Brown Burke defends Vybz Kartel’s PNP conference appearance

With People’s National Party (PNP) supporters banking on dancehall entertainer Vybz Kartel’s influence to attract the younger demographic to the party, chairman Dr Angela Brown Burke is defending his appearance on stage.

Kartel, whose given name is Adidja Palmer, took the stage at the PNP’s 86th annual conference yesterday, much to the delight and deafening screams of the crowd inside the National Arena.

The entertainer sported an orange bandanna, hiding his face, similar to the one he donned when he walked out of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility on July 31 after he was freed by the Court of Appeal of a murder charge. He had spent 13 years in prison before his conviction was overturned by the United Kingdom-based Privy Council and his case was returned to the Court of Appeal for a decision on whether he should face a retrial.

Kartel did not address the crowd, but attorney and former chairman of the PNP’s Human Rights Commission, Isat Buchanan, who represented Kartel before the Privy Council, declared “God and time”.

The entertainer’s appearance on the platform is already resurrecting debate around Jamaica’s political embrace of persons who run into trouble with the law, despite Kartel’s acquittal.

However, pointing out that the PNP does not always share the views of everyone who graces its stage, Brown Burke said Kartel’s presence was egalitarian.

“There is something about allowing persons in a democracy to come and … for every person who came here today, I hope they listened well, and I hope they use the entirety of our conference to judge us,” she told The Gleaner.

“As I know it, Vybz Kartel has been freed. We have a justice system, and we also have to honour the jurisprudence that we have, and, therefore, we don’t make those kinds of judgements,” she added.

Brown Burke noted that it was Buchanan who was invited to speak on stage and that he “had a couple of persons with him, and he spoke and then the others left with him”.

“I figure that there are some persons who are going to make it into a big deal,” she stated.

Sonny Spoon, a 55-year-old PNP supporter from Waterford in St Catherine, believes that despite Kartel’s history, his presence at the conference was an asset to the party.

“(People) who was undecided, him showing up at the conference today wi mek a big difference. Yuh a guh get most a di mid-20s (being influenced),” he told The Gleaner.

He noted that Kartel’s influence transcended political-party barriers.

Twenty-eight-year-old Zella, from Red Hills Road in St Andrew, was of a similar view.

“Mi seh people a guh come out more. Nothing more, nothing less,” she said.

However, Tony Young, a 57-year-old supporter from the Cassia Park division, believes that the PNP took a gamble in bringing Kartel on stage.

Nonetheless, he is hoping that the risk will pay off.

“It all depends on how you view him as an individual,” he said.

‘Arisen from their slumber’

A 64-year-old supporter from South Manchester believes that the PNP should take it a step further and make Kartel the standard-bearer for a constituency.

“Him would win it. Him nah lose,” she said.

She further stated that she was not concerned about his history as the courts had vindicated him.

“Him out ya now. Even if him did guilty, him get forgiveness. God mek him out ya now.”

Meanwhile, Councillor for the Bellefield division in Manchester, Mario Mitchell, said the entertainer’s appearance would go down in history.

“Many, many years have passed since we have seen this kind of crowd and this sort of enthusiasm from the young people, and the Comrades have now arisen from their slumber,” he said.

“The young people have always played an integral role, and many of the young people would have been the movers and shakers. The young persons would dictate exactly how it goes. So the young people have a saying. Dem seh ‘yuh haffi go down’ ... and Vybz Kartel was just the icing on the cake,” he added.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com