‘St Mary mi come from’ - Dunn ready to represent
Published:Sunday | October 8, 2017 | 12:00 AMChristopher Serju
Confident that he has done enough to convince residents of South East St Mary that he should be their next member of parliament, Dr Norman Dunn spent last week talking to constituents and getting a first-hand take on the issues that have stymied economic development.
Having lost by five votes to the late Dr Winston Green in the last general elections, the Jamaica Labour Party's standard-bearer is anticipating that he will be the representative in Gordon House after October 30.
"I believe I have done enough, and one of the most important things is that I never left South East St Mary. They said I lost, but in the minds of the people, I am a winner and I never left them. In the last general elections, I came in late, as everyone knows, and wasn't able to go everywhere. I have gone almost everywhere now, so I think I have put in the work," Dunn told The Gleaner.
He said that reversing the widescale deterioration of infrastructure, which has resulted in massive job losses in the constituency, is at the top of his to-do list.
"Everything was allowed to go down into the ground. The political representation has been so poor right across South East St Mary. You just have to travel around. It's not for me to say. It's for you to see when you go around," said Dunn.
"I don't know if there is something why I am running at this time, with a name like what me have. Mi name Dunn, Norman Dunn, and mi just say a time fi it done.
"A time fi all these things just come to an end because people just can't continue living like this. We need to live with hope. We need to have a vision of where we want to go, and I say that the vision has been lacking for 25 years. Eighteen years of one MP."
ON A MISSION TO EMPOWER
A son of the soil who was born in Annotto Bay and who got his secondary education at the Dinthill Technical High School, where he boarded, in the neighbouring parish of St Catherine, Dunn is on a mission to empower his people.
"We 'St Maryians' weh come from South East Mary haffi take charge of our own destiny because we know what this place was like and the potential that exists here. So the problem is there, but the solution also lies within our grasp. We have a Jamaica Labour Party government that believes in infrastructure development. It believes in people development," he declared.