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Manley’s
Legacy
A Blemish on Our History
By Aduku Addae I find myself ill-suited to the task of
writing a reflective piece on the legacy of Michael Manley. My
thoughts run in tortured convoluted arcs and emerge in the most
irrational patterns whenever I chance to think about the man. It
is not easy to speak about an individual whose socialism brought
him to accept capitalism and the "free market" as the
remedy for poverty and social exploitation. It is not easy
at all to speak about a man who is contradiction personified.
My father revered Manley in a manner
reminiscent of the Christian reverence for the divine soul.
In that special spot, high on the living room wall, from which
the white Christ holds dominion over Africa’s scattered flock
in households throughout the Diaspora, Michael Manley assumed
his place among the trinity (Haile Selassie, Norman Manley, and
Michael Manley). He was the Jesus in my father’s house, come
with the “rod of correction” issued to him by the King of
Ethiopia (and the God of Rasta nations) to “put them under
heavy manners” whilst he, Manley, “row the boat ashore.”
Manley was “Joshua” the “redeemer” and he held dominion
over my father’s household as Pharaoh did over Egypt.
My father was a “comrade” to the bone and
in his 70 years of life never wavered from that conviction up to
his passing in 1997. He was born, lived and died a “PNP man”
and an incorrigible Manley supporter.
Passion as strong as was my father’s belief
in the People’s National Party (PNP) touches everyone that
comes into contact with it. This passion affected us as children
without exception. To this day my siblings remain faithful to
the People’s National Party.
As intimated earlier, Manley was the Messiah,
the Christ redeemer in my father’s household. As such, he
exercised considerable influence over me during my formative
years. For about 5 years, between 12 and 17 years of age, I ran
around with the rest of the 'sheep' waving my fist in defiance
and shouting "Power!"
Later, after 1977, when I became
disillusioned with his week-kneed conduct, after he sold us out
to the IMF, I dismissed Manley as a fraud and disavowed any link
with the People’s National Party. Most of my contemporaries
were driven to this state of disenchantment and rejection. In
fact we rejected Jamaican party politics outright and joined the
radical Rasta rebellion. So I labor from a disposition of early
sentimental attachment and later deep political disaffection to
assess Manley's legacy.
I must mention that whereas my father was a
fanatical comrade, as I have previously discussed, my mother, on
the other hand, had a strange and wholesome immunity to
comrade-ism and PNP mania. She held fiercely to the view that
politics was a lot of foolishness and loyalty to a political
party, and a political leader, was just plain stupidity. To have
held such a view since as early as 1969, as clearly as I can
remember, made my mother a political heretic. Today it is the
view held by 67% of those of voting age in Jamaica. It turns out
it was a very advanced and latently revolutionary view.
My political vision oscillated between these
polarities of sentiment embraced by my parents. I grew up in the
hinterland of being supportive of the PNP and being disdainful
of stupid party politics. This appears to have had a telling
effect on the development of my political consciousness. And
here I stand, disdainful of tribalistic politics, proposing to
speak informatively about the “Manley Legacy.” My
proletarian consciousness and working class disposition
precludes any sympathy for this so-called legacy and I cannot
pretend objectivity in my assessment.
It is not my sentiment that Manley was a
“great” political leader as many tributary commentators have
maintained. It is indisputable, however, that this character was
a visible actor in 1980s World politics and that in Jamaica his
charisma has had a signal, if abortive, effect on the incessant
power struggle between the antagonistic elements in Jamaica
society, across the class and racial divide. Manley was a
politician with an aristocratic bearing who peddled a reformist
politics that landed him in hot water with the heavy-hitters in
Washington, and which, ultimately, served to retard the
proletarian struggle against five hundred years of brutal
domination.
In 1972 (at 12 years going on 13) I was swept
up in the frenzy of the political campaign that brought Manley
to power in a landslide victory. He was victorious over the
Jamaica Labor Party then under the discredited leadership of the
Hugh Lawson Shearer. (Shearer was Manley’s cousin, who gained
ill-repute for declaring Walter Rodney, the Pan African hero and
proletarian revolutionary, persona non grata.). Manley was
swept into power on the ground swell of a popular awakening that
manifested in every dimension of the peoples lives (cultural,
political, religious).
The years between 1972 and 1980 may have
proven a pivotal moment in our history. The youth of the nation
was caught up in the frenzy of Manley’s demagoguery and threw
their last iota of energy behind his populist programs. Free
Education, National Youth Service, Land Reform, Self Reliance,
and National Literacy were slogans that constituted a battle
cry. Youthful energy drove the expectations awakened by the
token reform programs to a crisis point.
Everywhere the energy was bubbling and
building to a revolutionary pitch. By 1976 Jamaican youth were
ready for a reconfiguration of the island society into a new
social “paradise” based in no uncertain terms on the
unabashed institution of socialist production and distribution.
They were ready to the extent of taking up arms and giving their
lifeblood in the struggle to build an egalitarian society.
Manley sensed that this swelling tide of
youthful revolutionary energy was threatening to overwhelm the
Jamaican Oligarchy (of 21 families) and at the very quantum
limit of this political “Armageddon,” which he perceived as
impending historic disaster, Manley began to back-pedal and
sought refuge in the stranglehold of IMF agreements. Thus was
the ignominious retreat begun, which has doomed the laboring
masses of people to material and spiritual degradation.
Manley's actions were consistent with his
political philosophy. He believed in the power of ideas,
personal charm, and in his ability to drive men to a compromise
in all situations. Manley, as a brinkman who aroused the passion
of the crowds with his empty rhetoric, sapped the energy of the
people in meaningless melodramatic squabbles, and traded on the
threat of the latent violence of the aroused masses to work out
compromises.
He spent his life working out compromises in
the interest of the 21 families who rule Jamaica and against the
laboring Africans who have done the building for 500 years.
Manley was not our hero! Ultimately he compromised our struggle
for social emancipation.
To gain a vision of Manley’s legacy one
must take a closer look at what Jamaica has become. It is
the Prime Minister, P. J. Patterson, who sums it up best. Here
is how he sums it up: " 'Mr. Patterson told supporters at
the People's National Party's 65th Annual Conference at the
National Arena, that "More people have running water, more
people stop use kerosene, more people have electricity and more
man have gal dan anything else” (The main news – “Nuff gal
inna bungle!” Phyllis Thomas, News Editor, Jamaica Gleaner,
September 28, 2003).
Patterson was hand-picked and groomed by
Michael Manley as his replacement.
Phyllis Thomas’ incensed remarks put into
keen perspective the nature of this legacy. According to
her:
" [The remarks] objectifies women. We
are no longer seen as persons, but a thing and we are
categorised among the things that men should have, or which they
claim as their possession" (ibid).
Under Manley’s hand-picked steward African
flesh is still a commodity, sold to the highest bidder. And it
is no secret - it is in the news. "There were allegations
of "illegal exploitation of young girls in 'go-go clubs,'
and in particular a special 'trade fair' for girls at certain
locations in western Jamaica and other entertainment centers in
the tourism resort areas” (“Thriving rural trade in
girls,” Jamaica Gleaner, July 6, 2003).
The picture gets even bleaker as one examines
the social fallout. Veteran columnist John Maxwell draws
attention to the prevailing social decline in a June 2003
publication of his weekly column, “Common Sense,” in the Sunday
Observer. He wrote: "Children have been driven to
prostitution by hunger and by their own parents. The result is
that we have a galloping epidemic of HIV/AIDS and juvenile
delinquency" (“Twilight of the dinosaurs,” John
Maxwell, Jamaica Observer, June 22, 2003).
It is an awful picture of social and economic
decay, human degradation, and hopelessness that one must
contemplate if one would assess Manley’s legacy. The half is
yet to be told.
* * *
Marcus Garvey isn't coming back. But then
neither is Jesus! Looks like we are on our own. Is that great or
what! * *
* * *
updated 5 November 2007 |
