Tears of resilience

Member of Parliament (MP) Rhoda Moy Crawford, who wept on the political platform on Sunday, says her tears were the culmination of a “tough” journey which included a recent emergency surgery.

The Manchester Central MP, who is desperately seeking to retain the constituency for the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the coming general election, said in the midst of an intense political campaign she was “brought to death’s door” with a ruptured appendix late January.

Crawford, who said she hesitated to share the details of her health complication, told JLP supporters and a platform seating JLP heavyweights Dr Horace Chang, Michael Stern and controversial MP Everald Warmington that her tears were not of weakness but resilience.

Mentioning the deaths of her mother and several family members throughout her political journey which began in September 2020, Crawford said she has had a “tough” few years as a political representative.

“I was home battling the flu and I started to feel some pain and I thought it was gas pain, so I was drinking tea and taking all sort of gas medicine but the pain just would not leave,” said the young MP.

Crawford said she was at her Kingston home reeling from the pain but was ultimately forced to knock on her neighbour’s door, begging to be taken to the hospital.

She said she was transported to Andrews Memorial Hospital in St Andrew and from there she contacted Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton because the pain remained intense.

“Dr Tufton made some arrangements for them to transfer me to the University Hospital [of the West Indies]. They ran several tests and when they when they did the CT scan and found that my appendix was badly ruptured. I almost died,” said Crawford.

She said she was subsequently admitted on the Tony Thwaites Wing of the hospital for several days, something she said she did not share with senior party members, including Chang.

“Even on my sick bed I was signing letters. I was looking after my constituents. I was responding to your messages because that is my commitment. I asked the Lord and I begged Him in prayer. I said, ‘if You raise me up, if You allow me to live. I am getting back in my constituency and I am going to fight with all my might to ensure that victory is returned to the people of Manchester Central’,” said Crawford.

SERIOUS POLITICAL PRESSURE

Crawford, who shocked the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) and its supporters when she defeated senior Comrade and incumbent Peter Bunting in 2020, is facing serious political pressure in the constituency which markedly raised her profile among Labourites.

However, the novelty of her feat is believed to have waned amid an unsubstantiated rumour she has repeatedly denied and the failure of the JLP’s Manchester Central machinery to secure a single division in the February 2024 Local Government Elections.

Still, Crawford has dismissed any assessment which suggests her inability to return to the House of Representatives after the next parliamentary election, calling it propaganda from the PNP.

“This argument about we never win any council in the February 2024 election, this argument that because we never win any council we are in trouble. Nothing nuh go suh. Local government elections and general elections are two different elections,” she asserted.

Crawford argued that when she assumed the MP role, there was one JLP councillor who subsequently died. Since then, she said she has been “carrying this load” with caretakers and party workers.

She is expected to face Mayor of Mandeville Donovan Mitchell in what is expected to be a keenly contested battle for the constituency that had been held by the PNP from 1989 to 2020.

Declaring herself the hardest working and most caring MP Manchester Central has ever had, Crawford said Mitchell has been missing in action despite being in office for more than a decade.

She touted road rehabilitation, the trucking of water to constituents, the Greater Mandeville water project to come on stream and some $30 million she said has been spent in the constituency on education and training as her fuel towards a second term.

Crawford said she and her workers are waiting for Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness to announce a date for the polls.

“We naah make nobody distract we. We naah listen to nuh more propaganda because after that deh big lie weh unuh tell pon mi no more lie can’t worse than weh unuh talk bout mi the other day.

“So Labourites, Dr Chang, Manchester Central is ready and I will tell all them political analysts. If I were you, you take Manchester Central and mark it as the safest seat for the Jamaica Labour Party,” said Crawford.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com