First-time People’s National Party (PNP) councillor-elect for the Duhaney Park Division in St Andrew Western Michelle Thomas hardly had time to bask in her victory before taking on colleague politicians about their errant behaviour in public.

Thomas aimed her first salvo at two politicians — Member of Parliament (MP) for St Catherine South Western Everald Warmington who was booted for vowing to limit public funds and resources to the PNP councillor-elect in the Old Harbour South Division and PNP’s Dennis Meadows, who was stripped of his position as standard-bearer for Trelawny Northern after he made comments endorsing scamming while on the campaign trail.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, Thomas described the comments as “unfortunate and embarrassing”.

“What we need are politicians who will conduct themselves and speak with some level of substance so that it doesn’t seem as a curse out ring and a bagga-bagga type of a system,” the practising attorney-at-law said.

She added that it is her wish “that politicians, when they go on certain platforms, [they] remember that we have young children hearing them, and we are role models for a lot of people and that we should behave ourselves as such”.

Addressing Warmington’s statement, Thomas clarified that councillors do not get funding from MPs, instead funds are provided by the Parish Council.
“The MP sometimes may support councillors, but the funding does not necessarily come from a Member of Parliament,” she explained.
Be that as it may, Thomas, who won 65.66 per cent of the votes in last Monday’s local government elections, defeating Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate Joseph Gregory, noted that Warmington is well known for his controversial comments.

“In fact, the last outrageous thing he did was when he referred to my Member of Parliament [Dr Anthony Hylton] as Riverton Dump and that caused public outrage. And he even referred to Lisa Hanna as Jezebel. For me, as a woman going into politics, that’s also unbecoming,” she said.
Thomas suggested that despite the bad apples among politicians, Jamaica has grown as a society in which PNP and JLP supporters are living harmoniously, as evidenced by little if any criminal activity among them.

Additionally, speaking on her new role, Thomas said she takes it seriously and intends to address key issues in the Duhaney Park Division.
“First of all, Duhaney Park needs attention. The roads are in serious disrepair and people have been crying out for assistance with infrastructure development,” she said.

“The state of the road has been like that for decades, even from I was a baby. So that’s one of the things that I’m looking to do in my early tenure is to ensure that at the very least I address some of these roads,” Thomas added.

— Candice Haughton