Caribbean Heritage

THE MONTHLY GLEANER | MAY 17 - JUNE 16, 2021 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS 3 Erica Virtue/Senior Gleaner Writer A DAY after Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith named former Senator A.J. Nicholson as the People’s National Party (PNP) official who sent her threatening and harassing emails in 2014 and 2018, Nicholson has called her out, challenging her to “produce the emails or shut up”. Nicholson told The Gleaner that Johnson Smith’s reading of a 2018 email, subject-lined ‘Rape, Real Rape’, had nothing to do with any threats to her, but was a reminder that “karma would catch up with her dishonesty”, asking that she reads the entire con- tents of the mail she referenced. “If the senator is speaking truthfully, why not simply release the referenced emails, the source of her claim of har- assment and feelings of threat? She says they were sent some three years ago. What is her intention in making this claim at this time?” he asked, hinting at the controversy envelop- ingWestmoreland Central Member of Parliament George Wright. “And sadly, it cannot be overlooked that the senator has also in the past been accused of lying in the chamber,” Nicholson said in a statement to The Gleaner. During the sitting of the Senate last Friday, Johnson Smith raised the ghost of a 2014 sotto voce “flexi-rape” com- ment during a heated debate in the Upper House, for which Nicholson said he apologised, after communication between himself and another senator revealed that Johnson Smith was un- comfortable and displeased. In calling out the minister on Friday, he said: “I state categorically that no harassment or threatening emails exist from me to the senator or to anyone else. Neither was I warned in 2018 by any member of the [Jamaica] Constabulary Force. It is not true … ,” he wrote. GROSSLY UNTRUTHFUL Nicholson recalled the 2014 issue which led to him being visited by the police. “The senator had taken me to task some seven years ago over a sotto voce remark about flexi rape during a sitting of the Senate. Speaking on public radio that evening, she was grossly untruth- ful in reporting what I had muttered in the Senate. And she and her colleague reported me to the police when I told another colleague of hers that her time would come, for karma would, in time, take her to task about her ‘barefaced lie’ ... ,” read the statement. “Nonetheless, I was obliged to tender a full apology since no flippant remark concerning the serious matter of rape should ever be made or can be coun- tenanced,”Nicholson added. The 2018 email fromwhich Johnson Smith read in the Senate Chamber, ac- cording to Nicholson, “was a reminder that he was called out for the comment in 2014, but a deported rape convict was embraced by the leadership of the then Opposition”. The issue to which he referred was that of a Jamaican pilot who was con- victed of sex-related charged in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar al- though he denied the charges. After serving five years, he was deported. Nicholson alleged that upon the pilot’s arrival at the Norman Manley International Airport, he was met and welcomed by the leadership of then Opposition. ‘Not true!’ Nicholson rejects Johnson Smith’s accusations in email saga A.J. Nicholson. RUDOLPH BROWN Erica Virtue Senior Gleaner Writer GEORGE WRIGHT, the legislator elected to the Lower House last September on a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) ticket as one of its 49 members, remains in that position despite con- demnation amid an uproar over a viral video in which a man was seen beating a woman. Thepolicehad soughtWright as aper- son of interest in thematter, but closed its investigations, citing the unwilling- ness of Wright and Tannisha Singh, the woman believed to be in the video, to continue thematter after they hadboth made conflicting reports to the police. The police also said the video footage was inconclusive. Wright has not denied that he is the man in the video, although he sought a two-month leave of absence from the House “for rehabilitation”, The Gleaner has been reliably informed. He is set to return as an independent mem- ber but still a member of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) when his leave expires. Female members of the House, who raised a firestorm after the abduction, rape andmurder of 20-year-oldKhanice Jackson inMarch, have nowgone eerily silent reportedly on instructions from the JLP’s leadership, according to party sources. “A shut-up order was issued. The instruction is that not a single word [should be uttered] fromanyone about thematter,”an insider toldThe Gleaner. Since the reported gag order, a peeved Gender Minister Olivia Grange said the Gender Committee, which she chairs, had blindsided her with a public statement amid a ragingpublic debate. Despite efforts tohave thematter die, many Jamaicans are still upsetwithhow the matter has unfolded and believe Wright should vacate hisWestmoreland Central seat. Among those speakingout aremem- bers of the diaspora. Communication specialist and author DianeYoung, who lives inConnecticut in theUnited States, said shewas shocked by the video, which shows a man beat- ing a woman with his fists then a stool. “I watched the video in question, and for the first half of it, I was watch- ing to see what was happening, and therewasn’tmuchgoingon that I could recognise, … but then afterwards, my mouthwas openand couldn’t close after I saw the start of the beating,” she told The Gleaner last week. “As a woman, as a mother, as a Jamaican, I was horrified. I couldn’t be- lieve thatwe couldhave somebodywho is supposed to be a representative of our nation, of our politics, of our people [seeming to] behave in such a manner. Wright should not be going back to his regular job. I cannot fathom how the police cannot secure a positive ID be- cause based on the level of technology that we nowhave, police candetermine theheight of the individual and thebuilt of the individual to identify a particular image,”Young said. DANGEROUS PROPORTIONS For her, thematter has takendanger- ous proportions for Jamaicans overseas. “Jamaicans living abroadwhowish to retire in their homelandare scaredabout doing sobecause they think aboutwhen they become older andhave to livewith the crime and violence escalating in the country. Many people do not feel safe and find it difficult to returnhome if the police are not equipped to deal with situations such as these,”she stated. “If the police have no way of secur- ing a positive ID, we are not safe. So I’m very appalled about this situation and basically what is going on right now in the country with the level of crime and violence being sohigh.We can’t tell our boys not tohit and abuse girlswhen the people in charge [seem to] display this kind of behaviour,”she said. Lorraine Smith, a licensedprofessional counsellor inNewJersey, hadone ques- tion: “What message are we sending to our youngmen andwomen, especially now in this climate with so many do- mestic violence incidents or intimate partner violence?” Diaspora demands Wright move - JLP gags House women from discussing controversy, says insider - Overseas J’cans press for MP’s resignation Romario Scott/Gleaner Writer INSISTINGTHAT theGovernment was on a bad legal footing and accusing the Holness administration of“selling out”the country as it sought to have China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) build the Montego Bay Perimiter Road Project, Opposition Leader Mark Golding said the order should be withdrawn. The opposition leader argued that, for the order to have been valid, the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project should have been approved by Cabinet and Parliament as a national develop- ment project. Golding said hemade checks and no such approval was given by Parliament. “The order itself, which is a signed order seeking to be affirmatively ap- proved by this House and the Senate, doesn’t provide in it any approval of the project as a national development project,”the opposition leader argued. Golding contended that the role of the order instead is to exempt the pro- ject from the provisions of the Public Procurement Act. The order also seeks to tie CHEC to wage rates agreed by the Joint Industrial Council and impose minimum labour quotas of 90 per cent and 50 per cent for unskilled and tech- nical local workers, respectively. “The order is bad on its face and should be withdrawn because it has not been approved by Parliament,” Golding charged. Construction of the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project is expected to begin by late 2022. Unlike other major road projects before it, taxpayers will be paying for its construction up front. The bypass, which involves the con- struction of 25 kilometres of roadway, consists of two segments. MONTEGO BAY BYPASS These are the 15-kilometreMontego Bay bypass, starting from Ironshore and leading back around to Bogue Road, and the Long Hill bypass involving the construction of 10 kilometres of highway from Montego Bay down to Montpelier. In brushing aside Holness’argument that it would not be fair to CHEC, which would have done substantial design works in anticipation of leading the project, Golding said hewasmore con- cerned about being fair to the Jamaican taxpayer. The project was to be origi- nally backed by Chinese cash. He said he would have no problem if Jamaica paid CHEC a fair amount for the value of the preparatory works that have already been completed. “But just to give this foreignmultina- tional the project at some negotiated price arrived at behind closed doors, without allowing other interested and qualified contractors to bid for the work, provides no transparency, no assurance of Jamaica getting value for taxpayers, and that is not being fair to the Jamaican people,”Golding said. “It is selling out the Jamaican people,” Golding added. Holness countered the Opposition, saying that the concern about transpar- ency should have been addressedwith the PNP administration when it was engaged in bilateral talks with CHEC. He said that the project had been in gestation for 20 years. Holness said the binding agreements ensured that contract documents could not be shared. The prime minister maintained that Jamaica had to act in good faith, saying that it was no fault of CHEC that Jamaica changed the borrowing arrangement and chose to fund the project itself. Holness argued that the tender pro- cess for the project would span a year with“the best effort”. “We looked at what is in Jamaica’s best interest by virtue of time.We know, the longer we wait to do this, themore the price of the project is going to es- calate,”Holness said. ‘SELL OUT!’ Opposition blasts MoBay bypass exemption but Holness says time is running out PLEASE SEE EMAILS, 4