FIREBRAND Jamaica Labour Party Member of Parliament for St Catherine South West Everald Warmington, in an emotional farewell to his “friend and brother”, former Senate President Professor Oswald Harding, King’s Counsel, gave him full credit on Monday for helping him navigate his toughest political experiences which he said were engineered by the very party he is loyal to.

Warmington, known for his candour, in delivering a tribute to Harding during a thanksgiving service at The University Chapel in Mona, St Andrew, said the former diplomat who held the distinction of being the longest-serving senator in Jamaica’s history and the first president of the Senate to serve two non-consecutive terms, had been his friend for all seasons and the backbone of the party.

“Ossie and I travelled roads through good times and bad times, difficult days and good. Ossie and I became friends after the Jamaica Labour Party lost the 1972 General Election, a time no one would stand for the party, and at that time it wasn’t kosher to say in public that you were a member of the Labour party and working for the party,” Warmington told the sombre gathering.

“We founded then Young Jamaica and we were the voice of the Jamaica Labour Party, because after the 1972 election the party started a civil war among themselves and were destroying themselves as a party. It was Young Jamaica that carried the banner for the Jamaica Labour Party throughout the 70s — there was no party. Ossie Harding stood up for the party and never wavered. We worked relentlessly, we carried the fight throughout this country. He had no fear of anything. There are a lot of others who came after that but they don’t know the history. We stood and we fought relentlessly,” the politician said further.

He said Harding, who in 1986 was appointed minister of justice and also became the attorney general of Jamaica, was a stabilising force for the party, and his partner in conflict.

“We have never left each other on the political field, we have never ran away from political battles. He was quiet in his demeanour and presentation but I was the opposite to him, but we worked together throughout these things. When a lot of things went down, Ossie was the voice of reason, the voice of justice in the Jamaica Labour Party. And one of the things that drew me closer to Ossie and Marigold [widow of Harding] was that during the 80s, in my darkest days, when I was at the end of the rope, Ossie said, ‘Stand strong. Do not give up. Stay and fight,’ ” Warmington reminisced.

He said Harding was one of two individuals who, during the 1980s, held strain with him when tensions rose in the party which led to him being an outsider.

“Ossie Harding and Dr Percy Broderick — against all the pressure that came on them that said, ‘Move away from him! Do not associate yourself with him’ — those two stood for justice and for reason and it’s through Ossie Harding why I am standing here today. It is through Ossie Harding that I am here — the friendship, the guidance, the support that I got from Ossie and Marigold. I can say, those two, the love between them was made in heaven,” Warmington said.

“At the time during my persecution, when I was kicked out of Parliament unceremoniously and driven out of the country by my own Government…Ossie Harding never left me. Even when I was abroad, every day, every week, Ossie Harding was on the phone. When I came back, he stood with me in politics. When Ossie was on his sick bed you can rest assured that at least twice a week I get a call from Ossie and we can discuss everything, because he knew I was persecuted for nothing and the only sin I committed then, I happened to have won a constituency that was ordained by God for a particular family. In my darkest day when I had two young children…and I was kicked out, Ossie was the only one, and Broderick, who stood with me, gave me encouragement. This is why I survived and I am here today. I owe all I have to Ossie Harding and Marigold Harding; they gave that [support] to me and that strength to me,” Warmington said to pin-drop silence.

Waxing scriptural, the tough-talking politician said, “Ossie my friend, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace, and may the angels take you on their wings to paradise. May Abraham meet you at the gate and take you with joy into new Jerusalem. My brother and friend, farewell, farewell.”

Harding, who spent his formative years in west Kingston, died on June 24 at the age of 90, sparking an outpouring of tributes from members across the political divide on his life of public service that spanned more than five decades helping to shape Jamaica’s parliamentary democracy, legal profession, and the education sector.