Cummings: Believes automatic military service for teenagers would help restore order.
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
VICTOR CUMMINGS has a panoramic view of the West Kingston and Central Kingston constituencies from his apartment in the downtown region of Jamaica's capital.
He was born in the former and is currently Member of Parliament (MP) for the latter both have been ravaged by years of political and gang violence.
Having lost 13 relatives, including two half-brothers to the gun, Cummings can empathise with the hundreds of Jamaicans who have suffered similar grief.
Although his family emigrated to New York City in 1968 when he was just seven years old, Cummings says even then he was weary of the danger of inner-city life in Kingston.
"I remember when we were living on Regent Street, it was 1966 and moving up to election time and a bullet came through the window where she (his mother) was cooking dinner...missed her head by inches," the bald-pated Cummings told The Sunday Gleaner in a recent interview. "She packed us up and ran back to Matthews Lane."
LOSING CHILDREN TO VIOLENCE
Two of Leonie Cummings' sons were not as fortunate. Carl Phipps, the eldest of her children, was killed on Easter Sunday of 1977 along with his cousin whom Victor Cummings remembers only as 'Bumpy'.
Her second child, Glenford 'Early Bird' Phipps, a supervisor with the Metropolitan Parks and Markets (MPM), was gunned down in July 1990 at the Marley Manor apartment complex in St. Andrew. A policeman was also murdered in that incident.
Cummings, 43, has traces of an American accent, the legacy of living in Brooklyn for over 20 years. He is a graduate of the Ivy League Cornell University and a lawyer by profession who returned to Jamaica for good in 1992, working with the MPM before becoming a Councillor in the Allman Town division for the People's National Party (PNP).
In the October 2002 General Election, he replaced Ronnie Thwaites as the PNP's candidate for Central Kingston, beating the Jamaica Labour Party's Dr. Charlton Collie. He is also the younger brother of well-known Matthews Lane area leader Donald 'Zekes' Phipps.
The violence Cummings and his family left behind in the late 1960s, persists. His own constituency saw a lot of bloodshed in 2003 with 17 persons killed in gang warfare up to April when the police imposed a 24-hour curfew in sections of Southside.
Cummings, who says he meets weekly with his constituents, believes automatic military service for Jamaica's teenagers would help restore order to the country's society.
"I have a resolution before Parliament calling for mandatory National Youth Service," said Cummings. "If you take these young men and women and put them through para-military training without weapons, teach them discipline and a sense of self, it would go a long way to getting things in shape."
The rookie MP says this is the second year he has pitched the proposal but it has not been tabled in the House of Representatives.
PEACE INITIATIVE
Although he admits being frustrated that the document has been overlooked, Cummings takes solace in the Central Kingston Task Team, a year-old peace initiative that has brought some stability to Central Kingston.
"I used to meet with different young men in different areas and then when I saw that it was costing me I approached Grace/Kennedy and asked them to sponsor these meetings," he explained. "So now whenever there is a problem in the area the task force has an emergency meeting, discuss it and work to put an end to it. My view is, as the MP, my job is to facilitate these type of things and now that they're meeting I've stepped back and let them run it," he added. "It shouldn't be that the only time that it happens is when the MP or the Councillor is there."
Cummings says though he is committed to his constituency, his family did not support his entry into politics. He says with crime out of control in Jamaica his mother fears losing another child to violence.
"There's nothing more she'd like to see than me coming back to the U.S. and there have been times where I have thought about saying 'forget it' and go back," he said. "But I have made a commitment to my constituency and to Jamaica so I'll just see it through."
