Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston Western, Desmond McKenzie has stated that he did not tell the MP for Manchester North Western Mikael Phillips about his mother during the heated disturbance that erupted at the end of the sitting of the House of Representatives on November 3.

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Phillips, who hurled expletives at McKenzie and had to be physically restrained by both Government and Opposition MPs, apologised the next day for his behavior. The People’s National Party representative claimed McKenzie told him about his deceased mother twice.

McKenzie, who is also deputy leader of the governing Jamaica Labour Party, had earlier stated that he would not apologise because he had done nothing wrong and had not left his designated seat in the Parliament. He declared Thursday night that he did not disrespect Phillips’ mother. He spoke to the issue while addressing the annual West Kingston Constituency Conference at the Tivoli Gardens High School.

Remarking that “even Tuesday gone dem still a call mi name,” McKenzie said, “All of you in West Kingston know that my mouth set on spring, and I’m not afraid to talk. But you all know me, I would never tell anybody to go do wha dem say I tell that man to do to their mother”.

McKenzie said his late mother who he affectionately calls Miss Harvey, “would turn in har grave to know that har likkle black boy tell anybody anything about dem mother and I respect women too much to be disrespectful”.

The local government minister said if he committed a crime in Parliament by saying [to Phillips] you would not like anybody treat your mother in the way that you disrespecting the speaker [of the House of Representatives, Juliet Holness], I make no apology on doing that”.

According to McKenzie, “it is painful at times to see how low they [PNP MPs] stoop in responding to the speaker of the House”. He said what was disheartening is that “there’s no one over there [on the Opposition side] that can hold up their hands and say, enough is enough”.

The November 3 incident has drawn widespread criticism from sections of the society including the church. And, while addressing the commissioning service for justices of the peace in St Catherine on Thursday, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said the Parliament should apologise to the country. He also insisted that the speaker’s rulings must be respected at all times as he cautioned parliamentarians that their behaviour could be classified as wrongdoing that he said is now pervasive throughout the society.

-Lynford Simpson