Dr Kurt Waul enters political arena to unseat Warmington

Dr Waul, 41, takes over the reins of the party’s machinery in the constituency following the sudden death of Rudyard Mears, who was the PNP’s candidate/caretaker for the last five years.

A medical doctor of 17 years, Dr Waul joins his father Carlos – a former PNP councillor for the Church Pen Division during the 1990s – to enter representational politics.

The Old Harbour Bay native says he has been involved in political activism from the moment he became eligible to vote.

But the young general practitioner, who has done many charitable deeds throughout his community and alma maters – Marlie Mount Primary and St Jago High schools, accepts his newest challenge is a monumental task.

“If I didn’t think I could win then I would not try. I will use all the available time to me,” he said in an exclusive interview with Old Harbour News.

“I have basically given up all my hobbies,” he said. “Politics have become my hobby right now and if I’m going to try, I’m going to try real hard.”

Warmington has been the longest serving member of parliament in the constituency and for the almost four decades is a sure bet for the now governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). The 67-year-old Warmington is a political juggernaut and recently celebrated 50 years of active politics. He has been serving as MP since the 2002 General Elections. He was also the elected representative between 1980 and 1983.

“He’s a formidable opponent for sure and I won’t underestimate him,” said Dr Waul.

Certainly it will take enormous human and financial resources for the PNP to mount a serious challenge to remove an obdurate Warmington, who trounced Mears by more than 2,000 votes in the 2016 General Elections.

Mears’ campaign team remains largely intact and is seen as a strong group capable of returning the seat to the PNP.

Dr Waul, who was also part of that team during the last general elections campaign, said: “Mr Mears, when he died, left a formidable executive who are well experienced persons who have been involved in politics for a number of years; persons who are committed.

“So I was very fortunate to get that as one of Mr Mears’ legacy. I have learned a lot from them and I have learned a lot from Comrade Mears during his time when he was alive.”

Old Harbour News understands that Dr Waul is so far the only candidate to have indicated an interest to represent the PNP in St Catherine South West. If the current status remains unchanged, it is expected he will be confirmed in the post when the constituency conference is held in July.

Since his confirmation as interim chairman of the constituency at the PNP’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on May 20, 2019, Dr Waul has embarked on a series of activities in the area.

Last Sunday he was at the Marlie Mount Primary School, the second of several such stops, conducting medical examination of constituents.

“Politics for me is service, and from it comes down to service it doesn’t really matter what kind of experience you have, once you are willing to give the service,” he told Old Harbour News.

He declared he will run a clean campaign based on honesty and integrity and that “the other aspect of politics like trickery I am not in that”.

“What I bring to politics is the commitment not to misappropriate the funds of the country,” he said. “Because I see a lot of things in the country, small things, which if we could basically fill that gap it would go a far way in making the country a better place.

“For instance, earlier I saw an 18-year-old boy; this boy graduated since he was 16 years old with nine subjects in CXC and for the last two years he has been sitting at home because his mom could not afford to send him back to sixth form, and these guys (governing party) have been misappropriating millions of dollars which could basically send every boy in his position to school for probably years.”

“Yes they are building roads, they are doing their job but that’s the job of politicians, so I don’t see that as anything grand or great,” he added. “But on top of their usual jobs they are doing things that they should not be doing.

“Scandals after scandals; millions of dollars after millions of dollars being lost; moneys which can be used to fill simple gaps which have great, great impact.

“Sometimes for the want of $500 a child can become worthless, because the mother never had the $500 to buy shoes for him to enroll into HEART. So that’s the difference I bring.”