- WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
Bunny Witter (centre) is welcomed by Burchell Whiteman while Philip Paulwell looks on, The function was the People National Party (PNP) Region Three presents candidate Bunny Witter for the Western Kingston constituency, at a meeting held at Unity Lawn, corner of King and Beeston Streets, last Sunday.
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
BEFORE EDWARD Seaga was elected Member of Parliament for West Kingston in 1962, the area was a toss-up at election time between opponents from the People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party.
Since 1962, West Kingston has been Seaga's domain with all challengers, including famed Pan-Africanist Dudley Thompson and journalist John Maxwell, offering serious resistance to him in 10 general elections.
But Franklin 'Bunny' Witter is determined to turn the tables when he takes on the JLP's Bruce Golding in a by-election to decide the constituency's next parliamentary representative.
Prime minister, P J Patterson, has not indicated when he will name a date for the poll which most expect the JLP to win with ease. But Witter, who ran against Mr. Seaga in the last general elections in October 2002, thinks differently.
FOR A CANDIDATE SAKE
"The first time I ran I wasn't too serious about really winning, we were just looking at putting a candidate just for candidate's sake, but this time there's a different view, a different look, a different commitment," Mr. Witter told The Sunday Gleaner on Tuesday.
The 46 year-old technician/ engineer officially launched his campaign last Sunday with finance minister Dr. Omar Davies and commerce minister Philip Paulwell among the senior PNP members in attendance.
Ronnie Thwaites, the former Central Kingston MP who chaired the event, vowed that the JLP will not have things their own way this time around. Mr. Witter has already hit the ground running, going house to house in select communities; his message to date is centred on the JLP's failure to produce a level playing field for all West Kingston's residents.
"When you look at the state of the constituency, that has been dominated by the JLP and Mr. Seaga all these years, there's very little you can see to the infrastructure of West Kingston," he pointed out. "You talk about Pink Lane, Bond Street, Chestnut Lane...you have sewage overflowing, abandoned buildings. It's disgraceful."
Residents in traditional PNP areas throughout West Kingston, like Hannah Town and Matthews Lane, agree with Mr. Witter. They charge that Mr. Seaga, who stepped down as MP in January after 43 years, neglected them while concentrating most of his energy on Tivoli Gardens; in fact, Mr. Witter says in all his years living in West Kingston he has never seen the former MP in these communities.
A FAIR DEAL
If elected, Mr. Witter says his constituents, PNP or JLP, will be given a fair deal.
"There won't be enough resources coming from the government budget to deal with every problem, but what you can do is integrate what you have into NGOs and seek international funding to help uplift the constituency," he reasoned. These include programmes for skills training to prepare the youth dem for challenges that lie ahead."
Another initiative, he said, would be to clean up West Kingston's reputation as a violent area. Once that is accomplished, he sees the businesses there expanding as well as attracting new enterprise and creating employment.
Although he spent most of his life in West Kingston, Bunny Witter was actually born in Vineyard Town in East Kingston, an area with strong PNP ties. The eldest of nine children, he says he moved to West Kingston in his early teens and never left.
LANGUAGE OF THE STREETS
Mr. Witter does not have the profile of the modern Jamaican politician. He still lives in West Kingston and goes about his business like an Average Joe - dressed in T-shirt and jeans and is comfortable using the language of the streets.
His familiarity with constituents did not help in the last elections when he was named by Mr. Patterson to oppose Mr. Seaga three months before national polls. Mr. Seaga polled 11,251 votes to Mr. Witter's 2,099.
Although Mr. Golding, the new JLP leader, has proposed a new day in West Kingston politics by calling for a peace march through the constituency, his opponent says he is not interested in token gestures.
"I don't have no intention of walking side by side with Mr. Golding because I'm not on a media hype. We'll walk after the election,' he said.
