Azan says he didn't call Newby a monkey

People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for Clarendon North Western, Richard Azan, is denying that he referred to Warren Newby, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for the constituency, as a monkey in recent comments, arguing that his words are being taken out of context.

“I could never call any human being a monkey. I could never call anybody a monkey, and when I hear they saying I say black people are monkeys, how I could do that? My mother who I love dearly, is a black woman. How would I call someone, a black person, a monkey?” he questioned.

“Dem must stop dem damn foolishness,” he added.

At a recent political meeting, Azan, who is seeking to secure his fourth general election win in his native constituency, appeared to compare Newby to a monkey.

“Yuh know when yuh look pon wah monkey, dat is how him did look,” he said to much applause. “Comrades, all him did short of is a tail because only monkey can behave dat way.”

However, he told The Gleaner that it was Newby’s behaviour that he was describing, and not Newby himself.

“I never called him a monkey," he said. (I said that) he is behaving like monkey story because at no time that I said I was going to sue him and he called my name to say I said I going to sue him for work that he is doing, and I say a monkey style, (that)."

The JLP’s young professional arm, Generation 2000 (G2K), has demanded an apology from Azan for his “racist” comment, stating that he has resorted to this as a means to “compensate for irrelevance”.

“And I am calling on the leader of the Opposition, the president of the PNP to rein in his candidates because it cannot be while seeking office to lead a country as Jamaica these discriminatory and racists remarks are being made,” G2K president Shayne Kerr said.

- Sashana Small

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