Wright hook for Holness
Ostracised MP lobbies for Westmoreland road to be named after PM
Published:Thursday | November 11, 2021 | 12:13 AM
In his first presentation in Gordon House, controversial Westmoreland Central Member of Parliament (MP) George Wright, who resigned from the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) earlier this year, proposed on Wednesday that Prime Minister Andrew Holness be immortalised by naming the recently constructed Ferris to Mackfield road in the parish in his honour.
“I would not be able to forgive myself if I did not use this medium to profoundly thank the honourable prime minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness and his ministry for the rehabilitation of the road between Ferris and Mackfield,” Wright declared in his contribution to the State of the Constituency Debate.
Both political parties have wrangled in the past to have the multibillion-dollar roadway named after political stalwarts.
Heroy Clarke, the government MP for St James Central, had tabled a private member’s motion in 2019 for the thoroughfare to be named after Sir Clifford Campbell, while Savanna-la-Mar Mayor Bertel Moore wanted Roger Clarke honoured.
Wednesday’s acclaim for Holness gave Wright new voice after the rookie MP faced public backlash earlier this year when he was believed to be the man in a viral video raining blows on a woman with his fists and a stool.
To date, Wright has neither denied nor confirmed whether he was the subject of the footage.
The police have said that neither Wright nor his partner, Taniesha Singh, cooperated with investigators, inevitably dooming the probe.
Having received permission from acting Speaker Juliet Holness to speak from a seat on the front bench of the Opposition’s side on Wednesday, Wright chastised his People’s National Party predecessors for the shoddy job they did as MPs.
He sang the praises of the Government while acknowledging the constituents for giving the JLP the nod in the September 2020 general election.
“The people of Westmoreland Central have put their hope in the Government of Andrew Holness because they are tired of empty promises. Let us not let them down,” he said.
The irony was not lost on many that Wright might have been the first MP sitting on the Opposition benches to have received sustained thunderous applause from the Government side as he reaffirmed his unswerving support for the policies and programmes of the Holness administration.
In June, the Lower House descended in uproar, with Speaker Marisa Dalrymple Philibert and Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding clashing over the seating arrangement for Wright.
Wright had taken a seat on the opposition benches to the annoyance of the opposition legislators after he resigned from the JLP in the wake of the assault scandal at the time.
In a vigorous debate that followed, Dalrymple Philibert said that Wright was a minority MP and belonged on the opposition benches because he no longer sat with the Government.
“Under our constitutional arrangements, it does not matter whether you are JLP or PNP or any P. What matters is whether you support the Government’s principles and programmes and vote with the prime minister on matters. That’s what makes you a government MP,” Golding had said during the debate in June.
On Wednesday, Wright made no direct reference to the events that led to his resignation but thanked “the many prayer warriors who went on their knees to petition the throne of grace” during the difficult period he faced.
He also thanked health workers at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital for the services they rendered when he and Singh, who he styled as his “significant other”, had contracted COVID-19.