No walk in the park for Lightbourne

Laura Redpath, Senior Gleaner Writer

Olivia Grange sat back in an almost empty room across from the conference room where the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry was being held.

"Where's Dorothy?" asked Grange, the youth, culture and sports minister.

Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, justice minister and attorney general, who Grange described as an "iron fist in a velvet glove", walked in and placed her handbag on the bench.

"Come, Dor," Grange said affectionately. "Sit down and relax."

Lightbourne sat for less than 10 minutes before she got ready to approach the witness stand for the second day this week.

Grange, who was riding on a wave of pride having facilitated Cabinet's approval of the National Policy on Gender Equality, noted that women in representational politics face challenges rooted in gender.

Supporting minister

The culture minister, who is also responsible for gender issues, said she attended yesterday's enquiry proceedings to offer support for her fellow Cabinet minister, Lightbourne.

"Those of us (women) that are gentle are perceived to be weak," Grange said yesterday, which also happened to be the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.

"It's not easy. I feel it's important to be here for her and to demonstrate that support so others will recognise it," Grange noted.

For Sophia Williams, it was her second time attending the proceedings. She said she did not show her support out of political sympathy, but because of solidarity among women.

"He's too aggressive," Williams said of the People's National Party (PNP) attorney, K.D. Knight's, style. "But she is supposed to be able to manage herself."

Grange, aside from offering silent support from her seat behind Lightbourne during the proceedings, also said Knight should not go easy on Lightbourne because she is a woman.

"But respect is due, and not because she's a woman, but respect is due, period," she said.

At the start of yesterday's sitting, Knight paid tribute to women, especially Jamaican women, wishing them a "very pleasant International Women's Day, and not only today, but beyond".

But a couple of women outside the enquiry loudly disapproved of the PNP senator.

"Then after how him say him nah work under Portia (Simpson Miller, PNP president), you expect him fi deal with Ms Lightbourne nuh betta?" one of the women asked rhetorically.

"You're a member of the Senate, correct?" Knight asked during his cross-examination of Lightbourne.

"That is so, Mr Chairman, I suffer abuse every week," Lightbourne responded, sparking laughter.

"You know, minister, I'm going to bring out at a later stage your language in the Senate," Knight hit back.

"You are an abusive lady. You are the person who calls people all kinds of names."

A collective and drawn out "no" sounded throughout the room.

"The bad words you have told us, whispering in that (Gordon House) chamber, those foul words; the camera does not pick it up," the usually soft-spoken Lightbourne said, now agitated.

"(Knight) ah gwaan like him have strap over (Lightbourne's) back," a woman commented.

Knight's cross-examination consisted of reminders that the witness must answer his questions, at one point adding "and nobody else", resulting in commission Chairman Emil George stepping in.

"Mr Knight," he began, "when she's answering a question from you ... she's really answering us, you know. That is a fact."

laura.redpath@gleanerjm.com