Hartley Neita, ContributorFor nearly 70 years our political
parties and trade unions have been at war with each other.
It was not always so. Bustamante and Norman Manley spoke on the same political platform on a number of occasions. That, however, did not last long.
The weapons used in the beginning were sticks and stones, sometimes bottles, and even slingshots. By the 1960s, however, guns and dynamite became the weapons of choice, and in the 1970s bombs were added to the arsenals.
The two main political parties donned uniforms, with orange becoming the colour of the PNP and green that of the JLP.
For years, the PNP was the only party with an anthem but in the seventies the JLP wrote their own, so that we had three Jamaica, Land We Love; Land of Our Birth; and Stand for the Bell. One was sometimes sung at a function, sometimes two, but never the three.
Turfs were carved out with land maps marking out JLP and PNP territories. If you were for one, you were not allowed to live in the other's space. If you supported the PNP, you could not wear a green shirt, and vice versa. You dared not drive a green car. And you never painted any portion of your house with the colour of the opposing party's. You could not even
inter-marry.
Flicker of hope
There was a brief flicker of hope that the political divide was being closed when Hugh Shearer and Ken Hill of opposing parties and trade unions had been nominated together for the 1955 general elections.
They had sat side by side before the returning officer with their supporters mingling peacefully and friendly in the same room. That rapprochement did not last.
Then during the 1970s word got out that Michael Manley and Hugh Shearer had breakfast regularly together, and sometimes lunch, at each other's home or at Ivy Perez's restaurant in Allman Town. It was heresy. They had sold out.
As 1980 approached, the war escalated. Anger at political differences led to bitter hate. Time had been when my friends of both political parties once travelled from political meetings held by one party to the meetings of opponents in other districts on the same night. That came to an end.
Then another party, the Workers' Party of Jamaica, entered the political fray. Loyalties and friendships splintered. A new term, political activists, came into the lexicon. Men like Feather Mop, Bucky Marshall and Jim Brown became political household names.
Tiny hopes of peace
As the 1989 general elections approached, however, there were tiny hopes of peace.
Bobby Pickersgill of the PNP once invited Hugh Shearer to the annual PNP Founders Day banquet.
"I would love to come," Shearer responded. "I know I would be welcomed, but some of my people would not understand."
For example, I was asked to represent the PNP in discussions with 'Babsy' Grange about the format of the signing of a political code of Conduct at King's House.
We met for lunch at the Terra Nova Hotel and while waiting in the lounge a number of other guests saw us together. They were shocked that two persons representing different politic interests could be breaking bread
together.
On the ensuing election day, Hugh Shearer and I met at the same polling station and sat outside for nearly three hours on a parapet laughing and enjoying each other's company. This surprised persons of both political persuasions who saw us. That is how narrow in thought we had become.
Since the decades of the 1990s, there has been a gradual lessening of political tensions. Carmen Gauntlett, who had been secretary to Bustamante, Sangster, Shearer, Manley, and briefly for Patterson, retired, and a farewell
luncheon was hosted at Vale Royal by Prime Minister Patterson.
I had the pleasure of being chairman of the post-lunch tributes by the four then living Prime Ministers Shearer, Manley, Seaga and, of course, Patterson. It was a stage of four men of different political persuasions united by the common factor of a lady who had served them well.
Sports have also played a role in this unity. Since Omar Davies took over the constituency adjacent to Edward Seaga's Western Kingston domain, both men have been crossing the border and have sat together at football matches between the star teams of both communities. Patterson has also been invited and attended a recent birthday party for Seaga.
Why the 'bangarang'?
And last week, Seaga attended Patterson's 70th birthday hosted by his arch opponents, the PNP at Vale Royal. He danced the Ska with serious PNP women who did not know of him when his feet were light and fancy and he was promoting the Ska.
PNP men, especially, the younger ones, met Seaga face to face for the first time, and shook hands. As a friend of mine suggested, Seaga discovered he has more friends in the PNP than in his JLP.
So why did Bruce Golding have to threaten 'bangarang', the resumption of the political war? Is he out-of-step, or is he going to try to bring back the left-right-left march of militancy to the political stage? We do not want this.
