Editorial | Another racist trope

Recently, Prime Minister Andrew Holness suggested that after three times being in the post, he no longer has the pressure of winning elections just for the sake of being in the job. And liberated from the quest for political popularity, his focus now is on building a lasting legacy.

“It (political popularity) doesn’t matter to me anymore,” the prime minister said in a recent speech. “I have to start to think about legacy: what will Jamaica be. Will it be the same as I came and saw it? I can’t let it be the way I came and saw it.”

Highways constructed, schools built, homes provided and the size of the country’s GDP – although these are all important – won’t be the only measure of Mr Holness’ legacy. He will want, too, that Jamaica remains, and improves on, its standing as a stable democracy, and that on his watch it became a kinder and gentler place for its citizens to live. Which should make a politically more tolerant environment important to Mr Holness.

CALL OUT AND REPRIMAND

That is why, if the prime minister is serious about the legacy question, he is obliged to call out, and reprimand, Everald Warmington, one of his ministers, for his racist dog whistle against the opposition leader, Mark Golding, a white Jamaican, who was born on the island. Indeed, it is surprising that Mr Holness has not as yet fulsomely repudiated Mr Warmington for his remarks.

In fact, we expect Mr Holness to act with the forthrightness that eluded Mr Golding in August when a People’s National Party parliamentarian, Lothan Cousins, suggested that it should be an aberration for poor, black Jamaicans to support Mr Holness’ Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Mr Golding faltered, too, with his attempt in January to explain Dayton Campbell’s, his party’s general secretary, comment about the leadership of the “black section” of the JLP. Those kinds of statements expand people’s tolerance and appetite for race-based politics.

Mark Golding’s parents were both white and his father was an Englishman. Sir John Golding was a university professor and renowned orthopaedic surgeon. While Professor Golding was hailed for his intellectual and medical skills, he is particularly remembered for the service he provided especially to poor people with disabilities, who, previously, were often shunned in Jamaica.

Speaking at a party conference of the JLP’s St Catherine North East constituency on Sunday, Mr Warmington attempted to make race a disqualifying factor for Mr Golding becoming prime minister of Jamaica. He sought to justify his position by referencing the treatment received in the 1970s and 1980s by the former JLP leader and prime minister, Edward Seaga – a white Arab, who was born in the United States while his parents visited that country.

“If he (Mr Golding) wants to be prime minister, go back ah (to) England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland,” Mr Warmington said. “But him nah (not going to) beat Michael Andrew Holness. I don’t talk about colour and race, but they started it, so let me finish it.”

UNRESOLVED ISSUES

As this newspaper has noted in the past, there is no question that there are unresolved issues relating to race, class, colour, and ethnicity in Jamaica. The matter deserves a frank national conversation. However, there is no question that Mr Golding, like Mr Seaga – who led the JLP for nearly three decades and served as prime minister between 1980 and 1989 – is an authentic Jamaican, whose upbringing and personal behaviour transcend racial and class stereotypes.

It is a fact that Mr Seaga was demonised over race and for his supposed authoritarian, non-inclusive leadership style. We had nonetheless hoped that over the past two decades, Jamaica’s politics had evolved to being contests of ideas rather than the flagging of racist tropes. Moreover, Mr Warmington’s implied willingness to send back a ‘born-yah’ Jamaican to some presumed country of belonging has echoes of those in the United States who would deport people of colour to the lands of their ancestors. In Britain, he is likely to have given succour to the inheritors of Enoch Powell and those who would wish to create “a hostile environment” for the Windrush generation and their descendants.

If Mr Warmington had acted in ignorance, his behaviour would still have been appalling. But his remarks were quite deliberate – calculated to deliver the trope, while providing his party and its leadership plausible deniability if challenged about his sentiments. He knows that his statement could be passed off as the rants of a maverick, who, despite his often ill-mannered boorishness, has been rewarded with ministerial jobs.

On Sunday, he reminded that he often did not adhere to the party’s whip, and that in any event, he would leave politics at the next election, which is not due until 2025. “I talk from my heart, and now that I am on my way home, I can say anything I want to say, as long as I don’t embarrass the prime minister,” Mr Warmington said. “Let them go to hell!”

This is an opportunity for Mr Holness to say what embarrasses him, if Mr Warmington’s remarks were in accord with his intended legacy and who, in the circumstances, should be headed for perdition.