Some years back, a gut-wrenching video went viral…A man viciously beating his woman over the head with a stool.

Such force could have caused irreparable damage.

It was a reminder of the indignities many women have to suffer at the hands of men who claim to love and cherish them.

Domestic violence plagues Jamaica and many women have to endure vicious beatings.

Nevertheless, in Jamaican society, it is not condemned. There are no consequences. Some say it is a ‘cultural thing’, it’s just how it goes.

If that man in the video is George Wright then he should never be allowed to return as a representative of the governing party.  What Andrew Holness and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have done is condone this behaviour and place political expediency ahead of decency and morality.

Watching Marlene Malabo Forte welcome Wright to Gordon House was disappointing. The women of the JLP should have demanded a meeting with the JLP high command and in no uncertain terms insist he cannot be allowed to return.

What example is George Wright setting to the youth of the country? Isn’t he the poster boy for domestic abuse?

With many men making it known that many women do indeed like a good beating, doesn’t it perpetuate that thinking? 

It is even claimed that the female partners of many parliamentarians are subjected to beatings.

Where is the solidarity with battered women? Where is the support when they need it?

If that was not George Wright in that video, then accusatory fingers cannot be pointed at him and his reinstatement should not invite opprobrium. 

As speaker of the House, Juliet Holness should come out and say the decision to bring him back is wrong and he cannot expect support and sympathy from the women of parliament.

All Jamaican women should condemn this decision and call it out for what it is.

It is yet another example of Jamaica sinking into an immoral and abusive quagmire.

Has George Wright atoned for battering his partner? Has he shown contrition?

Information Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon is a bright capable woman, but she put politics ahead of decency and doing the right thing when she said the George Wright issue was being politicised and that she believes in redemption and second chances.

Parliamentarians and those who serve the public must be held to higher standards. They must be exemplary citizens. They can’t be seen to be brutalising women on camera, acting like savages and abusing women so heinously. 

You cannot come back from that. It sends the wrong message to Jamaicans particularly when many politicians are calling for conflict resolution to address the country’s crime problem.

There are men who say you can’t take women seriously because they are hypergamous, seeking men for money, status and power. This plays into that trope.

What example does George Wright set to the sons and young men of Jamaica? That you can viciously beat women and you will get a second chance, you can seek and receive redemption?

No! 

All it does is perpetuate the cycle of female abuse and degradation—endorsed by Parliament.

Ann-Marie Vaz, Fayval Williams, Rhoda Crawford, Lisa Hanna, Juliet Holness, Babsy Grange et al should call this out but have all chosen to let it slide.

Does the plight of women getting beaten in domestic altercations matter to them?

President of the PNP’s Women’s Movement, Patricia Duncan Sutherland summed up this sorry situation and many agree with her assessment.

She said: “It is outrageous that we should chose to normalise violence against women in Jamaica in whatever shape or form by accepting that this should be swept under the carpet. We are not saying there is no possibility for redemption but redemption must come with first acknowledging what is wrong and doing something specific and clear to fix it.

“In April 2021, when this video came out and the country was outraged, women were outraged, men were outraged. George Wright has not denied he was the man in the video.”

That video put fear into many Jamaican women. They know the horrors of domestic abuse. One in every three Jamaican women has suffered physical abuse at the hands of men. It’s a sad statistic, so what is the government doing about it? 

What signal is this decision sending at a time when violence against women is on the rise in Jamaica?

Jamaican women have to be better protected against domestic violence.