IN the wake of fiery and violent protests by supporters of gangster Donovan ‘Bulbie’ Bennett, denouncing the ruling People’s National Party for their don’s demise, Sharon Hay-Webster said she was confident she could reclaim the political support of the group.

PNP supporters burned flags and t-shirts bearing the image of national security minister Dr Peter Phillips, a day after a deadly police operation at Bennett’s hilly haven in Rock River, Clarendon.

Several protestors pledged a withdrawal of support for Phillips and the PNP, the party to which Bennett’s notorious Klansman gang was associated.

But, Hay-Webster insisted their anger was short-lived, and that they would soon embrace her party again.

“This too shall pass,” said the political representative for South Central St Catherine, the staging area from which ‘Bulbie’ launched a long and violent crime career that earned him the police soubriquet ‘Most Wanted Man’ in Jamaica for involvement in almost 100 murders in the last two years alone.

“Those who truly support the PNP will continue to so do,” declared Hay-Webster, who is supporting Phillips in his leadership bid for the presidency of the PNP and by extension, head of government.

She also challenged party supporters to decide whether they wanted be ruled by criminals or by legally elected officials, while maintaining that she had no dealings with Bennett.

Hay-Webster acknowledges, however, that she did engage Bennett’s gang members, but only those not on the wanted list, and that she got involved at the behest of the police.

Despite Hay-Webster’s declarations, senior policemen placed the blame for Bennett and his gang’s prowess squarely at the feet of elected representatives.

Last week, they publicly requested of councillor Ned Lawrence that he help locate his son, whom they identified only as ‘Devil’.

On Friday, police in St Catherine told the Sunday Observer that ‘Devil’ was believed to be a member of the Klansman gang.

They said up to Friday morning, Lawrence had not responded to their entreaty to come to them, but could not explain why no police officer had personally gone in search of the councillor, nor why he was not asked about his son during the conflict when he was on the ground with the police.

During the siege of the old capital, which lasted two days, commanding officer of the St Catherine North police, Superintendent Kenneth Wade, stated that the slain strongman had received support from elected representatives of the PNP.

But Hay-Webster shot back that her involvement in meetings with members of Klansman and rival gang One Order was at the invitation of the Police High Command, issued to her as a ‘person of influence’ two years ago.

“In October 2003, I was called to a meeting at the Police Commissioner’s office after three men were killed on Mandela Highway when they were completing work on a roundabout,” the MP told the Sunday Observer.

“I was asked to hold meeting in areas where I have influence with a view to reducing levels of violence.”

Prospects for future peace meetings seem uncertain as immediately after the most recent talks, held three weeks ago, a car in which Central St Catherine MP Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange was travelling, and other vehicles were shot at, resulting in the death of Omar ‘Thicurus’ Campbell, 25, a jobless man of Tawes Pen.

Both Hay Webster and Grange attended that meeting, which, Hay Webster said, was encouraged by Supt Wade.

Wade, she said, “sent Deputy Superintendent Horace Brown as his delegate.”

The peace meetings also involved police representatives, and members of both major political parties, the governing PNP and the opposition Jamaica Labour Party, as well as representatives of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI).

PMI board member Stephney Webb said it was not inappropriate for the organisation to meet with persons affiliated with the two Spanish Town gangs.

“The meetings provide an avenue for dialogue so that persons can talk about what they are experiencing,” Webb explained. She said further that participants in the meetings had ways of contacting the instigators in an effort to reduce levels of violence.

“They know who to tell to get them to cease and desist – if only temporarily,” Webb said.

Webb, also an officer from the Office of the Political Ombudsman said the presence of PMI at meetings in warring communities prevents the violence from escalating.

“Communities beg for us to be there.”

Webb said the PMI has no report of ‘Bulbie’ being supported by any political representative, and called persons with such information to report it to the Office of the Political Ombudsman.

There was no PMI representative at the October 6 peace meeting as the organisation was informed about it late, Webb said.

The St Catherine Chamber of Commerce and Industry did not have a representative either, as president Dennis Robotham said he was informed about the meeting just before it started.

Hay-Webster said she had never met Bulbie, nor provided support for him, nor had she been approached to do so.

“I would pass him on the street and would not know him,” she told the Sunday Observer.

This is quite a different scenario than the one her predecessor, Heather Robinson, faced in 1996 when she resigned as MP for the area after Bennett propositioned her for support for his then fledgling gang.

Then he was only linked to about 20 murders.

Bennett was on the police ‘most wanted’ list for more than a decade.

editorial@jamaicaobserver.com