'I will balance the scale': Henry assumes chairmanship of JLP
Published:Sunday | December 5, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
MIKE HENRY, the political loner with the sharp tongue, is set to assume the powerful chairmanship of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) later today after serving his party for decades.
Henry has no challenger as the incumbent chairman, the unassuming Dr Ken Baugh, has opted out to quietly concentrate on his constituency and his portfolio.
Attention was on Horace Chang to challenge for the coveted position, but this was not to be as he, too, said he wanted to focus on government and governance in the aftermath of his defeat to Dr Christopher Tufton for the Area Council Four deputy-leadership post.
A fascinating politician who commands a presence, Henry does not recoil from a face-off - even with leaders of the JLP under whom he has served (Edward Seaga and then Bruce Golding) - and is never fazed by the turbulence around him.
Seaga apparently admires the feisty politician for his boldness and courage in standing his ground.
The former prime minister describes Henry as a man who, rather than criticise from behind, is upfront with what he has to say.
always faithful
In his striking way, Henry has always stayed faithful to the JLP, even in the dark days when election victories were elusive and infighting was the order of the day.
"I had been attracted to the JLP and its founders," Henry told The Sunday Gleaner.
But he asserted that even so, he was inspired to act in a decisive way as he came in near the end of the political dynasties that ushered the political process to that point.
"It was near the end of the Manleys, Shearers, and the Clarkes (all part of one political family) ... and I was inspired to fight for the democratisation of the party," Henry recalled.
"I wanted to move things from the realms of individuality and self-indulgence to another phase."
When Henry was shot in the heat of the 1976 general election campaign, he limped into action, but lost the Central St Catherine seat (4,661) to O.D. Ramtallie (5,545).
Two years later, when he challenged Edward Seaga, the leader of four years in the Jamaica Labour Party, for that position, he stood alone and was defeated.
But he would not be daunted.
By 1980, Henry, with 8,135 votes, turned the tables on Ramtallie (4,660), soundly defeating the Comrade.
Henry has not relinquished his firm grasp on the Central Clarendon seat ever since.
The Gang of Five emerged in 1990, dividing a demoralised JLP, but it was not Henry's style to be in the midst as he was not a follower.
Then came the mid-1990s and the group of powerful dissidents who wanted Seaga's demise, but Henry was not among the 14 or so members.
That was just not his style.
When Golding took some prominent Labourites with him to join the National Democratic Movement in 1995, Henry stayed on in the JLP.