Hartley Neita, ContributorDuring the years following the granting of Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944 which enabled every Jamaican over 21 to vote for the first time, and in the first four years after Independence in 1962, Duke Street in Kingston was packed with supporters of both political parties at the annual official opening of Parliament.
Jamaica Labour Party supporters gathered below North Street and People's National Party supporters blocked the street in front of the then Government Printing Office. For over two hours, the crowds sang "We will follow Bustamante till we die" and "Go before us, Manley" and other party songs and danced with joy as their political representatives marched to Headquarters House and later Gordon House. In the beginning, the Governors and later Governor-General were cheered by both groups of supporters as they and their wives drove in majestic splendour in their open-top Austin Princess motor cars, preceded by colourfully dressed policemen trotting their horses to the ceremony.
From those early years it was clear that our Parliament buildings were inappropriately sited and woefully small. For except for news reporters and photographers, most members of the public never saw this ceremony until television was introduced. In addition, the road was blocked to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, creating traffic congestion for some three hours on this annual ceremonial day.
To get inside Parliament, you had to have an invitation, so the only persons who were so honoured were custodes, the judiciary, mayors, diplomats, and the wives (and few husbands) of the Members of Parliament.
It was then a confidential and secret ceremony for the politically, socially and officially privileged of just about 100 persons who were not Members of the House. It still is in terms of public participation and public presence. Despite the televised ceremony which is seen by less than 10 per cent of the population when it takes place! Indeed there could be almost as many foreign diplomats at this ceremony as there are Jamaicans.
In the days before television, too, the vast majority of Jamaicans only saw black and white photographs of their representatives at this ceremony the following day in the newspapers. There were Bustamante, Donald Sangster, Edwin Allen and Neville Ashenheim in their top hats, silk shirts and ties, morning suits and waistcoats on the JLP's side, and Norman Manley, Florizel Glasspole, Wills Isaacs and other members of the PNP team in their light grey lounge suits with red ties. Then there were and are the judges in their robes, walking in stately majesty to the building and the Regimental Guard of Honour with their rifles and bayonets responding with precision to the commands of "Present Arms".
Times have not changed. The opportunity of being part of the pomp of this ceremony is still limited to just a few. A new Parliament building is seen in terms of the cost in dollars and cents. The day will come, however, when the country will not be able to afford it because of the political divide which is the humbug for anything which seeks to promote a national spirit and national unity.
Secret
There was a time, for example, when thousands of Jamaicans went to Up Park Camp to see the annual commemoration of the birthday of the King and now the Queen. This is no longer done. It was replaced by a private ceremony at King's House and later Jamaica House when the birthdays of the Governor-Generals and Prime Ministers were celebrated with the appropriate thunder of cannons. Done, too, in secret. The public was never invited. We threw out the baby with the pickney bath water.
We cannot continue to have a Parliament which when it meets angers the public because roads all around are blocked and traffic has to be diverted and slows to a snail's crawl. We cannot continue to have a Parliament which has no nearby space for public parking, except on lanes and roads somewhere in the vicinity and for which you have to search. We cannot continue to have a Parliament which causes Duke street to be blocked on the days it meets and motorists are sent on a gas guzzling detour through the city.
And we cannot continue to have a Parliament which appears to have only one winding exit for the public in case of an emergency.
So there may be no money in the budget to build one. So why not commit ourselves to one by breaking ground for it on Labour Day later this month. Symbolically. And over the next 10 years, let's build one.
Brick by brick!
