GOVERNMENT backbencher Andre Hylton says he believes former Governor General Sir Howard Cooke, who died on July 11, was a man of trust, honesty, purity, unselfishness and love, but was a ‘warrior’, too.

“Sir Howard’s desire was to see both sides of the House truly embrace these beliefs and to see a unified Jamaica and a unified Parliament and, most importantly, a reduction in partisan politics,” he said of his former Eastern St Andrew constituent.

Hylton, a first term MP, said Sir Howard was strongly influenced by the principles of the international moral and spiritual movement, Moral Re-Armament (MRA) which changed its name to Initiatives of Change (IofC), a non-governmental organisation now based in Caux, Switzerland. He noted Sir Howard’s close ties with the MRA and the fact that he took a number of current MPs with him on visits to Caux. These, he said, included Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell, and Opposition Spokesman on Finance Audley Shaw.

Hylton has not only travelled to Caux with Sir Howard, but said he has spent much quality time with him at his home and was eventually influenced by him to enter politics. He won the Eastern St Andrew seat in December, 2011.

According to Hylton, he and Si Howard shared many pursuits, including the membership of the Rotary Club of Kingston; a love for classic cars, including E-type Jaguars and Triumph Mayflowers, with Sir Howard serving as honorary patron of the Jamaica Classic Cars Club and Hylton as head; and, eventually, a common passion for politics.

He said that Sir Howard revealed to him an occasion on which he actually led a gang of thugs to stone a house which, it was alleged, housed supporters of an Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Member of Parliament for North West St Elizabeth, Neville Lewis Jnr.

According to Hylton: “One of the stories he told me was of Mr Norman Watson (a People’s National Party candidate in North West) St Elizabeth, who called him and said, ‘Sir Howard, we are having problems in the constituency. The Opposition has brought some rogues who are giving the people problems’.

“Sir Howard decided that he would come to his aid, so he got three cars of ‘ruffians’ from Montego Bay. But, before they went into the cars, he asked them to undo their pockets, to make sure they had no weapons and, on his way to St Elizabeth, he loaded the three cars with rock stones, found himself a nice spot overlooking where these boys were staying and, Mr Speaker, they pelted rock stones on that house, and all those boys who were there disappeared. This is the kind of warrior we talk about when we talk about Sir Howard.”

The parliamentarians, especially government members, seemed unsure how to react to the revelation, which didn’t seem to fit in with the kind of image of Sir Howard which was being portrayed in the tributes from his former parliamentary colleagues at Wednesday’s special joint sitting of Parliament to honour him.

According to Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) records, Watson ran against Neville Brice Lewis, a former JLP deputy leader and Cabinet minister who inherited the seat from his father Neville Cleve Lewis. The younger Lewis beat Watson on both occasions he challenged him, in 1972, by 311 and by 1,563 votes in 1976.

North West St Elizabeth has remained the JLP’s main stronghold in that parish since. The current MP is JLP deputy leader, JC Hutchinson.

Lewis, after whom the town of Lewisville in St Elizabeth was named after rising water forced the relocation of the town of New Market, died in Miami, Florida in December, 2006 at the age of 76. But his remains were brought home and buried in his hometown of Lacovia, beside the grave of his father, a former minister of communications and works.

Incidentally, the first lesson at Lewis’ funeral service was read by then Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. She had to choose between his funeral service in St Elizabeth and that of the popular actor/comedian Charles Hyatt in Kingston. She chose to read the first lesson in Lacovia and had her tribute to Hyatt read by Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba in Kingston.

Eighteen parliamentarians paid tribute to Sir Howard at a joint sitting of both Houses at Gordon House on Wednesday, including Prime Minister Simpson Miller and Opposition Leader Andrew Holness.

Thursday, August 7 and Friday, August 8 will be observed as the official period of mourning for the former governor general. Flags on all public buildings are to be flown at half mast.

A State funeral for the former governor general, who died at the age of 98, will be held on Friday, August 8 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, George Headley Drive, Kingston, starting at 10:00 am. Interment will follow in National Heroes Park.