With the possible exception of Portia Simpson Miller, the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Dr Fenton Ferguson, a son of Jones Town/ Trench Town and its environs, is perhaps the best politician on either side of the parliamentary aisle. He has an unblemished record of success in both parliamentary and internal party elections. He has never lost. His achievement should be seen as even more remarkable when one considers his family’s original political affiliation, with his mother being a successful businesswoman and an ardent Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) functionary.

More significantly, he has scored six consecutive victories in parliamentary elections for Eastern St Thomas, the seat which Sir Alexander Bustamante’s confidantes, the late Issac Barrant and Lynden E Newland carved into a bedrock of JLP support for 32 unbroken years, from Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944, to Michael Manley’s massive victory in 1976. The JLP would quickly regain control in 1980, rendering the PNP’s entry into their fiefdom a temporary blasphemy, until the coming of Ferguson in 1993. He would firstly unseat the formidable former JLP Deputy Leader and BITU Vice-President, Pearnel Charles, and continue on his unbeaten path by defeating Dennis M Wright, a businessman, in 1997 and 2002, and Omer Thomas, former head of the Bureau of Standards, in 2007.

Of the four vice-presidential candidates who supported Dr Peter Phillips in his losing challenge to Portia Simpson Miller for the party presidency in 2008, Ms Myrtle’s son was the only one who was successful. What therefore informs the tremendous level of respect and support that Dr Ferguson has received in unfriendly JLP territory and from a wide cross section of persons within his party? The answer lies in his upbringing and the life experiences of his formative years.

After receiving his BSc in chemistry (1970-1974) at Howard University, young Fenton Ferguson won a Government of Jamaica Dental Scholarship, began his doctor of dental surgery (DDS) programme in 1974 and completed it in 1978. His professional career has been marked by exemplary performance. As dental surgeon for the parish of St Thomas while assigned to the Ministry of Health from 1978 – 1993, he received many awards and accolades, including the Jaycees of Jamaica Distinguished Service Award and Lions Club of Portmore and Spanish Town’s Distinguished Service Award in the field of health in 1983; Ministry of Health’s Dental Surgeon of the Year 1989 and Dental Auxiliaries of St Thomas Award in 1989.

In his role as minister of health, he moved quickly to reform our health sector through the promotion of a vigorous, comprehensive agenda, which involved undertaking a number of initiatives after strategic review, among them: an infrastructure renewal programme, with the refurbishing and building of new health centres for expanding primary health care, with four converted into Centres of Excellence; established a chemotherapy unit at KPH; expanded the state-of-the-art medical waste plant, strengthened the vector control programme; initiated the upgrading of facilities for prenatal and maternal care, complemented by the training of specialist under the PROMAC ( Programme for the Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality) initiative.

Perhaps his most politically impactful achievement has been his relentless and courageous drive to remove smoking from public spaces, which he successfully piloted into law.

By nature a cautious man, he made a near-fatal slip in pursuing the numbers game with the Chikungunya outbreak of 2014, citing inconsequential officially confirmed death figures, instead of trying to enlist all critical stakeholders in a national drive to rid his country of the unwelcomed ‘plague.’ With this misstep, his widely acclaimed work was nearly undermined by the little Aedes aegypti mosquitos and the howling crowd clamouring for his head.

Then, in 2015, he compounded his woes by seeking to involve himself in explanations and details concerning the deaths of 19 neonates (babies), which he should have left to subordinates. In this he erred in Parliament, by referring to neonates as “not babies in a real sense,” which perhaps though scientifically correct, was highly insensitive and politically damaging.

Again, he delayed too long in producing the findings of an audit on the entire health sector, he unprecedentedly and commendably ordered. With public anxieties and disapproval at high pitch, pushed by an Opposition calling for his dismissal, an understanding Portia Simpson Miller rescued the career of her unfortunate minister, by transferring him to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Clearly too, his leader took into consideration, his pioneering and courageous work in passing the monumental anti-smoking legislation into law. She was also cognisant that in 2014, Dr Ferguson’s service to Government was recognised by the nation, with the award of Commander of the Order of Distinction (CD). Most noteworthy, he was also honoured as a Fellow of the International College of Dentists in December 2013 and on January 5, 2014 became one of only three practising dentists in the Caribbean to receive the Presidential Award from the 85-year-old organisation.

Perhaps his leadership chances have been irreparably damaged, a sad verdict for this amiable, honest and compassionate public servant, who as it turned out was a victim of intrigue by subordinates and his genuine desire for transparency. There is tragic irony in all this. Long before the ‘dead babies issue’, it was Dr Ferguson who had piloted a 3-billion European Union grant to finance PROMAC, specifically to prevent the very occurrences he was being pilloried for. This is why experienced medical leaders like Dr Alfred Dawes; former president of the Jamaica Medical Council and Senior Medical Officer of the May Pen Hospital, has cited Dr Ferguson as the minister who has done more than any other to modernise the health sector. That is why Professor Horace Fletcher, Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies declared that the media used a nine-day wonder without proper investigation, to launch unfair attacks on Dr Fenton Ferguson’s stewardship.

That is why also, the columnist Martin Henry in his November 1st 2015 Sunday Gleaner article, “Hospital Infections — Beyond the Fury”, was moved to reveal an instance of the nasty, surreptitious manoeuvres to remove him without justification:

“I got a media call which amounted to seeking my help in dragging Fenton to the guillotine by opinion without fact. I declined. The trouble is after the guillotining of Chief Magician Dr Fenton Ferguson… another human being will have to take his place… in a world where hospital or health care acquired infections (HAIs) are a growing and deeply worrying trend… The infant mortality number is a stubborn bit of medical statistics, it does not budge under the heavy weight of public outrage… The number is just around 14 for Jamaica… not bad in the international scheme of things… our country is smack in the middle of the global infant mortality data, lodged at 112 out of 224 countries in the CIA World Fat Book listing.”

Despite the aforesaid, apart from the author, not a single member of his party chose to defend him in respect of the ‘chikungunya communication misstep’ or the regrettable ‘dead babies issue’. Forgotten, was his non-stop work, his worth and genuine commitment to make Jamaica the health hub of the Caribbean. Only a very few of his colleagues and those on the other side of the House have not enriched their constituency performance, from the numerous health centres and other health care facilities with which he has littered the Jamaican landscape. How often have I seen them in the Gordon House lobby, making requests for his urgent intervention, for which he has never failed to deliver. History will be unkind to them.

The public is yet to learn and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health is yet to shed some light on unconfirmed reports that 120 neonates (babies) died in 2010. If the Permanent Secretary affirms the tragic tale, unknown at the time or thereafter by the JLP leaders responsible, they would be guilty of almost criminal negligence. Retroactive impeachment would be in order, if they knew and deceptively chose not to divulge such devastating news, while cruelly ‘calling for Fergie’s blood.’ For sure, even the biased social media army against Dr Ferguson, would be unable to recover from this unwelcomed report. If true also, the sad revelation will not only have made Dr Ferguson’s tenure seem like a golden age in health governance, but more poignantly, might be too late for a public reassessment and his own political redemption.

Despite the adversity of his setting, his undoubted capacity had once more allowed him a hopeful start at his new ministry, with a heralded pledge to place his portfolio in the centre of the nation’s drive to modernity and growth. Now on the Opposition benches, his future is uncertain but it is clear, that the ‘sleeping giant’ of Duff Street, who rose to become an internationally recognised dentist, a senior vice-president of the PNP, Cabinet minister and six-time Member of Parliament, has already fulfilled Ms Myrtle’s belief in education and personal decency, as the primary components of service to humankind.

Paul Buchanan, a land economist by profession, is a former Member of Parliament for St Andrew West Rural.