Editorial | George Wright’s atonement no private matter

George Wright rarely speaks in his own voice or in his own defence. At least, not audibly so, or in public. He has continued in that fashion.

When questions swirled three years ago over whether Mr Wright was the man seen in a video beating a woman with fists and stool, he held his public counsel. He neither confirmed nor denied.

What was established was that Mr Wright and his partner – now his wife – Tanisha Singh, had at the time of the emergence of the viral video each made complaints to the police, accusing the other of assault and battery. The police investigation soon petered out because, according to the constabulary, neither party wanted to follow through with their complaint.

The George Wright affair received significant (and prolonged) attention for two significant reasons.

When the allegations were levelled, Mr Wright was, as he still is, a member of parliament (MP) for the constituency of Westmoreland Central, representing – as he is officially again – the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Moreover, in a country where approximately four in 10 women report some form of intimate partner violence, and nearly the same amount experienced violence from non-partners, the stool-beating episode coincided with increased scrutiny of the problem of gender-based violence, after a series of killings and rape of young women.

BECAME AND EMBARRASSMENT

It is understandable, therefore, although he publicly admitted to nothing, that George Wright became an embarrassment to the JLP.

Indeed, the party announced that its “requisite organs” would consider Mr Wright’s future in the party, and Prime Minister Holness addressing the Parliament of his “outrage” at the violence, said that if the perpetrator seen in the video, was indeed an MP, it would impair “our long-standing … anti-violence strategies and policies, particularly as it relates to gender-based violence”.

The discussion of the video and the debate over the identity of the persons therein provided the platform for the Opposition leader, Mark Golding, to reintroduce an impeachment bill to Parliament. Mr Golding’s proposed legislation maintained the critical elements of one tabled a decade earlier by his namesake prime minister and former JLP leader, Bruce Golding. Except that the language of the Opposition leader’s version would allow for the impeachment of an MP whose behaviour was similar to that of the man in the video.

In the midst of the maelstrom, Mr Wright, at the urging of his party, applied for, and received, a three-month leave of absence from Parliament to attend to some unspecified business. Officially, he also had the party’s whip removed, effectively suspending him from the JLP’s parliamentary caucus, though not from membership of the party.

He returned to Parliament more than a month ahead of time to sit on the opposition side of the House. Shortly thereafter, Mr Wright ostensibly resigned from the JLP. He, however, made clear that he continued to support the party and its parliamentary mission.

Notably, the JLP’s general secretary, Horace Chang, conceded in an interview that Mr Wright’s resignation from the party had “made it easier for us”.

At the time of Mr Wright’s return, Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert, then the Speaker of House, read a statement in the House on behalf of Parliament’s female members, denouncing violence against women.

She said: “We, therefore, have never condoned and will never condone violence in any form, but in particular gender-based violence. Together we feel the urge at this time to come together in solidarity with our sisters, women, who are in the line of fire from the lethal forces of domestic violence, most often meted out to them by men who may be intimate partners, co-workers, family members or simply community members.”

CATALYST FOR A CHANGE

The George Wright Affair was the catalyst for a change to Parliament’s Standing Orders to formally establish a Women’s Caucus in 2023.

Three years on, George Wright, parliamentarian has offered no public explanation of the events in the video, or whether he was a party thereto. But as this newspaper has said before, the prima facie evidence isn’t in his favour.

Last week the Jamaica Labour Party formally readmitted George Wright to membership. To be clear, he hadn’t gone far.

Mr Wright again sits on the Government benches in Parliament. He is set to stand for the party in the general election this year.

This newspaper believes in the possibility of redemption. But redemption (as we reminded the health minister, Christopher Tufton, in November 2022, when he berated people who weren’t shown charity to George Wright) is usually preceded by an admission of wrong or guilt, followed by atonement.

Whatever caused the JLP to remove its whip from Mr Wright and to inveigle his supposed resignation, wasn’t, or oughtn’t to have been, a private matter between them. The JLP exists to win, and wield state power, and Mr Wright is a member of the legislature and part of that process – he, like political parties, the government and all legislators, owes a fiduciary obligation to all Jamaicans.

It is not hypocrisy to insist that any admission of wrong or atonement by George Wright, for whatever the sin might have committed, should be shared with the public. The request for forgiveness must be to Jamaica.