BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, February 03, 2014
HUGH Buchanan was thrown firmly into the spotlight when he defeated the formidable Dr Christopher Tufton in the December 29, 2011 general election.
The South West St Elizabeth seat had been won convincingly by Tufton in the September 2007 general election, after he defeated the People’s National Party’s Rev Stanley Redwood, who later became President of the Senate, a position that he has since given up.
Buchanan, 32, started Kingston College at the same time as talented Jamaica and West Indies cricketer Marlon Samuels in 1992.
He made the best of a scholarship to earn a Bachelor’s degree in physical education and sports from the International School of Physical Education and Sports in Havana, Cuba, and returned to teach at the Black River High in 2005.
But the death of his father on January 10, 2011 after a fight with cancer of the colon, and Rev Redwood’s lack of interest in pursuing a career in elective politics following previous defeats in another constituency, opened the door wider for the young man, who, like a keen canine, was always sniffing at possibilities to enter politics’ Promised Land.
That election victory over Tufton, when he polled 9,453 votes to his opponent’s 9,440, flung him under the lamp of scrutiny, starting out on a positive footing and one chapter ahead of his father’s history book, as Donald failed in his bid to win a parliamentary seat on his first attempt in 1980.
Now, Hugh Buchanan is under an enlarged microscope, having to contend with comparisons with his father, and the work and achievements associated with their time.
“Some people understand it (what goes on) and some people don’t. My father had far more responsibility than I have. He had far more reach within the party, he had a longer history with the people that he represented than I do. He was a two-term councillor, lost a general election, and became deputy general secretary before he was Member of Parliament.
“So his experiences and what he was able to do, and then being either a state minister and in the latter years a minister, gave him a lot of reach, especially some of the portfolio responsibilities that he had — housing, water, labour and welfare, all of these ministries,” Buchanan said.
“That’s why they were looking at Tufton to perform as minister of agriculture, because that would fit the profile of the constituency,” he added.
The younger Buchanan said that his father was able to handle the constituency on a different level than he.
“Some people are able to understand that. All I have to do now is go out there and do the work. Even if I am not a minister or state minister, whenever I bring something to the table, present it to the minister and tell that minister that we need to work on them, I do not get sidelined.
“I have looked at the numbers in terms of what has been spent on other constituencies on roads, water, electricity and other utilities and amenities and I believe that I have got a fair share of the scarce resources that are available in the Jamaica that we speak of today.
“The economy is also very different today than what it was — job opportunities are different, so there will always be the comparisons,” he said.
Buchanan is the only sitting MP whose father served before in the same seat that he now represents.
It is more difficult for him, he believes, as the people of his constituency are more capable of using up their score sheets in a qualified way.
“I have spoken to Mikhail Phillips, who has also followed his father’s footsteps into representational politics, but not in the same seat,” Buchanan said of the Member of Parliament for Manchester North West, who is the son of finance and planning minister Dr Peter Phillips, the veteran MP for St Andrew East Central.
“Mikhail has said to me that he would never do it (run in the same seat of his father), because he knows that it would be very hard, and that comparison is something you can never get rid of.
“There are persons who have said to me that I am a better member of parliament than my father. I don’t know why, but there are some things that I have done that were never done before.
“The Dalintoba, road for example, is now fixed. The people in Dalintoba told me that they didn’t want to vote for me in 2011 because they hadn’t got their road fixed, whether under the PNP or JLP, so they didn’t want to come out and vote. They have got that now and so those people think I am the best Member of Parliament they have had, because I have been able to address their issue.
“In politics you are never going to be able to address everybody’s problem at once, but I will stand in there. One thing you are not going to have with me is that I am not going to be resigning from representing the people of South West St Elizabeth, even if there is an election defeat, which I don’t plan for.
“It takes a lot of hard work to win an election, but I would not walk away from the people of South West St Elizabeth, as I am from the people and I don’t even see myself representing any other constituency. If it means that I have to leave representational politics, then I would probably take up my profession — going back to teaching and sports,” Buchanan said.
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Hugh Buchanan fights any comparison with father Donald
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