KINGSTON, Jamaica — A veiled threat of civil disobedience and a prediction from Member of Parliament for  St Catherine South Eastern  Dr Alfred Dawes that the Jamaica Labour Party is facing a wipe out at the next general election, drew  raised eyebrows, some laughter, and later a caution during Tuesday’s sitting of the House of Representatives.

Dawes’ threat and bold declaration came during the debate on a motion for the Standing Orders to be referred to the House Standing Orders Committee for review.

His comments were made against the background of another contentious sitting that saw the now familiar standoff between Government and Opposition members, with House Speaker Juliet Holness at the centre of the dispute.

It started when Holness refused to allow a question from Leader of Opposition Business, Phillip Paulwell, about the non-tabling of the annual report of the Integrity Commission.

Paulwell refused the repeated instructions of the speaker to take his seat and his Opposition colleagues, in unison, banged their desks while chanting “we must be heard”.  The disturbance lasted several minutes before the sitting resumed with members of both sides accusing the other of disrespect and unfair treatment.

When he contributed to the debate, Dawes said, “I consider myself a new breed of politician but I tend to think of a different mindset in thinking why I consider myself a new breed; not that we tend to be disruptive”.

That was a direct response to former House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert who, during her contribution to the debate blasted Opposition members, describing them as a “new breed of parliamentarians” for their supposedly rude and disruptive behaviour, in particular towards Holness. Dalrymple-Philibert took particular aim at the Member of Parliament for St James Southern, Nekeisha Burchell, describing her behaviour as the worst among MPs.

According to Dawes, “What the House and the Speaker and Jamaicans looking on should understand is that we’re all students of Thoreau and where one does not have power, and those in control of the power do not offer justice, then the only alternative is civil disobedience”.

Henry David Thoreau is the 19th century American author of Walden and Civil Disobedience. His philosophical and political ideas have influenced many prominent people throughout history, among them Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

Dawes told the House that history has shown this to be the case throughout every independence movement. He cited that in the Westminster tradition of governance practiced by Jamaica, the ruling party extends courtesies to the opposition.

“Not as charity but as insurance to understand that one day the majority will become the minority,” he remarked.

“Unfortunately, the government members of this House give the impression that they will be in government forever and too many on that side of the House behave that way,” Dawes stated.

Despite the next general election not due before September 2030, Dawes had a warning for the government members.

“In the next general election there’s a possibility that the lucky among you will be sitting here and the unlucky will be sitting outside of the House” he said.

The bold declaration was met with what appeared to be suppressed laughter and jeers from the government side.

Later, when he closed the debate on the motion, Leader of Government Business Floyd Green wrestled with whether to respond to Dawes’ civil disobedience comment.

“The member from St Catherine South East, maybe I shouldn’t even countenance it with a response,” said Green.

Noting that “we all decided to run for office and that “we all were elected to sit in this House”, Green said, “Once you come in here, you have to follow the rules”.

“If you don’t want to follow the rules you resign your position. But once you come in this House follow the rules of the House. You don’t get up in this House and then say civil disobedience; that is not the message, no matter how cool it may appear because we are disregarding the same laws that we’re trying to enforce, that we’re trying to build an orderly society on”.

“And all of us in here know better and some of us pander to the public to try and get likes and it does not help us,” Green added while imploring his colleagues to lead by example whenever they enter the Parliament.

-Lynford Simpson