THERE is an energetic voice waiting to be unleashed in Manchester North Eastern, even as word emerges that the incumbent Member of Parliament will walk away from elective politics.

Educator, women’s advocate, and businesswoman Ethnie Miller Simpson wants to fill what she calls glaring gaps in operational procedures in the constituency, long dominated by her political opponent Audley Shaw.

Now experienced in life’s rugged political pathway she has stepped forward with an application to the Opposition People’s National Party to be its candidate in the next general election, and hopefully, to run against veteran Shaw, although grapevine talk is that the now Minister of Transport and Mining will not face the electorate again.

Manchester-born Miller Simpson, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer recently, said the time had arrived for the constituency in which she lives — which has the parochial divisions of Christiana, Craig Head, and Walderston — to get paramount attention. She believes that in any plan for the development of the constituency, agriculture and transport must be prioritised.

“We are a farming community in north east. I want to say to the people of north east Manchester, these things should have been done 10 years ago. The person you have voted for should have done them; I am the person who can now put them in place.

“Agriculture and transportation, in particular, would be my early term legacies. Through transportation the formation of a logistics hub would be a necessity,” she said.

Working with a Nigeria-based agriculture company even exposed her to new techniques and procedures that she believes would help the sector to grow much further than it has. Opportunities in agriculture still exist through that contact, as well as others, for example systems in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which she believes could be implemented in the constituency and parish.

Checks with the PNP Secretariat showed that Miller Simpson is the only applicant, so far, to vie for the seat. But, according to her, “In this political process you are not a candidate until nomination day so, any card can play.

“The people have reacted to me warmly,” said the woman who is often asked about her name that represents a spin around to that of former PNP President Portia Simpson Miller, which is often met with a chuckle

“I have been a little nervous about it because the people have responded so well. When people call you about the issues they are experiencing, you realise that these are not light matters. A lot of vulnerability is displayed when a citizen says to you, ‘Ms Miller, I need help in this area.’ These are not things to laugh about or to be trifled with; it’s people’s lives that we are dealing with and we need to deal with people with dignity. In politics sometimes we really do not often enough treat people with dignity.

“I was born here. Growing up, and when I come home and look at my community, nothing much has changed for someone who has travelled the world, then coming home. I know that things can improve,” she said.

Until there is an official announcement as to his future Miller Simpson will prepare for a battle with Shaw, whom she also had kind words for.

“Shaw knew my parents, and he knows me. He says it’s difficult to dislike me because I am personable, and he respects my achievements. I don’t see us as adversaries; we have a good relationship. He is no chicken, because having a career in politics for 30 years is no joke. It does not negate the fact, though, that quite a bit of work that could have been done in north east is not done. If he is the person I am going up against, if the PNP allows, I have no issues. If it’s someone else … no issues either. I am a numbers person. I don’t make decisions without data,” she added.

Should she be successful in her mission, the crucial issue of funding a campaign would be slanted toward people in the Diaspora, and local circles… those who mean Manchester North Eastern well.

She is confident that her coordination and organisational skills will result in a positive vibe for her.

“I take a page out of Barack Obama’s book in terms of organising, and the first thing I have been doing is reaching out to people here as well as in the Diaspora to say, ‘North East needs help,’ ” she said.

The second of three children born to a primary school principal mom and a farmer and agricultural extension officer dad, Miller Simpson, the only girl in a family that raised three children, spent her early years at Spring Ground, Manchester and then Tweedside, Clarendon, due to her father’s job.

Spaulding Primary School and Knox College were responsible for laying the foundation for a generous harvest of accolades in the tertiary world, which included stops at Knox Community College, Edna Manley School for the Visual and Performing Arts, Shortwood Teachers’ College where she earned a Diploma in Education, and later The University of the West Indies, Mona, for an undergraduate degree in international relations and psychology, and a Master’s degree in international relations. A Diploma in Human Resource Management was also thrown into the mix.

Those qualifications allowed the once-aspiring nurse to teach at Holy Childhood High School, spend five years at Digicel Jamaica where she, among other achievements, designed the curriculum for Digicel University, and became a leadership advisor at National Commercial Bank before going private shortly after the recession of 2008 set in.

One tough lesson she was forced to learn became clear to her soon after — “friend and business do not mix”.

“I started a business with friends and learned one of the toughest lessons in entrepreneurship about partnership — I learnt that friend and business don’t work; you have to be extremely careful for it to work,” she said of the flopped alliance that led her to set out on her own, and to remain solo for the last 12 years.

But in the midst of that there was always a place for politics, born out of the fall of the Berlin Wall which started in November 1989.

Apart from the demolition of the Berlin Wall, conversations growing up drew her closer to politics, and one fine day she decided that she wanted to become part of a political party. And she knew exactly which one.

“I got up and drove to PNP headquarters, walked in, and paid my dues as an independent member. I later joined a group and chaired a group,” she recalled of the earlier years.

Over the years she has maintained not just direct membership, but group membership, and takes good words from some of the stalwarts — among them her aunt Dorothy Miller, a veteran PNP member who also faced Audley Shaw in an 858-vote general election loss in 2002.

Put on standby to run in Manchester North Eastern when there were doubts over whether the chosen candidate, Donald Jackson, would turn up for nomination in the 2020 General Election, Miller Simpson decided to remain on the constituency executive she has chaired since late 2020, and rebuild.

“The PNP is a belief system for me. I have benefited, I am very social-focused and community-focused,” said the woman who described herself as a “Manleyite” in reference to the influence of the party’s former president, Michael Manley.

“Our generation was significantly impacted by him,” she said of Manley. In the same breadth the names of former party president and Prime Minister PJ Patterson; Maxine Henry Wilson, whom she describes as a “close friend who guides me”; Donna Scott Mottley; and PNP Policy Commission Chairman Anthony Bogues, also came up for commendation.

The finest accolades though were reserved for PNP President Mark Golding:

“The first thing that grabs me about Mark Golding is his humility. His intelligence comes second, because to many persons you hear him, but the humility with which he dispenses his information, the clarity with which he speaks, is so admirable.

“I also find that he listens quite a bit. He would have you share your ideas and when you would have finished then he says, ‘Okay, I agree with you here. How about if you do this?’ And he is the sort of leader, as a young Comrade he would refer you to other persons quite easily. He is very helpful and he values your ideas. I find him to be a delight to speak with and I am encouraged by his leadership. I am firm in my view that he is the right man to take the party forward,” said the National Executive Committee and Executive Committee member.

Politics aside, Miller Simpson is an unrepentant feminist who believes that women need to be empowered.

“I am a feminist; it’s a name I wear proudly. When I was doing my second-year teaching practice I was working with the boys at Kingston Technical High School and I realised I had a special place for young men. Even though I have worked mainly with women, I get along well with men.

“It cannot be that we develop one over the other but the situation that women find ourselves in, we were way behind the eight ball. And there is an argument that because we work with the women so much, they are ahead — more women graduating from universities, Jamaica now recording the most middle managers as female. However, when you look at it, the boardroom is still male-dominated and we still do not have enough competent women represented on boards. The other issue too, as owners when you look at the data a lot of women will do start-ups; women tend to remain small in business as opposed to creating big blue-chip companies, energy companies etc. Even in politics, the men tend to stay in politics a longer time than women. Even that needs to be a discussion.

“In 2011 I was selected for the Global Women’s Mentorship Programme, administered by the US State Department and Fortune. That programme allowed me to form relationships with women from across the world. That was a turning point in my life because it took me into deeper gender work — which had started on campus — but also economic empowerment of women and recognising the value that women play in our society.

“We have 51 per cent of the population but do we see that in terms of our value, our productivity, the competitiveness, the number of successful businesses that go past five years?” she asked.

Among the other activities she has indulged in over time are SELA — a Latin American organisation that focuses on development; UN Women, involving partnerships with the EU in the work of women. She has served as president of Women’s Entrepreneur Network of the Caribbean and has now transitioned to chairman. She also worked with a programme run by Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

It is no wonder she is inspired by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, seen as the foremost politician in the Caribbean region.

“Mia Mottley inspires me. She is my Caribbean prime minister. Mia is very forthright, well-researched, and when she speaks she speaks with knowledge. She speaks with an openness that I think all people can appreciate. She is also very forward-thinking — coming up with new, groundbreaking ideas and capitalising on them. Here in Jamaica we have not been as forward-thinking as we should have been,” Miller Simpson argued.