Orville Taylor | Green light for Samuda and Mike

Almost three-quarters of the Jamaican population were not even lustful thoughts in their fathers’ minds, when Mike Henry and Karl Samuda were first elected to the House of Representatives.

Standard-bearers for their Jamaica Labour Party (JLP); there is no question that duly elected multiple times, they have been integral stewards of our democracy. My profound gratitude for their service. No bones about it; these men did not elect themselves, and therefore represent the political will of their constituents.

Serving for two donkey lifetimes, directly or indirectly, they have to take partial credit for the ‘prosperity’ and progress we have experienced since, as well as the negatives resulting from decisions taken by parliamentarians and politicians on the whole.

At ages of 82 and 89, respectively, these elder statesmen will not be on their party’s ballots in the next general polls. The only surprise is that Samuda seem to have been blindsided by the announcement. True, that is internal green politics; but a man of his stature, loved by the people, and elected both in orange and green, had his thunder stolen. A constituency which seems to love him more than the JLP is not one to trifle with, a year before the general election. The electors might not like his lack of autonomy in the announcement of his retirement.

Given the recent Don Anderson survey, these seniors will not have to worry about any ‘electile’ dysfunction, as they don’t have to face what is a likely to be a stiff challenge from the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP). With an eight per cent lead, unless the JLP gets a stunning ‘Boltesque’ anchor or strong third leg; we could see a return of the PNP to the reins of government.

Either way, the musketeers, who are neither Alexandre nor ‘Dumas,’ have zero to lose and none for ‘won’. It is about closing the chapter on their public service and cementing their legacies.

EMBELLISHING IMAGE

Their party has the task of embellishing their images and focusing on their individual accomplishments. Indeed, as is customary, even the Opposition will speak good things, in true political tradition. Parliament will evince civility and gushing praise, even from their most bitter adversaries, because the code of conduct for departing and departed politicians is based on an awareness that only one knife exists to stick the sheep and goats.

But that will not suffice.

Retiring politicians are in a unique position, because they can speak personal electoral consequences. And although it might have an impact on their party’s image, it is a perfect time for them to call spades, shovels.

Scores of legislative actions are developing ticks and mange from languishing in the doghouse.

Still, there is a historic obligation that all politicians who were active from the 1970s have.

Leave it up to the Comrades and Labourites to say who started the ‘civil war’ in the mid-1970s. All of these men were in their prime and very active then. This is not a statement or accusatory middle finger about the specifics of their individual involvement. However, every politician from that era has collective responsibility, and thus, collective blame.

Between 1974 and 1994 under the Suppression of Crimes Act, paradoxically, neither party had the presence of mind to extricate criminal elements from politics. Indeed, in some constituencies, police personnel and the newly emergent phenomenon of area dons were like ‘bench and bench.’

Historical gang rivalries became redefined along political lines and many communities became garrisons. It was a period when wearing green or orange was tantamount to inviting a death sentence and marauding groups of men, with tacit approval from their political representatives, felt comfortable beating, maiming or killing other persons, perceived to be aligned to their political opponents.

RIGHT TO MURDER

Many friends killed other friends, fully convinced that it was right to murder them, because they were ‘Labourites or Socialists’. Somebody has to face the truth and show some reprehensibility.

While it might have suited the short-term political objectives of the two political parties in guaranteeing blocks of votes according to communities and constituencies, that modus operandi directly and indirectly has led to the crisis of homicide which, neither Security Minister Horace Chang nor his predecessors have been able to resolve.

Call it as it is. Many of the guns now in circulation found their ways in the hands of young men, most of whom are departed. Metal has a longer lifespan than flesh; and guns, like invasive alien animals, are extremely difficult to remove, once entrenched in an environment. Like the mongoose, which has wreaked havoc on the ecosystem, eliminating many native species, the guns became a recalcitrant feature of politics in my lifetime.

Again, let me make it clear that nothing in this column must be construed to say that this duo themselves participated in arming/harming anyone. However, in orange and green communities, light-headed idiots used guns to kill others.

During this era, we learned that human life was unimportant, and worth sacrificing on political altars. “Labourite fi dead!” and “Socialist fi dead!” were common parlance.

Coming from out of the 1960s, when both sides of Parliament headed by two cousins, who downplayed the importance of their own melanin and African ancestry and presided over an anti-black ethos, what the politicians did in the next decades was simply repulsive. We need an admission that awful seeds were sown in the 1970s, watered and fertilised up to the early ‘90s. Although these two might not have been able to do anything about it, they were part of the system that did it.

Now is a good time to pull together political opponents and other well-thinking Jamaicans to build a national consensus, acknowledging that my generation and that before us literally screwed up the nation and created political divisiveness, devaluation of human life and a romance with the gun.

The party leadership will find successors, to underfill the shoes of these giants. But until then, let us see how much more we can ‘queeze’ out of them.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.