RONALD George Thwaites, Rhodes scholar, quit representational politics in disgrace three years ago. He attempted to stage a return at the local government level a year later, but quietly pulled back after it caused some disquiet.

But last week, some of his former constituents, speaking with their votes at a party constituency election, told him they were now ready to give him another chance.

Now 60, Thwaites appears set for a comeback.

The lawyer, Roman Catholic deacon, decades old talk-show host, and former Member of Parliament for Kingston Central, appeared destined for the political graveyard months before the 2002 general elections when allegations of professional impropriety swirled around him in his handling of cheques worth millions.

He did the decent thing and resigned from the House of Parliament. And he similarly did penance in his Catholic church.

Thwaites, a social activist, entered Parliament in the 1997 general election, but was forced to resign after admitting that his law firm had lodged two cheques for the Postal Corporation of Jamaica, valued at $10 million, to the firm’s account.

His son Daniel Thwaites was Postal Corp chairman at the time.

The cheques were reimbursed, but the issue was never fully clarified publicly.

After a forensic audit of the books of the agencies in which he was involved – and perhaps several hail Mary’s later – Thwaites was cleared by Auditor General Adrian Strachan of any wrongdoing.

For many though, there are still unanswered questions. But not among People’s National Party supporters in Central Kingston.

Last Sunday, delegates of the violence prone, inner-city constituency of Kingston Central, installed Thwaites to head the PNP organisational machinery there, in the process ousting sitting MP Victor Cummings as the constituency chairman.

The move comes as Thwaites informed the party that he wished to return to representational politics.

Besides fore-runners, the veteran John Maxwell and Aggrey Brown, Ronnie, as his radio callers know him, would become the face and voice of The Public Eye – a popular Jamaica Broadcasting Company (JBC) radio call-in show.

A former coffee farmer whose business interests would subsequently slip downhill, Thwaites had more luck as a radio personality, racking up more than three decades of talkshow experience, dating back to 1973.

In 1976 he began hosting The Public Eye, and did so until 1993. For the better part of 10 years he has been hosting Independent Talk on Power 106 FM.

Thwaites said it was not difficult for him to move from social activism into politics.

“One leads to the other. My social activism for what it is worth is based on my Christian convictions, and some people will have to find a political expression for this. I searched long and hard and found that the most viable option to pursue these things that I have, is through the PNP,” he said in a typical matter-of-fact response.

That being so, he sought out the people of Kingston Central, where his law offices have been located for years.

“I never left Kingston Central. I have been involved in the affairs of the constituency. I campaigned for Victor Cummings. I took him into Southside, the Jamaica Labour Party enclave. And you will never hear me say a bad word about him,” Thwaites said Friday.

Notwithstanding, he now intends to take the seat away from Cummings. And with internal party polls indicating that the sitting MP was likely to lose to rival Charlton Collie of the JLP, while Thwaites would likely win, there appears to be tacit approval from the PNP hierarchy.

Thwaites’ contribution from the back benches of Parliament as MP was well respected, and he has not been faint hearted in criticising his government for policies which he believes has made the rich richer, and the poor poorer.

“The democracy of my party allows us to agree that we disagree and no one holds it against you,” he said.

At the time of his inglorious departure from politics, Jamaica had began to see Thwaites as a possible Cabinet minister. His name was among those being proferred for the job as national security minister at a time when the country was demanding fresh thinking on runaway crime.

Thwaites on Friday was unwilling to hear questions about the public allegations which forced him to quit, saying he was not interested in rehashing what he called falsehoods.

“I stepped aside, because I felt great embarrassment. But I also felt that any public individual who, became so scrutinised, should do that, and allow due process. I did that, and in the end the word of the Auditor General said it,” he said.

“I did what I thought was the honourable thing to do as an executive member of the party.”

While he regained his public composure, he remained with the constituents who embraced him, and stood behind him during his hours of public contrition.

On Sunday after the results were announced, and his re-election as chairman of the constituency secured, he had these words for his supporters.

“I thank the people for the vote of confidence to lead the political work of the constituency. I support the Member of Parliament. It was a good contest, a fair contest,” he said.

His top agenda item was to ensure that the PNP speaks with one voice in the interest of an area where the majority is poor, unemployed and divided by crime.

How he proceeds was very clear in these comments.

“If I have a continuing presence in Kingston Central, I don’t want it to be the way it was before. I want it to be even more on behalf of everyone in the division. Too much blood has been shed already,” he said.

The constituency, like many others across the island, has been hit by an unending tirade of violence.

Like a recurring decimal, the society is made to relive the pain night after night as the bodies are tallied.

Thwaites believes that fairness, justice, education and employment is the answer, but those are the same virtues which proved to be Cummings’ undoing in a constituency of the impoverished and unskilled.

Cummings said he refused to hand out fish, but rather sought to teach fishing – a slight variation of the famous proverb. That did not go down well. Thwaites said he is not a renegade PNP, but that the party knows that he holds views that are dissimilar to the majority.

He recalled being a part of a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary which focussed on inner city and representatives came and walked with him through the constituency.

That walk may have been symbolic of his walk back into Gordon House as MP for Central Kingston, as Cummings watches.

virtuee@jamaicaobserver.com