By Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
POLITICIANS ARE "prisoners, hostages of garrison politics", and Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, had no choice but to attend last week's funeral of Arnett Gardens don William "Willie Haggart" Moore, says Bruce Golding, outgoing president and founder of the National Democratic Movement.
Mr. Golding was yesterday addressing a handful of party supporters who attended a forum at St. James Parish Church Hall, Montego Bay.
He said the NDM was so far the only political party in Jamaica to declare that it would have no part in political "donmanship and garrison politics. And thank God under my watch we have kept that pace."
He urged the new leadership to continue to hold that philosophy because that's "a part of Jamaican politics that we must set aside, not build as part of the future of the country."
Mr. Golding said the view aired by Dr. Stephen Vasciannie, University of the West Indies lecturer, and shared by many Jamaicans, was that their view of Dr. Davies had changed since his attendance at Moore's funeral.
"I say he had to go, he had no choice, he did not want to go. I am sure he wished Willie Haggart had not died, and the reason more than any other reason why he wished he had not died is because there was going to be a funeral that he would have to attend," Mr. Golding said.
He said he spoke from experience of garrison politics. "In the world of garrison politics you are a prisoner, you are a hostage to the don."
Many politicians think they can control a don, he said, because they could go into their constituency and send for the don who would come because the dons knew that they had to foster a good relationship with the MP.
Mr. Golding questioned the relationship between Members of Parliament and area dons, saying the MP's obligations may go further than what the public may see. "When Dr. Omar Davies says (he is) obliged to attend the funeral of a don, the question we must ask ourselves because it is no longer just Omar Davies's business, it is no longer just the business of Arnett Gardens is what else does Dr. Davies feels obliged to do that we don't know about?
"The obligation in a garrison constituency is not only about attending funerals. There are many more obligations you have to meet and those obligations involve either doing certain things or it involves turning a blind eye to certain things. And those obligations remain a solid part of the politics and the landscape of Jamaica."
He added that when "they talk about solid achievement the donmanship is perhaps the paramount solid achievement of the politics of the last 30 years in Jamaica."
Mr. Golding warned that because all dons had "built their 'donships' on criminality" it would be impossible for politicians to fulfil their obligations to both the dons and the broader development of the future of Jamaica. "The two don't work", he said.
He said that no amount of money gave any other Jamaican the power to command the respect that area dons not hoteliers Gordon "Butch" Stewart, or John Issa or businessman Douglas Orane.
