SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — There was pandemonium at Wednesday night’s Emancipation vigil held at Norman Square in Savanna-la-Mar following allegations that an angry Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmoreland Western Morland Wilson disconnected the sound system in the middle of the programme.

Video footage seen by the Jamaica Observer showed Wilson seemingly touching the sound system before cops led him away from a boisterous crowd.

Wilson, Councillor Dawnette Foster (Jamaica Labour Party, Cornwall Mountain Division), and their supporters were upset that the MP was not allowed to read the prime minister’s message during the civic event organised by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) in collaboration with the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC).

Organisers objected on the basis that Wilson had arrived late, while the governor general’s (GG) message was being read, and protocol dictates that the GG’s message is the last delivered.

According to an Observer source who was at the event, Wilson began unplugging the microphone of the performer, who was George Nooks at the time, after his request to read the prime minister’s message was refused by JCDC Parish Manager Coretta Spence and the master of ceremony (MC) for the event.

The MC was vice-chairman of JCDC’s Westmoreland Cultural Committee, Councillor Michael Jackson (People’s National Party [PNP], Whitehouse Division).

The source said after the microphone was repeatedly disconnected, an annoyed Nooks and his team left the event. Things then became even more heated.

“The crowd started advancing on Wilson, but by this time the police were on site to prevent the situation from getting worse,” said the Observer source who added that Councillor Foster was “hurling expletives at the people and accusing them of hitting Wilson”.

The vigil is among a slate of activities organised by the PNP-controlled WMC as part of Jamaica’s Emancipation and Independence celebrations. It was supposed to end at midnight but because of the dust-up it ended about 45 minutes early.

“Wilson left the scene about 20 minutes after Nooks departed, when most of the crowd had left,” explained the source who said the police thought it safer for the MP to choose that moment to leave.

On Thursday, a defiant Wilson told the Observer that what got him angry was the way the situation was handled.

He admitted that he arrived late but said he was given the impression that he would be accommodated.

“I was told that as soon as the governor general’s message is read, I would be allowed to read the prime minister’s message,” the MP explained.

He said when he realised the official programme was coming to a close without him taking the podium he sought answers. According to Wilson, Spence and Jackson both attributed the decision to each other.

“So I brought both parties together. And at that point, they said to me that they don’t want the prime minister’s message to be read because it’s a breach of protocol. And the governor general’s message was read prior. I then said to them, ‘But I have been sitting here; I arrived and I waited. And you guys told me that that’s how it’s going to proceed. And now you’re telling me something else. I want the prime minister’s message to be read,’ ” said Wilson.

“At that time, persons who were there stood up with me, and they started to make an uproar because they too wanted the prime minister’s message to be read. People saw it as injustice. We stand up for our right for the prime minister’s message to be read in these public civic forums. And at that point, persons started to unplug the speaker boxes while there was an artiste performing,” he added.

In Wilson’s view, the JCDC handled the issue poorly.

“I am very disappointed in how JCDC acted. I’m very disappointed in the politicisation of the event and, of course, the narrative that’s being carried by the Opposition and all the innuendos and suggestions that are being made. Because all they wanted to do was to make the civic ceremony a political event. And this is behind optics of people screaming, ‘Time come’ and ‘Get rid of the Government’ and ‘We want change’,” he added.

‘Time come’ is the PNP’s campaign slogan.