Orville Taytlor, Contributor

A week ago, reality hit our veteran politician. Well, I am not sure if reality is the young man's name, but bet you he has forced them to have a paradigm shift on security and think outside of the box.

You might not think that it is funny and it is really not, despite the fact that a senior People's National Party (PNP) member struggled to avoid laughing in Parliament last week. The round-face man could not keep a straight face but despite his name, he is actually a 'senior' politician.

Cut the nonsense! Many of us laughed when we heard, because it is our nature to do so when an incident that could be deadly turns out harmless. It is for this reason that we wait until our friend who slips from the ackee tree or 'puppalick' off the bicycle gets up. If he does and is OK, we make fun of him and say, "Boof, like breadfruit!"

However, if he is hurt, we hurry like "we hear news", and give him maximum attention.

Nonetheless, it is serious and we just need to be truthful. Somebody, whether dressed in orange or otherwise, slipped on to the stage and delivered a blow to Mr. K.D. Knight.

The man was lucky

The initial comments by Knight were that the man was lucky, and indeed he was. To jump on to a stage and even verbally attack a 'top man' in front of a partisan crowd is an act of sheer madness.

In the end, not only was his mind unsound, but also his body came to match it, as he was engulfed in a sea of orange supporters. Even if he were not insane before the act of indiscretion, I am sure that "di lick dem mad him". Reports are that he was pushed to face his fate before being rescued by the security detail.

Nevertheless, the attacker is only one man and is, for all practical purposes, one of the 'insignificant' people, whose death would have only been a statistic. Had he been a martial artist, or had in his possession one of the many guns distributed by politicians since the 1970s, then there would be no PNP rising sun, but the end of the Knight.

Call a spade a shovel: the bodyguards and entire security crew were lax. If it were a stage show, I bet you that no member of the audience could gain full access to the artiste even if he used a box. That is what is was and there is no need for any spin doctor to make any silly public relations speech. If K.D. was D-E-A-D, then no amount of excuse making or general secretary double talk would bring him back.

One should recall that Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was murdered by Jack Ruby (No! Not the legendary reggae producer) inside a police station. Ruby was seen as a 'safe' individual because of his close association with the police.

Few people know that Martin Luther King had been attacked by a white man at a friendly gathering and stabbed in the chest by an insane black woman at another in 1963, before his eventual murder in 1968, also by a lunatic. Perhaps one should remember that King's mother Alberta was killed by a psychotic black man while 'safely' praying in church in the last week of June 1974.

Nonetheless, we are simply too violent a society and therefore our leaders need to toe a careful line by setting good examples and showing zero tolerance to unlawful violence. This should also be matched by an avoidance of boorish behaviour, public displays of disrespect and inflammatory comments. It is an old political culture. Both political patriarchs, Norman Manley and Bustamante had either come to blows with, or had close violent encounters with their colleagues and opponents. In the same last week of June, but in 1952, Busta had to be restrained as he pursued Opposition member Toyloy out of the House of Representatives to engage him physically after a verbal tiff.

These are serious times because the garrisons, created over the past 40 years, have more guns and directionless youth than jobs.

The signs for a peaceful election are not good and politicians must step up and do more than smiling advertisements, where they strain facial muscles in showing a mockery of cordiality. After all, who will believe that the parties officially reject violence when there are accusations that people deface their own billboards, burn down their own constituency offices and kill their own supporters in order to make the other side look bad?

Positions must be unambiguous

Moreover, the parties' positions must be unambiguous. All acts of criminality must be handled by the police, even if committed by prospective candidates themselves. Above all, this is going to be a test of the true Christian mettle of the leadership of the PNP and JLP. Bruce is a declared Christian and Portia is anointed. Yet, neither of them has ever taken responsibility for the present political culture, despite having been active for more than 30 years.

In this period, it is not about getting the Church behind the politicians as the Prime Minister suggested last year. Rather, they both should get behind the Church's teachings. "An eye for an eye leaves us all blind." There must be no retaliatory violence, even where one is clearly wronged.

When the black Pope Militiades began his reign this week in 311 AD his message was peace. He brought Christianity to the Romans and converted the warrior Emperor Constantine.

Wake up, or nothing will be left of Jamaica after the political thugs are through with us.

Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the UWI, Mona.