Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Jamaica Labour Party aspirant for the Eastern St. Andrew constituency, Joan Gordon-Webley, gets a kiss from Opposition Leader Bruce Golding during the party's annual conference at the National Arena on December 3, 2005. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

IN THE cut-and-thrust politics of the 1970s, Joan Gordon-Webley often went for the jugular. Two weeks ago, during a campaign speech in South East St. Andrew, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate showed she had lost none of her bite.

She launched a scathing assault against Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and the constituency's Member of Parliament Maxine Henry-Wilson of the People's National Party (PNP).

Her fiery speech may have got the blood of Labourites pumping, but not everyone was impressed.

Mrs. Henry-Wilson, who is also the Minister of Education and Youth, described her opponent's comments as 'vintage Joan Gordon-Webley'. She said considering the fickle nature of political factions in the constituency, her outburst was irresponsible.

Scoffing at her critics

Bishop Herro Blair, head of the Peace Management Initiative, who has worked tirelessly to restore calm in South East St. Andrew, told The Gleaner last week that he had received a letter from Mrs. Henry-Wilson concerning Mrs. Gordon-Webley's speech, but had yet to speak with the latter. Blair is also the Political Ombudsman, charged with monitoring breaches of the Code of Conduct governing politicians' behaviour, particularly during election time.

Mrs. Gordon-Webley, a small, feisty woman in her mid-50s, scoffed at her critics. She said she was simply speaking the truth.

"I've got back the tape and run over it, and there's not one word in there that is divisive, not one," she told The Gleaner last week. "She (Mrs. Henry-Wilson) says I am promoting 'vintage politics'. If by vintage she means during the last (PNP) presidential race when she told the Jamaican people not to take a chance with Portia, then I will tout vintage politics."

Return to Jamaican politics

Mrs. Gordon-Webley also continued her attack on Mrs. Henry-Wilson's record as MP, saying, "Her approach is one of remote control; she doesn't go there and she hasn't done anything."

Mrs. Gordon-Webley replaces Phillip Henriques as the JLP's candidate in South East St. Andrew. She returns to Jamaican politics after a somewhat tumultuous stint in Grenada where she was an adviser to that country's Prime Minister, Keith Mitchell.

Up to last year, she lived in Trinidad and Tobago where she ran an educational programme that helped place regional students in American colleges.

Mrs. Gordon-Webley, a mother of two adult daughters, is one of several veteran politicians contesting the next general election which many expect to be held this year.

Most cut their teeth in politics during the 1970s when Jamaicans were bitterly divided between the socialist policies of Prime Minister Michael Manley and the PNP and the conservative Edward Seaga, who led the JLP.

She was one of 51 JLP candidates who won a seat in Parliament in the October 1980 General Election, winning the East Rural St. Andrew seat over the PNP's Perry Stultz.

Her husband, Captain Glenmore Webley, was also a victorious JLP candidate that year, winning the East Kingston and Port Royal seat. He died in 1987.

Born in Pell River, Hanover, Joan Gordon emigrated to England at age eight and grew up in the Midlands city of Wolverhampton. Interestingly, she says she returned to Jamaica in 1973 because of the hope a newly-elected Manley offered.

But by 1976, she was turned off by the Manley administration. She said the state of emergency, and an incident in South St. Andrew that year, influenced her to enter politics on the side of the JLP.

"Tony Spaulding had sent bulldozers into Rema and was removing people from the area, and they claimed that it was because the people were Labourites," she recalled. "Later in the day Mr. Manley addressed the Rema people, saying what a shame this was and he was totally opposed to things like that, and whatever wrong was done to them he would make right."

Fallout with Seaga

Manley, Mrs. Gordon-Webley said, did nothing. Within days, she was speaking with JLP General Secretary Bruce Golding, who assigned her to West Central St. Andrew for which Ferdie Yap was the JLP's representative.

At the time, Yap was incarcerated under the state of emergency.

Mrs. Gordon-Webley held the East Rural St. Andrew seat for nine years until she was beaten in 1989 by the PNP's E.G.G. Barrett. A fallout with Seaga in 1993 saw her leaving the JLP and joining Golding in the fledgling National Democratic Movement, as a vice-president, two years later.

From what she has seen to date on the campaign trail, Mrs. Gordon-Webley believes the JLP will be returned to power after nearly 20 years in Opposition. She also sees herself back in Parliament.

"The people (of South East St. Andrew) have spoken and I know they will speak in a more definitive way on election day," she said.