that I have ever seen in action. He respected all and did his job with consummate professionalism.

Nothing can beat respect and fairness.

Bust of George William Gordon to replace Mace 

As we are on the subject of the Mace at Jamaica’s Parliament, why is it that the elected members of the House of Representatives, and those appointed to the Senate, have not seen it fit to move for the abandonment of the Mace as the symbol of parliamentary authority?

Clearly, the Mace was embraced from the British parliamentary system during the colonial era, and now is being used comfortably as the object that rules under the neocolonial state in which Jamaica exists, despite efforts by political leaders Michael Manley, Bruce Golding and P J Patterson, to discard that baggage.

The Mace is just a naturally ugly piece of material that resembles something that a typical obeahman would bid for at an auction.

Ridiculous, it seems, that without the presence of the 18^th century Mace on the table during any sitting of the Jamaican Parliament, laws cannot be passed, and debates, similarly, not be held.

This fascination with symbols continues, while we still talk about being independent.

Since the Mace is as essential to parliamentarians as it seems to be, those attending sittings could at least agree to the idea of providing a replacement symbol that would reflect the feeling of the Jamaican people, and even more, to respect the contribution of the man in whose honour the physical structure of Gordon House – National Hero George William Gordon – is named.

So, the simple task would therefore be to create another symbol, the vertical part of which could be made from Mahoe or Mahogany wood, and instead of having a crown-like piece at the top, the bust of George Gordon should be sculpted and attached to it.

George Gordon, who lived just 45 years, was a politician, businessman and magistrate. He was not happy with the running of Jamaica by the colonial government. His punishment by hanging after being accused of playing a key role, along with Paul Bogle, in planning and starting the Morant Bay Rebellion of October 1865 in St Thomas, should be further repaired with another late recognition.

If those in Parliament want to wave and create a fuss about a Mace, they should have the right symbol in hand to demonstrate their commitment to the cause. 

NaRRA Bill not in Jamaica’s best interest

It is unthinkable that a Government that says it is committed to eradicating or eliminating corruption would take an approach like the one that we just saw – the newly passed National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill which was moved with haste through the House of Representatives and the Senate.

It is so incredible that so many parliamentarians are forced to vote along party lines in deciding matters that are so crucial to Jamaica’s existence and survival.

It was way past the bedtimes of a majority of legislators last Wednesday morning when the House of Representatives passed the Bill, with Government numbers carrying the majority.

Is it that they had no balls to see that the Bill would be troublesome and problematic? Only one of them, Marlene Malahoo Forte, expanded her mouth to publicly criticise the Bill in its initial form, a serious breakaway from tradition, and although she, unlike the men, was not in a position to show that she didn’t care about having balls to stand up to something that was clearly wrong, her move to go against her Administration must be commended. Highly.

Some will want to say that Malahoo Forte’s position arose from the fact that she was ignored by Prime Minister Holness when he sat to name his Cabinet last September, and, therefore, she resorted to digesting sour grapes. However, I believe that it is more than that. Maybe it was a time of redemption for her … to see the light, and highlight the things that are not right with, and for Jamaica.

The Senate, recklessly, went along party lines too. Not one Government member, it seemed, during their sitting last Friday, appeared to consider what the Bill really meant. It is time to cringe.

The Act now means that the head of NaRRA will have unlimited power and authority to use several billion dollars on Hurricane Melissa reconstruction projects and programmes, without having to report to a board or oversight authority, except for the prime minister, under whose ministry NaRRA will obviously fall.

We will likely hear soon that the Auditor General’s workload will be reduced, significantly, as there would be no need by her department to check out potential irregularities at NaRRA.

Nothing should be surprising in Jamaica anymore. 

Using cricket CEO as a scapegoat

News emerged last week that the Jamaica Cricket Association had dispensed of the services of long-time CEO, Courtney (Curtis) Francis, by way of redundancy.

I do not believe it was a clever move … more like one that was tainted with internal politics. Francis has served with distinction in that capacity for close to 14 years, with tight resources at his disposal. He is a problem solver who settles things even when they relate to policy issues, rather than his day-to-day operations. In short, the Board of the Jamaica Cricket Association picked out a scapegoat to cover for its collective mess.

The man who needs to go, after one term as the pronounced president of the association (because he was always running cricket while Bill Heaven was president) is Dr Don Bennett. His methods are outdated and lack growth. Being backed by people who can only say yes to him does not work. 

It was he who said that he wanted only one term in office as president two years ago when delegates voted for a leadership change. Now we hear that the life of the organisation in any one term will be raised to three years, instead of two. So, Dr Bennett, who has said that if he is nominated and becomes successful (as he has the voting numbers) this time, he will serve in the most senior capacity for another three years. 

Jamaica’s cricket is a laugh.