Sharon Hay-Webster

Sharon Hay-Webster (born 29 September 1961) is a Jamaican politician.

She was a member of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Jamaica from 1997 to 2012, representing the People's National Party.

She first ran for election in 1997 under the PNP banner, easily beating Jamaica Labour Party candidate Tom Tavares-Finson to win the race in the South Central St. Catherine constituency, succeeding PNP incumbent Heather Robinson.

The seat itself was a long-time PNP stronghold, having previously been held by Ripton MacPherson and then Derrick Heaven.

She was returned to her seat in the 2002 elections, part of a widespread PNP victory which saw them retain their parliamentary majority for a record fourth straight term.

In July 2003, during a parliamentary debate on childcare, Hay-Webster suggested that young women with three or more children be subject to compulsory sterilisation.

Opposition parliamentarian Ernie Smith spoke out in favour of the idea, and further suggested that schoolgirls undergo regular virginity tests in order to clamp down on teenage pregnancy.

Local businessman Sameer Younis also made public statements in support of her idea.

In contrast, Vernon Daley, a columnist for the Jamaica Gleaner, described Hay-Webster as making a fool of herself by proposing outdated ideas based on shallow thinking.

Another Gleaner column derided Hay-Webster's idea as "medieval".

Spokespersons for local human rights organisation Jamaicans for Justice and women's rights groups Women's Inc. and Women's Media Watch also described the proposals as crazy, invasive, and gender-biased.

Hay-Webster's second term in office was also punctuated by controversies over Spanish Town gang violence between Oliver "Bubba" Smith's One Order gang and Donovan "Bulbie" Bennett's Clansman gang, the former supporters of the JLP and the latter of Hay-Webster's own PNP.

She came to international attention after the 2004 Haitian coup d'état, when she escorted Jean-Bertrand Aristide from his temporary exile in the Central African Republic to Jamaica at the invitation of then-Prime Minister of Jamaica P. J. Patterson.

The major highlight of Hay-Webster's second term was her March 2004 trip to the Central African Republic on behalf of Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson and the Caribbean Community, to meet with Jean-Bertrand Aristide after he was ousted in the 2004 Haitian coup d'état and to discuss his desire to return to Haiti.

She was part of a larger delegation which also included African American dignitaries, namely TransAfrica Forum founder Randall Robinson and U.S. congresswoman Maxine Waters.

She described the visit as tense: at the time, the CAR was marking one year since the coup by François Bozizé, and the CAR government put out a heavy military presence in anticipation of trouble.

She then escorted Aristide to Jamaica, in what she later described as a "humanitarian action" and not a political one.

Aristide would remain in Jamaica until the end of May, when he left for South Africa.

In February 2004, fighting broke out between the two rival gangs, leaving 19 dead.

The trigger for the violence was reported to be a conflict over control of the lucrative protection racket surrounding the town's bus terminal.

In the aftermath, Hay-Webster made public statements distancing herself from the violence and claiming she had no ties to the gang leaders, earning her criticism even from fellow PNP member and former South Central St. Catherine MP Heather Robinson.

After the killing of Bennett in November 2005, Clansman members publicly proclaimed that they were withdrawing their support for the PNP.

Hay-Webster admitted that she previously had dealings with Bennett's followers, and expressed confidence that she could win back their support, but denied that she had any dealings with Bennett himself.

However, in later years she crossed party lines to work with fellow woman politician and neighbouring South East St. Catherine MP Olivia Grange, successfully reducing gang violence.

In her re-election campaign for the 2007 elections, Hay-Webster faced off against Devon McDaniel, a JLP member who had formerly represented the South Trelawny constituency but withdrew from politics in 2005, only to announce in February 2007 that he would stand against Hay-Webster for the St. Catherine seat instead.

Media reports suggested that the PNP could face a strong challenge from the JLP in the race for the South East and South Central seats in St. Catherine.

Hay-Webster and her opponents signed a Political Code of Conduct pledging to keep the elections violence-free.

On Nomination Day (8 August), Webster and McDaniel both turned out with marches of hundreds supporters to the nomination centre at Spanish Village Plaza in Spanish Town; the police were called out, but the rival groups mingled without violence.

Hay-Webster herself was returned to her seat, but the PNP as a whole lost their parliamentary majority.

The major issue in Hay-Webster's third term would be her U.S. citizenship, part of a larger battle between the JLP and the PNP over foreign citizenships held by their respective members which broke out almost immediately after the 2007 elections.

The JLP won a slim majority, but immediately faced challenges in the victories of two of their members.

Hay-Webster's third term in parliament was marred by a controversy over her citizenship of the United States, leading her to announce in 2009 that she would renounce U.S. citizenship.

However, in 2011 it came to light through the United States diplomatic cables leak that she had withdrawn her application for renunciation, meaning she remained a U.S. citizen.

As the ongoing controversy heated up, Hay-Webster resigned from the PNP, and her former party called for her to step down from her parliamentary seat as well.

Her resignation from the PNP made her only the third independent politician in 19 years to sit in parliament.

Hay-Webster joined the Jamaica Labour Party in November 2011 before losing her seat in parliament in the 2011 Jamaican general election.

Prior to entering politics.

Hay-Webster was a lecturer at the University of Technology, Jamaica.

She had also worked as an employee of the Social Development Commission, then part of the Ministry of Youth and Community Development.

The man who would become her husband initially opposed her ambition to become a politician.