I recall vividly the 1999 gas riots which effectively locked down Jamaica for two days. As a young parliamentarian it was the first time I was seeing the PNP visibly shaken. A week before an Armani-clad finance minister had arrogantly presented a budget which would be partially financed by increases in the gas tax.

Andrew Holness

There were only 10 Opposition members at the time against an overwhelming PNP majority of 50. The front bench seemed invincible. On Monday April 19, 1999, all hell broke loose. That morning, as I entered my constituency driving along Seaward Drive I was surprised.

I saw a well-known PNP activist dragging an old refrigerator across the road, followed a few young men with other bits of debris. I stopped and asked if they were 'switching'. The activist responded, "yuh tink a only Labourite a feel it". By 10:00 am every road in the Kingston 11 and Kingston 20 areas was blocked and by the midday newscast this appeared to be the case islandwide.

On the morning of the second day, I got a telephone call informing me that Parliament would be held regardless of the riots. I made my way to Duke Street, navigating and manoeuvring several roadblocks and obstacles.

"Now I know why politicians like SUVs," I joked to myself while climbing an embankment and then riding over a sizeable log laid across Barbican Road. Downtown was empty and for the first time I felt unsafe in the precincts of Parliament.

The Speaker at the time, Violet Neilson, called on the reverend MP Ronnie Thwaites to say a special prayer. Those ministers of government who took their seats that day were visibly shaken, some were literally shaking. As prayers were being said, gunshots echoed in the distance and seemed to get closer after each barrage.

(Above) File photo of 1999 gas price riots when nine people were killed and (below) demonstrators during last week's protest against the rising cost of living.

The thought of Parliament being invaded and taken over by thugs did cross my mind. On the adjournment, O T Williams came over to tell us of the looting and mayhem which was taking place in Grants Pen and of the attempts that were made to loot his business place.

Delroy Chuck and I visited Grants Pen. O T Williams' business was already up in smoke and there was nothing we could do. One lady who was from the area complained to us that security guards had driven by and arbitrarily shot and killed a pregnant girl at the corner of Grants Pen Road and Shortwood Road.

The body was still there, only a few chains from where we stood. Indelibly stamped in my mind, is the image of a small framed young woman dragging a Jacuzzi almost three times her size, across the Grants Pen/Shortwood intersection past the body of the dead pregnant woman. Disturbed by the sight, I asked her what she intended to do with the jacuzzi. She replied, "Wait till you see me and my baby inna dis tonight"!

As I looked on at total chaos around me, I resolved never to support any protest which could become violent. Breakdown in law and order benefits no one.

In a country like Jamaica where the distribution of wealth is greatly skewed to a few, where young boys walk around openly with AK-47 assault riffles that are taller than them, and the poverty of their circumstances is mixed with a feeling of alienation, any break in law and order is an opportunity to destroy everything.

This is a fragile society. At the end of the 1999 gas riots, nine persons were killed including a soldier, countless persons were injured, 152 persons were arrested and inestimable treasure in property, goods, custom and commerce was lost. However, the government took note and acknowledged that there was a new breed of Jamaicans who could not be ignored.

The protests called by the JLP last week was by comparison relatively peaceful. While roadblocks still featured prominently in the protests there was no destruction of property or loss of life and by 3:00 pm the protest was over. This was truly a 'civil' protest.

Now that the Opposition has been civil in its protestations to the government, we await the government's response. But this is a 'hard ears' government, they only seem to respond to harsh measures.

The usually diplomatic minister of information Burchell Whiteman clearly signalled that the government would not be responding when he said in a radio interview that the protest by the Opposition did not make the government any more sensitive to the plight of the poor.

Having embarked on a course of peaceful protest, the challenge for the JLP now is to get the deaf, insensitive government to pay attention.
The only way peaceful protests will grab the attention of the government is for those protests to be joined by other institutions in the country.

The protests last week would have been more effective if the PSOJ, the trade unions, the churches, the JTA, and other similar groupings had participated. Surely they must all feel the increasing pressure and hardship of life in Jamaica.

Maybe this is wishful thinking, because it does not seem likely that any of these institutions would come out against the government. After almost 17 years in power, the PNP government has unchallenged control and influence over almost all institutions and civil groupings in society.

This is a notable feature of modern Jamaican politics. Civil institutions are afraid of the government and are heavily populated, and run, by PNP sympathisers. I cannot recall any civil institution supporting the JLP in anything since 1980.

This is not a complaint; it is a lament. We have no one to blame but ourselves. The real challenge for the JLP is to reach out to these civil institutions and engage them. We cannot take power without them, and if we win we cannot govern without them.

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