Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Roger Clarke ... Opposition Spokesman on Agriculture. - File

ROGER CLARKE walked gingerly into the Chamber of Gordon House and, for the first time in his political life, headed to the Opposition benches.

He had hardly taken his seat when Karl Samuda uttered: "You look very uncomfortable over there."

If he was uncomfortable, Clarke had all reason to be.

During the recent election campaign, Clarke told People's National Party (PNP) supporters at a mass rally in Half-Way Tree that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would have remained in perpetual opposition.

"As the minister in charge of titles, I have asked my people to put in place a document to give to the Jamaica Labour Party which gives them entitlement to the area of parliament in which they now sit.

"All that area in Gordon House - bounded on the north by the northern wall, on the south by the aisle between opposition and majority party, on the east by the eastern wall, and on the west to that section just away from the speaker's chair - I bequeath that to them so that they can leave it for them and their children and their children's children," Clarke said then.

A man to cry

Soon after Clarke had taken his seat inside Gordon House, the Member of Parliament for West St. Thomas offered him a handkerchief, seemingly remembering that Clarke is one to cry. Indeed, the super figure of a man cried when he lost his post of vice-president in the PNP at its national conference a few years ago.

However, there were no tears from Clarke as he sat quietly with his opposition party during Thursday's official start of Parliament.

He later told The Sunday Gleaner that sitting on that side of the house was not that bad.

"It feels no different," Clarke said. "Mark you, anybody would want to be in the majority, but if the people say that is where you are, you just go there and do the best job of it, because there is a job to be done there also."

Clarke's PNP lost the September 3 general election to the JLP, winning 27 of the 60 seats in the House of Representatives. The JLP won 33, ending the PNP's 18-year reign in government. Clarke was there for 14 of those years and, had he not eaten his words, he would not have tasted life on the opposition benches.

Prior to Portia Simpson Miller winning the PNP presidential election, Clarke announced that he was quitting representational politics. He gave up his North East St. Elizabeth seat, which he had represented since 1993, to Kern Spencer.

However, with a change of heart, he moved into Central Westmoreland, a PNP stronghold which was seemingly heading towards the JLP. Clarke won the seat for the PNP, but watched as the party slipped into opposition.

Unfamiliar territory

But how does the 'Red Pole Bull' feel about eating his words and sitting in unfamiliar territory?

"There is no difficulty. The people have spoken, you are on the Opposition; you just take up your position and do what you have to do," Clarke says. "There is no problem, I was hoping that that would have been the case [pronouncements about keeping the JLP in opposition], but that is not so.

"I did feel that we were going to win even on election day. But the people have spoken. As opposition, we have a constitutional responsibility and that is what we are about. I look forward to doing the job."

PNP veterans Robert Pickersgill, Dr. Omar Davies, Dr. Peter Phillips and Dr. Fenton Ferguson were among the many high-profile political personalities gracing the opposition benches for the first time.

During the campaign, Pickersgill had said "the problem is that I do know what it is like to lose an election."

He has won his seat, but, owing to the failure of Portia Simpson Miller to deliver on her promise to "whip" Bruce Golding, the PNP, with Clarke and the crew, can now only think about how wonderful life was on the other side.