Heather Robinson
MUCH HAS been said in the last week about garrisons. Reference has been made to the factors that seek to classify a community or constituency as a garrison. The 1997 report of the national committee on Political Tribalism, which was chaired by the late Justice James Kerr, reported that "The hard-core garrison communities exhibit an element of autonomy, in that they are states within a state.
The Jamaican State has no authority or power except in as far as its forces are able to invade in the form of police and military raids. In the core garrison disputes have been settled, matters tried, offenders sentenced and punished, all without reference to the institutions of the Jamaican state".
On Sunday last the Leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding, referred to the constituencies of South, South West and East Central St. Andrew as garrisons. Bruce Golding was speaking from the platform of the Tarrant High School, which is located in East Central St. Andrew where a few weeks ago Peter Phillips the Member of Parliament had his constituency conference. The Member of Parliament for Western Kingston - the mother of all garrisons - was quite comfortable when he spoke from within one of these "entrenched and violent garrisons" as was the councillor for the Tivoli Gardens division who made his now famous 'three hundred, five hundred or one thousand' speech.
The most definitive method of determining whether a constituency should be classified as a garrison is the general election results. I have compiled the data for the general elections from 1976-2002 and for the three by-elections that were held for the election of Members of Parliament, Omar Davies, Peter Phillips and Bruce Golding. The results also include data on South West St Andrew which is represented by Portia Simpson Miller.
HOW THEY VOTED
The data shows the year the election was held for each of the four constituencies with the number of persons who voted; the number of votes the winner received; and the percentage (received by the winner) of the total number of persons who voted. There is a final percentage which shows the percentage of voters who voted in the constituency. Special note should be taken of the turnout percentages for each constituency with the highest recorded during the period under review being 105.06 per cent in St Andrew South Western in 1989, and the lowest being 48 per cent in St Andrew East Central in 1994. Portia Simpson also received the highest percentage of the votes polled in 1993 with 99 per cent. The lowest percentage of votes polled in a general election was in East Central St Andrew in 1980 by D.K. Duncan with 55 per cent, an election in which the PNP won only eight seats. Of the contenders for the presidency of the PNP, Peter Phillips has consistently recorded the lowest percentage support with 64 per cent in 2002.
The Electoral Office of Jamaica has not been keeping by-election results, except for Kingston Western this year, and this explains why there are some blank spaces for those in 1993 and 1994.
A detailed study of the figures will point the reader to where the real garrisons are. Use these figures to decide.
Heather Robinson is a life underwriter and former Member of Parliament.
