Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Burchell Whiteman (left), former Minister of Information and the incoming High Commissioner to London, is in the company of (from left) businessman William Anthony McConnell, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson and Solicitor-General Michael Hylton. The occasion was the conferral of the Order of Jamaica (OJ) on Whiteman, McConnell and Hylton at King's House on June 3.
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
BURCHELL WHITEMAN'S mobile phone and the straight lines at his King's House office rang with annoying regularity during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner, last week.
In two weeks, he will leave for London to become Jamaica's new High Commissioner to Britain. Judging from the numerous calls and a stacked diary, his plate here remains full.
Whiteman's latest government appointment was announced in November. The former People's National Party (PNP) general secretary also served as education and information minister and senator. He said he was looking forward to his new assignment which will be anything, but symbolic.
"Certainly, I will be meeting with what I call the central structure of the diaspora system and as many of the sub-sectors as possible," he said. "In the past, visiting London as a minister I have been exposed to them, so it will be a matter of getting re-acquainted."
Although there has been a significant decline, Jamaicans involved in crime in Britain is still an issue. Crime back home is also a concern for Jamaicans who want to return after decades of living in Britain.
Another challenge for the 68-year-old Whiteman will be helping to negotiate a better deal for Jamaicans who export bananas and sugar to countries in the European Union (EU).
The EU's new sugar regime for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries took effect in July. It sees a 39 per cent price cut for sugar from ACP states.
Whiteman does not fit the profile of a Jamaican politician. He shies from the limelight and rarely gave speeches at rallies during his 17-year run in government. The bespectacled educator with the faltering baritone was the "Mr. Nice Guy' in an administration that included colourful figures such as K.D. Knight and A.J. Nicholson.
Representational politics
Whiteman stepped away from the grind of representational politics in March, but has been acting as special advisor to Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall. One of his last acts as PNP general secretary was presiding over the party's presidential election in February, which saw Portia Simpson Miller succeeding P.J. Patterson as leader, and ultimately, prime minister.
It was a race that got nasty at times, with Whiteman once stepping in to cool heads as election day approached. He said things had toned down con-siderably since.
"The election was challenging, I would have wanted it to be less acrimonious and perhaps to have a shorter period of campaigning," he said. "It was pretty intense and left some wounds which I feel are substantially healed."
He admitted that pre- and post-election tension in the PNP has opened the door for the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party. "I think that the reality of the situation now is that expectations of the people are still waiting to be fulfilled and the Opposition has re-grouped," he added.
Senator Anthony Johnson is part of that 'regrouped' Opposition. He and Whiteman had several run-ins when he was the JLP's spokes-person on education, but said there was never any ill will.
"He was always a gentleman, always prepared to listen and reason out arguments," Johnson told The Sunday Gleaner. "He got away with a lot of things because of his personality, and by that I mean his integrity."
Unlike most of his colleagues, Burchell Whiteman did not enter politics the traditional way.
The last of seven children born in May Pen, Clarendon, to a teacher and housewife, he followed his father's footsteps into education. He developed a strong base in St. Ann education, serving as principal for York Castle High School and Brown's Town Community College. Apart from working at the community level for the PNP in his adopted parish, Whiteman said he never envisioned a career in politics.
Yet, in the late 1980s he was motivated by the party's resurgence, which was led by Michael Manley and Patterson. The latter was his classmate at the University College of the West Indies.
Whiteman won the North West St. Ann seat in the 1989 general election, which the PNP won handsomely. He was appointed state minister in the education ministry by Manley and promoted to head that portfolio when Patterson succeeded the ailing Manley in 1993.
Whiteman said his time as education minister was a mixed bag. He pointed to expansion in tertiary institutions, an increase in students at that level and the growth of basic schools as pluses of his tenure. A major negative was the bitter battle with the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) during the 2000-01 academic year, when almost 300 teachers were removed from their jobs to accommodate Government's restructuring of the education system. In December 2001, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Government acted illegally and ordered the teachers be re-instated.
Under-achieved
Whiteman believes he under-achieved as an MP. After two terms in the job, he gave way to Arnold Bertram who lost the seat to Verna Parchment four years ago. "I could have done a lot more, I have always said that there are few people who manage the repre-sentative side of a rural MP well along with the community side," he said. "It's tough work and I don't think I was particularly effective."
Whiteman, and the Government, hopes he will do a much more effective job in London where he will be accompanied by his British wife. From there, he will also oversee Jamaica's operations in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Spain.
