McKenzie
Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
AN OLDERM generation of Kingstonians remember him as a slender youth in the late 1960s and early 1970s riding carelessly atop open-back vans through the streets of West Kingston, shouting through loud speakers and urging "Labourites" to attend political meetings.
In later years, when missiles were thrown or gunshots fired to disrupt meetings, he would grab the microphone to urge the faithful "not to run".
Then, he would lead the party supporters in the singing one of their favourite songs before the address by the main speaker: "It is a mighty long road to travel and a very long way to go, but Jesus my Blessed Saviour, will keep on the way I go..."
Desmond McKenzie has travelled a long road, most of it political.
It's in his blood politics. He grew up in a home of Labourites. And then there was Edward Seaga his mentor, his role model, a man to whom he is fiercely loyal, his "father".
It is not entirely surprising then that this man would become a career politician and make the push to be the Mayor of Kingston.
"I grew up in Western Kingston in a JLP home. My mother at that time was an active member of the Most Honourable Hugh Shearer's West Kingston organisation. And I was a part of, at that time, what they called the Junior Branch," he told The Sunday Gleaner in an interview last Friday.
EYEING THE MAYORAL POSITION
Now at 51, Desmond McKenzie, who has been a councillor at the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) for 26 years, does not hesitate to admit that he had been eyeing the top position of Mayor of Kingston for some time.
"Well, when you are involved as long as I have been in the hustings of politics, then at some point in your life, if you don't try to strive for something greater in it then it means you would be wasting your time. I believe I have worked hard enough and hard work is what gives you the kind of rewards that you get. So I would say that that I had been looking forward to and I am grateful that it has happened. I am hoping that I will make a success of it."
Sunday Gleaner (SG): Do you think you'll get used to being called "Your Worship"?
DM: I had a very uneasy experience yesterday (Thursday), when I went the office of the KSAC and I met with the Town Clerk and the senior management team of the Corporation to look at the plans for the swearing-in on Thursday, and I saw faces around that table that I knew when I went to the Council in 1977 as a youngster. And I felt uneasy because I am accustomed to them saying Desmond or Councillor McKenzie but to hear them referring to me as His Worship, I felt uneasy. But it is a responsibility that you have, as the first citizen of the city. There is a certain level of prestige that goes with that and respect for the post. I'll have to get accustomed to that.
The discussion naturally turned to Mr. Seaga.
Mr. McKenzie remembers those trips of long ago, when Mr. Seaga used to take him to buy ice cream. He remembers his first terylene and wool pants and first "real" shoes, courtesy of Mr. Seaga.
When Mr. Seaga came to West Kingston in the 1960s, it made a difference because we were all fascinated by this man and we gravitated to him so much like magnet. I saw him for the first time when I was about 10 or eleven.
SEAGA AS FATHER
From there, I used to go and look for him at West Indies Records, which is now Dynamic Sounds. And we used to look forward to Sundays to go and have ice-cream with him. This was before he became Member of Parliament (MP). He would take us uptown, anywhere ice-cream was at that time."
SG: Some persons see the relationship between you both as father and son.
He is, in fact, my father; not my biological father but he has been more than a father. You see when one speaks about Edward Seaga, one has to be very careful about the things that you say about him because if you don't know him you can't speak about him and one of the things that I have learnt from him is that he is not flustered about anything.
You can say as much as you want to say about him, but one thing, when he believes in something, when he believes in somebody, if Mr. Seaga believed in me that there is potential... not just in me, because Olivia 'Babsy' Grange is a product, the late Dennis Brown is a product, I could go on and mention numerous names that have made it on a national scale because of what he has done and still continues to do.
A lot of us in West Kingston grew up without fathers. A lot of people in the inner-cities of West Kingston only knew one father at that time Edward Seaga.
History doesn't have sufficient space to hold his record of achievements of what he has done for people. Not just in West Kingston because Negril has felt his hands, and Ocho Rios has felt his hands. If you look at the landscape of Jamaica right now, every single aspect of social and economic development in this country has the hands of Edward Seaga written somewhere in it.
He is too unique a person for anybody to be a replica of him, but making him happy is what is important to me because when he sits back he looks at persons, like myself, who have changed from very low situations and who he helped to have an opportunity to develop...because no university, no degree can match what he has created to prepare you, or me, for the job that is ahead of me.
One of his main theses in school when he was in university was to study the social life of people. He lived in Buxton, he spent many days living in Salt Lane, eating out of the same pot, sleeping on the same beds in rooms with five, six, seven people. And this is not something that he had to do and the people of West Kingston are grateful. That is why we believe that if loving Edward Seaga is wrong, then we don't want to be right.
THE FAMILY MAN
Still, there is another life for Desmond McKenzie. Outside of politics, he has a family. He is a married man with four children.
"I have been married to Marcia for 25 years, this year. How do you describe someone who as been as supportive and has been tolerant as Marcia has been for those periods of time? There are my children, Marcus who is presently abroad at school; Mark, who lives in London; there is Tiffany who lives in the United States, and Peta-Gaye and Matthew. My mother is still alive. I lost my father a couple weeks ago.
"I am from a strong family. My family unit is very strong and then there is my extended family, the people of West Kingston."
He is also a fan of cricket and loves to read.
The man soon to be sworn-in as Mayor concedes that people find him to be miserable: "I have some ways about me that I probably need to look at. None of us is perfect. But then you know, if you don't have faults as human beings something is wrong. I love music. I own a disco andI say to those persons who are reading this article who normally depend on me to play for them, my reaching the level of Mayor does not preclude my music from being played."
There is one little nagging point that he must settle.
"Basically, I am not miserable. I am okay," he insists.
'His Worship' speaks...IN A MEETING room at the offices of the Ministry of National Security in Kingston on last Friday, members of the Peace Management Initiative team were already calling him, "Your Worship".
It's something that he had wanted, worked hard for and waited to happen but just the thought of being called "Your Worship" after years of being called 'Councillor' or simply 'Desmond' feels a bit strange now.
Since the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) trouncing of the People's National Party (PNP) at the Local Government polls more than a week ago, JLP senator and Councillor of Tivoli Gardens in Western Kingston, Desmond McKenzie, has been a very busy man.
He has been up and down and moving around the town at various meetings, preparing for one of the biggest moves in his political career to be sworn in this Thursday as Mayor of Kingston.
The 51-year-old man of the moment sat down with The Sunday Gleaner on Friday and spoke about the capital city, the outgoing Mayor Marie Atkins, Opposition Leader (his "father") Edward Seaga and his coming of age in the local political arena.
Sunday Gleaner: What were your thoughts and feelings when the Jamaica Labour Party won the Local Government Elections?
Desmond McKenzie: Well, the feelings cannot be described because it is the first time in almost 22 years that the JLP has had any real success at the national level at the polls. When the results were known one got the feeling that the efforts of the last three and a half years, in terms of moulding a proper party organisation on the ground, had finally paid off. So I was more than elated, not for me but for the Jamaica Labour Party and our leader.
BRIDGING THE GAP
SG: How do you plan to bridge the gap between the JLP as the Local Government administration in the Corporate Area and the PNP's control of central Government?
McKenzie: It's not a matter of bridging the gap, it's a matter of working in a collective framework because it is only a fool who believes that Local Government should not be a part of central Government. Local Government lives off central Government. Ninety-eight per cent of the revenue that comes to the local system comes from central Government. So what is important in this new dispensation is a level of maturity both at the Local and central Government in order to achieve the end result. If the end result is not accomplished, then both central and Local Government can't survive because both are totally entwined together as one."
SG: How do you expect to carry out your work under the current political arrangement? Do you forsee any problems?
McKenzie: The JLP has a history when in Government of sticking to what is best for the country. You would remember that in 1980 when we won there were certain high level representatives of the People's National Party (PNP) who held sensitive jobs in Government and they were retained by a JLP administration. Not because of their politics but because of their ability to perform and to work and to deliver. And this new JLP Local Government administration is there to get the best out of what is in the system. We are going there to work with everybody once the person is willing to work. We are not going there to clean house. We have to create our own space, but you create your own space in areas where it is necessary.
SG: What do you think about the outgoing Mayor, Marie Atkins?
McKenzie: Let me say that for anyone in public life especially in representational politics who has served a city and a Council and a party for over 30 years in that level that Mayor Atkins has done, is very commendable. I have a great deal of respect for her. Not just as Mayor but as an individual because I remember when I went to the KSAC in 1977 as a councillor, I got very good support and advice from her. In the latter years I don't believe she did as well as she ought to have done. I frankly believe that she didn't get the kind of support from the PNP councillors that she ought to have got and it affected the overall running of the city but in terms of her overall commitment to Local Government, I believe it is unquestionable.
SG: Is there anything that you have learnt from her?
McKenzie: (laughs uneasily) It's difficult but you do learn from everybody regardless of what their shortcomings are, you do learn. She (Mayor Atkins) is a strong advocate. She strongly believes in the principles of her party and that speaks volumes for the person that she is."
SG: Is there anything in particular that she has done that you intend to do differently?
McKenzie: That's a difficult question. One of the things that the city lacks in terms of its governance is the fact that the KSAC seems to distance itself from the corporate Jamaican. There wasn't much interaction between say, the Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturer's Association, the private sector and the social interests groups who are in the heart of the city. And that was one of the things that was lacking at the level of the KSAC.
The JLP will be working to have that as an integral part of our administration because I believe that is important. You can't exclude the politics from the commmercial and the social sector. Both have to go hand in hand and that is one of the weaknesses of the previous Council and the fact that the Council was more reactive more than proactive.
SG: What more can people expect from the JLP leading the KSAC?
McKenzie: Well right now as we speak the party has instituted what we call an Oversight Committee to work not just for the KSAC but with all the Parish Councils to look at the existing programmes that are in the Councils in terms of the Local Government Reform and to combine those, the ones that are workable, the ones that make sense with our new thinking, and some of that will go into new policies that we hope to implement. I had some discussions yesterday (Thursday) with Councillor Angela Brown-Burke who is slated to be the leader of the PNP side in the Council about collectively working together in terms of the vision for the city of Kingston.
VENDING SITUATION
SG: Do you think the vending situation in downtown Kingston was handled satisfactorily?
McKenzie: I believe the KSAC failed in many ways to effectively deal with the issue of street vending. I sympathise with a lot of the vendors because one of the biggest drawbacks about this present administration of the PNP is the total disregard and disrespect that it shows to the women of this country. Nintey-nine per cent of persons who vend right across Jamaica are females and you look at the conditions that exist in the markets right across Jamaica not just in the city alone but right acrss the length and breadth of Jamaica... There is hardly one market in Jamaica that is accessible to both vendors and persons who are buying.
For instance the Oxford Mall has been one of the greatest disappointments of this administration. In 1989 when the Jamaica Labour Party left office it required something in the region of I believe $30 million to complete the downtown market district and that money was there, it wasn't a question to find the funds, the funds were there and the Government of the day found it fit to discontinue the programme and what that did was to contribute more to street vending, because, as a man lost his job, him take the redundancy money and go out in the field and start a thing. And you find that there became an influx of vending on the streets and then it became so huge that the Council found it totally impossible to deal with it.
SG: What are your immediate plans to deal with that situation? Will the KSAC be committing any funds to complete the unfinished Oxford Mall?
McKenzie: I am meeting with the commercial services manager and the staff of the markets to look at the things that are necessary. I don't want to say right now that we will be committing funds. One of the things that people don't know is that a lot of the funds that come to the Council are for specific purposes. The Parochial Revenue Fund and the property tax speak clearly to the question of roads, street lights and sanitation.
The markets are revenue-earning components of the KSAC. I don't believe ... as I said before, because of the conditions, the potential that the markets have is not being realised and one of the things that the new Council has to do, is not just to seek outside funding alone, but to get the kind of compliance in terms of the revenue potential. And if there is an improvement in that area then a lot of what is earned from the markets can go back to really improve the condition of the markets. But we will definitely be making representations to Central Government to pump some money into upgrading the markets in the city. Because there is the Papine Market, the Norman Manley and so on, so that in itself is on a list of priorities.
The Oxford Mall will also definitely be a priority because there is sufficient space in the Oxford Mall that can take almost every single person who is vending on the streets. But it is how you go about getting it and how it is streamlined. And I think public education is going to be a key component of the programme.
BREATH OF FRESH AIR
SG: There are some persons who see your appointment as Mayor of Kingston as a 'breath of fresh air', however, others are of the opinion that the JLP will be 'sticking it' to the PNP now that you are in control of Local Government, what is your view?
McKenzie: Let me say to those persons who see my promotion to the post of Mayor as a breath of fresh air, let me say how grateful I am to those persons for the comments and I will try my best to make them happy in terms of my performance. The JLP is not gloating over this victory because we know how rough the road is.
What we will do as an administration is to try and get the job done. We represent the City of Kingston, I am not Mayor for the JLP. My councillors are not councillors alone for the JLP, we are all city fathers and city mothers and it is in that perspective that we will be approaching the job that is ahead.
