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NEARLY three years after an outburst at the Port Antonio Infirmary earned him much flack from the public, one-time State Minister for Local Government, Robert 'Bobby' Montague, has explained what drove him that day.
"I was emotional. For that I will not apologise, however, being a minister of government, if the circumstances would happen again I would handle the situation a little different," Montague, now an Opposition Jamaica Labour Party Senator told colleagues in the upper house Friday.
In July 2009, Matron Sharon Burke of the Port Antonio Infirmary in Portland got a memorable verbal lashing from Montague who, during a visit of the facility, found the sanitary conditions there too much to handle.
Burke's response to Montague's queries about the reason the infirmary had been overrun by flies earned her the wrath of the former state minister who scolded, "woman, don't insult my intelligence. I asked you about fly infestation and you come tell me 'bout mango season"."
His angry retort was recorded by television news cameras who were present and broadcast on national television later, earning the condemnation of civil service unions and the public at large.
Speaking in the Senate on Friday on a resolution he brought urging the government to start a programme to improve the housing conditions of the country's poor, Senator Montague allowed those present a glimpse behind his anguished outburst that day, earning himself the obvious commiseration of his colleagues.
"As a Minister of Government maybe I should not have allowed my emotions to take over. However, I was the principal caregiver for my mother for two years, who suffered from two strokes, and when I read that report that day and saw the condition of the infirm, the destitute — I saw my mother lying in a bed in that infirmary and there is nobody in the island of Jamaica who would not be moved to see their mother in those circumstances. I am only human," Senator Montague said.
"I fired her nurse and I fired her helper and I resigned my job at Mutual Life to give my mother the care I believed she deserved. So if the circumstances were to be rehashed I would handle the situation differently but understand that I am only human," he said further.
"Not because these persons are wards of the state must we allow them to exist in squalor or unsanitary conditions. I was moved. When I returned to the ministry I made sure the infirmary was repaired and the equipment put in place and the staff, including the matron, retrained, and we undertook a programme to upgrade the infirmaries islandwide," he pointed out.
The Senator also took the opportunity to remind individuals seated in the Chamber at Gordon House that misfortune was not necessarily picky.
"Any one of us could be a resident in an infirmary in the next 10 or 15 years. When you go into these infirmaries and sit and talk to them and hear what they used to do in their younger days, it could be any one of us," Montague said, noting that he has since mended fences with the matron.
"I was emotional. For that I will not apologise, however, being a minister of government, if the circumstances would happen again I would handle the situation a little different," Montague, now an Opposition Jamaica Labour Party Senator told colleagues in the upper house Friday.
In July 2009, Matron Sharon Burke of the Port Antonio Infirmary in Portland got a memorable verbal lashing from Montague who, during a visit of the facility, found the sanitary conditions there too much to handle.
Burke's response to Montague's queries about the reason the infirmary had been overrun by flies earned her the wrath of the former state minister who scolded, "woman, don't insult my intelligence. I asked you about fly infestation and you come tell me 'bout mango season"."
His angry retort was recorded by television news cameras who were present and broadcast on national television later, earning the condemnation of civil service unions and the public at large.
Speaking in the Senate on Friday on a resolution he brought urging the government to start a programme to improve the housing conditions of the country's poor, Senator Montague allowed those present a glimpse behind his anguished outburst that day, earning himself the obvious commiseration of his colleagues.
"As a Minister of Government maybe I should not have allowed my emotions to take over. However, I was the principal caregiver for my mother for two years, who suffered from two strokes, and when I read that report that day and saw the condition of the infirm, the destitute — I saw my mother lying in a bed in that infirmary and there is nobody in the island of Jamaica who would not be moved to see their mother in those circumstances. I am only human," Senator Montague said.
"I fired her nurse and I fired her helper and I resigned my job at Mutual Life to give my mother the care I believed she deserved. So if the circumstances were to be rehashed I would handle the situation differently but understand that I am only human," he said further.
"Not because these persons are wards of the state must we allow them to exist in squalor or unsanitary conditions. I was moved. When I returned to the ministry I made sure the infirmary was repaired and the equipment put in place and the staff, including the matron, retrained, and we undertook a programme to upgrade the infirmaries islandwide," he pointed out.
The Senator also took the opportunity to remind individuals seated in the Chamber at Gordon House that misfortune was not necessarily picky.
"Any one of us could be a resident in an infirmary in the next 10 or 15 years. When you go into these infirmaries and sit and talk to them and hear what they used to do in their younger days, it could be any one of us," Montague said, noting that he has since mended fences with the matron.