'Shower Labourites' and class politics

Robert Buddan, Contributor

Dr Andrew Wheatley was selected as the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) candidate for the newly created South Central St Catherine constituency last Sunday. The constituency is new, but early signs suggest that his politics might not be. TVJ's 'First News' the next morning showed him celebrating his selection by rallying "Shower Labourites".

The phrase is as telling as it is tragic. It combines the names of the infamous Shower Posse with that which describes supporters of the JLP. This relationship marks the saddest period in our two-party history and the most unfortunate for a proud party started by the working-class hero, Sir Alexander Bustamante.

This openly proclaimed association continues the pattern of brazen, in-your-face acknowledgement of a violent brand of politics that has overtaken this party. Every shooting, every murder, every rape, seen in the news each day, while not committed by this gang or its affiliates, owes some legacy to the equally brazen and aggressive attack on our system of democracy, law and order and decency perpetrated by this Posse.

But worse, this brand of politics has been emboldened by the Manatt-Coke commission report that not only says, in likewise brazen fashion, that justice does not have to be done, it does not have to be seen to be done. By finding no misconduct on the part of the prime minister and his supposed Shower Labourites, there is nothing that the Shower Labourites, whether they be gangs or misguided supporters, have to be ashamed of and nothing to apologise for. Their absolution by the report makes the association between this posse and that party the open boast of its newest candidate.

But it is a dangerous boast that has not gone unnoticed. The 'Breakfast Club' programme of Thursday, July 14 featured a conversation between host Raymond Pryce and guest David Rowe, Jamaican-Miami law professor, to the effect that the American authorities are wondering whether the JLP has become an extension of the Shower Posse as some political groups, like Hamas became extensions of political and supposedly terrorist organisations. They will wonder if this is what Dr Wheatley means by "Shower Labourites".

Honour and Democracy

Democracy, especially in the British tradition, evolved from the old aristocracy which practised a code of gentlemanly honour that it enshrined as honorific titles in hallowed roles and offices to command respect from and, thus, authority over, the people. Dr Wheatley is the recent bearer of this old tradition. As mayor of Spanish Town he bears the lofty title 'His Worship'. Dr Wheatley hopes to be capped with another title, that of 'Honourable', should he be elected from this constituency.

It is, therefore, most unfortunate, anomalous and degrading of this tradition that he should celebrate his selection in honour, not of the democracy that has crowned him, but of Shower Labourites, a name which shames democracy. Can he be His Worship and Shower Mayor or Honourable and Shower Labourite MP at the same time?

Democracy also evolved from the middle class which gradually took power from the aristocracy but shared in its honorific titles in the expectation of practising its gentlemanly ethic while representing the masses, or commoners as the British call them.

Dr Wheatley shares this middle-class status too with the majority of parliamentarians around the world. If we define middle class by education and profession, Dr Wheatley would be like the more than 80 per cent of Jamaican parliamentarians who have a tertiary education, having attended the University of the West Indies, and much to his credit, earned a doctorate. This puts him in a prestigious profession right up there with the lawyer, educator and businessman.

It is, therefore, even more anomalous for such honorific and professional titles of these social orders to be combined and celebrated under the insalubrious label of Shower Labourites. The last thing we want is for the higher social orders to contaminate and corrupt the lower social orders of grass-roots activists and party delegates. The truth is, however, that the decline in the character of politics in Jamaica and many places is the result of a decline in the character of the upper and middle classes. Politics everywhere is primarily a middle class-led activity. When middle-class values, honour and ethics decline, political values, honour and ethics also decline.

Dr Wheatley is part of the socially successful middle class. Politics around the world is middle-class politics. Jamaica is no exception. There is even a theory of middle-class politics called patron-client politics. In this theory, the middle class acts as political patrons of the rich and the poor who are their clients for contracts, jobs, party financing, violence and more. It is through this relationship that the different classes corrupt each other.

I don't mean to single out one person, because there are other lawyers, doctors, business persons, preachers and the like who ought to be solid middle-class persons but are not. And, I won't generalise about parties and politicians as a whole because we often do so in order not to have to identify the real culprits or lay proportionate blame where it belongs. But Dr Wheatley's identification with Shower Labourites was shocking, and he is an important man in politics and in Spanish Town.

The ghost that haunts Spanish Town

The choice of the term 'Shower Labourites' must be worrying because of how it describes the mayor and his supporters, especially for a city like Spanish Town. Spanish Town has an organisation called the Spanish Town Citizens Against Gun Violence. We fully understand why. A main objective of the organisation is to reform society through peaceful solutions.

No one really knows for sure, but there might be as many as 18 garrison communities in the volatile Old Capital. Spanish Town is associated with notorious gangs like One Order, whose operations are thought to extend to Portmore, Clarendon, St James, Westmoreland, various areas of Kingston and even to Brixton, in the United Kingdom. The Clansman gang also rules sections of Spanish Town.

All of this makes it even more disturbing to hear the mayor celebrate the word 'Shower', the most notorious of all Jamaican posses. In the last few years, the old city has developed a worrisome reputation for crime and violence, forcing down property values and causing potential buyers to bypass the city and look along the highway corridor instead. It is not an attractive place for residential development.

As recently as May, it was reported that the Ministry of Tourism had more than $100 million to spend on Spanish Town but was afraid to do so because of the frequent outbreaks of gun violence there.

A 10,000-man march against violence in Spanish Town, scheduled originally for last April demonstrated the disgust that many good citizens of that town felt, and the low turnout itself was evidence of the fear people were gripped with in Spanish Town. It is difficult to see how the mayor can responsibly lead Spanish Town's development unless he seeks to reform society through peaceful solutions.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.