BlackFacts Details

Derrick Smith tells all

The former senator and Member of Parliament (MP) for St Andrew North Western, who served the people of that Corporate Area constituency for 35 unbroken years, also held Cabinet appointments in National Security; and Mining & Telecommunications in Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administrations.

One chapter that is hard to ignore is titled 'Humiliation' in which Smith chronicles the embarrassment that engulfed his family members when they found out through the media that he had been fired as National Security Minister by then Prime Minister Bruce Golding, less than a year after the JLP took office in September 2007, following a domination of power for eighteen and a half years by the People's National Party.

Several weeks later, Golding reappointed Smith to the Cabinet to serve as Minister of Mining and Telecommunications, an offer that he agonised over before finally accepting.

Smith, now a consultant to Holness, also zoomed in on his relationship with former Tivoli Gardens 'Don' Lester Lloyd “Jim Brown” Coke, which began in 1983 when he operated from an office in Tivoli Gardens; the stigma of Coke's son Christopher “Dudus” and the effect his extradition had on Jamaica; having to contend with campaigning against Dr Jephthah Ford, and his identical twin brother Dr Japheth Ford in three general elections; trapped in a tense situation in Maverley in 1993; being shot at; his days of drinking liquor and smoking cigarettes; overtures made to him by the PNP and the National Democratic Movement to join their ranks; surgeries done while he fought diabetes and heart disease; the days at his alma mater Calabar High School; his life in the Jaycees movement; experiencing Hurricane Charley in 1951; his time in horse racing as an owner, among several other subject areas.

“This is my first book, and I simply want to share my experiences with the people, many of whom I hope will learn from the stories told,” Smith told the Sunday Observer.