Heather RobinsonON TUESDAY of this week there was a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Senate of Jamaica at Gordon House. This historic meeting was convened for the sole purpose of paying tribute to the life and work of The Most Honourable Hugh Lawson Shearer a former Prime Minister of Jamaica. Twenty-four members spoke, with Dr Kenneth Baugh replacing Olivia Grange who was occupied elsewhere and could not attend to pay her own tribute to Mr. Shearer.
In 1993 when I was elected the Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Central, there was a small group of persons in the Spanish Town area of the constituency who went to great lengths to explain to me that they had been without People's National Party (PNP) representation for 13 years, and therefore they expected literally to play catch-up as of April 1993. Their expectations were for the most part frightening, and none of my previous 19 years of political experience had prepared me for the high levels of greed and avarice that they constantly exuded.
One woman expected and required of me that I purchase a truck for her. When I asked with what she promptly told me: "with you SESP". After hearing my response to her request, she never asked me again to buy her a truck. But then there were others from within Spanish Town who believed that whatever their mind could conceive, they should be able to achieve from any illegal means available to them.
RELINQUISHING SEAT
While parliamentarians paid tribute to Mr. Shearer on Tuesday, one among them was absent and lost. Olivia Grange, the MP for St. Catherine Central would have served herself better had she attended the sitting of Parliament and paid her expected tribute to Mr. Shearer. Perhaps at the end of the sitting she could have handed Michael Peart, the Speaker of the House a letter informing him that she was relinquishing her seat in the Parliament. This option would have been so much more honourable than her performance was on radio that same evening.
The murder of One Order gang leader Oliver 'Buba' Smith on Monday night has put the MP in a place she clearly never contemplated would ever exist. Oliver 'Buba' Smith drove a Honda motor car of which Miss Grange is the co-owner, to Whitehall Avenue. The $704,000 Honda motor car was purchased on Christmas Eve 2003 with Andrew 'Bunman' Hope, whom she knew as a 'good person'. She said on radio "she has done nothing wrong" in acting as guarantor for this "small contractor". I stopped listening when Miss Grange remarked that "The more we condemn, the more we are in danger."
Olivia Grange has placed herself between a rock and a '10 foot wall'. She has argued that persons from the inner city should understand how important it is to help people who come to MPs for help. I have been down that road, and once you start, you have to finish. If it is that constituents believe that part of the responsibility of the elected MP is to go to a bank and be a guarantor for a motor vehicle loan, then today it is a Honda, and tomorrow it is a Hummer. Was it ever for a student loan?
KNOWN CRIMINALS
Why would any MP want to place him/herself in the position for a journalist to ask you about a joint account between yourself and the leader of a gang? Why would an elected MP believe it is necessary to be constantly viewed as someone to whom known criminals or persons who are at best of nefarious character can come freely to, and be welcomed with open arms? Why would an MP want to represent a constituency where there is a parallel leadership structure that is criminal in intent and action all for the sake of one order? And why would an MP enter into a legally binding contract with a bank without first thinking of the possibility that one day, that some day, what was conceived under a cloud of darkness might well be exposed in the light of day?
Perhaps Miss Grange knows that she really is "in danger", but all MPs should conduct themselves in such a way that they are not charged for indecent exposure, and not held as hostage by those whom they represent. Is it really worth it?
Heather Robinson is a life underwriter and former People's National Party Member of Parliament.
