Warmington under ombudsman probe for racial remarks

Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown says her office has launched an investigation into St Catherine South West Member of Parliament Everald Warmington's controversial comments Sunday in which he suggested that Opposition Leader Mark Golding's racial background, and putative ancestral links to British slavemasters, made him unfit to become prime minister of Jamaica.

She told The Gleaner that a letter informing Warmington of the probe was dispatched Tuesday and shared with the general secretaries of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), in which the lawmaker has membership, and the Opposition People's National Party (PNP).

The disclosure comes amid growing public outrage to the political veteran's rhetoric, with the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) expressing disappointment with what it termed a “divisive” statement.

Warmington, the de facto minister of works, made the utterances while speaking to party supporters in Cheesefield, St Catherine North Eastern.

“Weh Mark Golding mother and father come from? If he wants to be prime minister, go back a England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, but him nah beat Andrew Michael Holness,” Warmington told party faithful.

“I don't talk about colour and race, but they started it, so let me finish it. Dem seh Seaga born up deh so, but weh fi dem leader come from? Backra master,” he added, referencing late former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, who was white.

Golding, who is also white, is a Jamaican whose late father was an Englishman.

But Warmington, who remains undefeated in his St Catherine South Western constituency since he first won in 2002 with a margin of 1,214 votes, has dismissed the PSOJ and the Office of the Political Ombudsman as “sanctimonious non-entities”.

He questioned whether there was similar pushback against PNP politicians, citing inflammatory comments such as the PNP's Damion Crawford's remark about “dutty Labourites” and PNP General Secretary Dayton Campbell's race-baiting utterance about JLP Chairman Robert Montague being “leader of the black section of the Labour Party”.

“I don't know who they are. I don't owe them nothing. I've never seen them in South West St Catherine yet, so please don't ask me about a bunch of irrelevant non-entities,” he said in a Gleaner interview Wednesday.

“I dont give a rat's ass what the ombudsman wants to do,” he declared.

However, Parchment Brown said cited Section Four of the Political Code of Conduct, which says politicians should not make statements that “are malicious in reference to opposing candidates, their families, and party officials”.

The PSOJ appealed to political representatives to be more responsible in their public discourse, contending that “these comments have no place in the Jamaican context now or in the past as it is totally inconsistent with our motto, 'Out of Many, One People'.”

“We cannot expect to positively address our social issues if our leaders display poor judgement in their tone and statements towards each other. Distasteful and divisive statements from either side of the political fence cannot be condoned or supported,” the country's most powerful business lobby said in a statement Wednesday.

“It is our collective duty to hold each other accountable for our conduct, which no doubt can influence antisocial behaviours in society.”

But Warmington, who has for years called for the disbandment of the Office of the Political Ombudsman, accused the PSOJ of hypocrisy.

“The likkle ting weh yuh call PSOJ, did they condemn Mark Golding when him call the chairman of the party, Bobby Montague, the likkle bwoy? Did they? No, they didn't,” Warmington said.

Golding was found guilty by the ombudsman of unbecoming political behaviour last year for that comment. He was ordered to publicly apologise and pay a maximum of $20,000 to a charity in Montague's constituency.

Golding did not apologise.

Campbell, who has also been criticised for using race in political banter, told The Gleaner Wednesday that Warmington's comments are a coordinated strategy to distract from relevant issues.

“I think they're trying to lower the discussions to distract from the many failures of the country 'cause they want to get into a tracing match. We're not buying that at all,” said Campbell.

“We're keeping the primary issues topical, what is going on in the country; the crime situations, the significant breaches that are taking place in the health ministry, and the education crisis, with over a 1000 teachers not being paid,” he said.

Campbell said that intellect and leadership capacity, not race, was a factor considered by the electorate.

It is a sentiment shared by Dr Imani Tafari-Ama, research fellow at The Institute for Gender and Development Studies at The University of the West Indies.

Tafari-Ama described Warmington's comments as “divisive, provocative, and shallow”.

“It [skin colour] should not matter because if we say 'Out of Many, One People', what should that look like? If our national motto is indeed 'Out of Many People', … is it being played out in the society or is it just an anachronism that doesn't really represent the truth?” she asked.

The academic noted that Golding was born in Jamaica and is not the first non-black leader of a major political party, pointing to Edward Seaga, as well as Michael Manley and Norman Manley.

“For the most part, people vote for leaders who represent the upper class,” she said.

Warmington, who has signalled that he will be retiring from representational politics, has boasted of the impregnability of his political base, which earned him victory by a 5,071-vote margin in the 2020 general election.

Editor's Note: Everald Warmington, in his interview, suggested that Mark Golding mentioned Robert Montague's skin colour when Golding called him a "likkle bwoy". Golding did not reference Warmington's colour. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com