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Flashback to April 10, 1962
MICHAEL BURKE
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Forty-six years ago on April 10, 1962, there was a general election. The Jamaica Labour Party won and Alexander Bustamante became premier of Jamaica on April 24, 1962.
On August 6, 1962, Bustamante became the first prime minister of independent Jamaica. Of the 45-seat house at the time, the JLP won 26 and the PNP won 19. The JLP got 50 per cent of the vote while the PNP got 48, with the other parties and independents getting the rest.
Today is also the birthday of former prime minister Percival J Patterson. He is 73 years old today and was 27 years old on the day of the April 10, 1962 general election. Patterson had taken a year off from his studies as a lawyer in England to campaign for the PNP in the 1962 general election.
The September 19, 1961 referendum to determine whether Jamaica should stay in the West Indies Federation affected the outcome of the 1962 election. The people voted no to federation, which was the JLP's position. At the start of the federation in 1958, Norman Manley had been chief minister of Jamaica (the title then for the head of government) for more than three years. The idea was that collective political independence would come as a federal nation.
In the federal election of March 25, 1958, the PNP was allied to the West Indies Federal Labour Party (WIFLP) while the JLP was allied to the Democratic Labour Party. The WIFLP won the election but took a bad beating in Jamaica. The PNP then employed the 23-year-old PJ Patterson as the PNP organiser in western Jamaica. And in the general election of July 28, 1959, the PNP won a second term in office.
Obviously, PJ Patterson felt that he could pull off the same feat for the 1962 election but it did not work. He, however, employed a similar tactic as prime minister in 2001 and it worked. The JLP's Shahine Robinson had won the North East St Ann seat in a by-election. That constituency was previously a stronghold of the PNP. At the September 2001 PNP conference, Patterson announced that both Paul Robertson and Maxine Henry-Wilson, two former PNP general secretaries, had resigned their ministerial portfolios to go on the ground to manage the election campaign. As a result, the PNP won a fourth consecutive term in 2002.
In a real way, the JLP victory in 1962 began with their defeat in 1959.
Robert Lightbourne was elected the federal MP for the parish of St Thomas in 1958. He resigned to contest the western St Thomas seat for the JLP in 1959. Lightbourne won the seat for the JLP, but the PNP won that general election.
As George Eaton tells us in his book Alexander Bustamante and the Modern Jamaica, the JLP had no money to contest the federal by-election caused by Lightbourne's resignation. So the JLP said that they were boycotting the by-election because they were opposed to federation. Norman Manley "swallowed the bait" and called a referendum on September 19, 1961.
Although Bustamante opposed independence in the 1940s, the JLP's strategy was now to champion the independence cause by saying that independence as a separate nation was independence, but federation was not. In the referendum, a majority voted "no" to federation so Jamaica applied to secede. Trinidad then pulled out of the federation and it formally went out of existence on April 30, 1962.
The current "PNPisation" of the JLP is therefore the same sort of strategic change of mind as with the JLP's change to being pro-independence in 1961. And the "PNPisation" plan is at least 36 years old. On Friday, April 7, 1972, the headline of Public Opinion was "Will the JLP go left?" For the 1972 election campaign, the PNP had abandoned its socialist platform to attract funding for the election.
In 1974, Hugh Shearer resigned as Opposition leader and Bustamante resigned as JLP leader. It was a certainty that Edward Seaga would become JLP leader in 1974, so the PNP went and grabbed the left before the JLP did. Indeed, word was out that the JLP planned to call themselves "Social Democrats" so the PNP called themselves "Democratic Socialists".
Similarly, because Eastern Europe changed from left to right by the late 1980s, the PNP had to shelve its socialistic plans. State banks of capitalist countries do not like to lend money to build highways, for example, if they feel that the payback will be delayed because of a great amount of spending on social programmes. The JLP government is in a different position now because such negotiations have already taken place.
In the Jamaica Observer, exactly five years ago today, I wrote that a good quiz question for Roman Catholic youngsters could be: "Which priest was born in Jamaica on the same day and in the same year as PJ Patterson? I did not mention his name because I did not know if he would have wanted me to, but afterwards he told me that it would have been OK. Happy Birthday, PJ Patterson. Happy Birthday, Father Kenneth Kong.
ekrubm765@yahoo.com
MICHAEL BURKE
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Forty-six years ago on April 10, 1962, there was a general election. The Jamaica Labour Party won and Alexander Bustamante became premier of Jamaica on April 24, 1962.
On August 6, 1962, Bustamante became the first prime minister of independent Jamaica. Of the 45-seat house at the time, the JLP won 26 and the PNP won 19. The JLP got 50 per cent of the vote while the PNP got 48, with the other parties and independents getting the rest.
Today is also the birthday of former prime minister Percival J Patterson. He is 73 years old today and was 27 years old on the day of the April 10, 1962 general election. Patterson had taken a year off from his studies as a lawyer in England to campaign for the PNP in the 1962 general election.
The September 19, 1961 referendum to determine whether Jamaica should stay in the West Indies Federation affected the outcome of the 1962 election. The people voted no to federation, which was the JLP's position. At the start of the federation in 1958, Norman Manley had been chief minister of Jamaica (the title then for the head of government) for more than three years. The idea was that collective political independence would come as a federal nation.
In the federal election of March 25, 1958, the PNP was allied to the West Indies Federal Labour Party (WIFLP) while the JLP was allied to the Democratic Labour Party. The WIFLP won the election but took a bad beating in Jamaica. The PNP then employed the 23-year-old PJ Patterson as the PNP organiser in western Jamaica. And in the general election of July 28, 1959, the PNP won a second term in office.
Obviously, PJ Patterson felt that he could pull off the same feat for the 1962 election but it did not work. He, however, employed a similar tactic as prime minister in 2001 and it worked. The JLP's Shahine Robinson had won the North East St Ann seat in a by-election. That constituency was previously a stronghold of the PNP. At the September 2001 PNP conference, Patterson announced that both Paul Robertson and Maxine Henry-Wilson, two former PNP general secretaries, had resigned their ministerial portfolios to go on the ground to manage the election campaign. As a result, the PNP won a fourth consecutive term in 2002.
In a real way, the JLP victory in 1962 began with their defeat in 1959.
Robert Lightbourne was elected the federal MP for the parish of St Thomas in 1958. He resigned to contest the western St Thomas seat for the JLP in 1959. Lightbourne won the seat for the JLP, but the PNP won that general election.
As George Eaton tells us in his book Alexander Bustamante and the Modern Jamaica, the JLP had no money to contest the federal by-election caused by Lightbourne's resignation. So the JLP said that they were boycotting the by-election because they were opposed to federation. Norman Manley "swallowed the bait" and called a referendum on September 19, 1961.
Although Bustamante opposed independence in the 1940s, the JLP's strategy was now to champion the independence cause by saying that independence as a separate nation was independence, but federation was not. In the referendum, a majority voted "no" to federation so Jamaica applied to secede. Trinidad then pulled out of the federation and it formally went out of existence on April 30, 1962.
The current "PNPisation" of the JLP is therefore the same sort of strategic change of mind as with the JLP's change to being pro-independence in 1961. And the "PNPisation" plan is at least 36 years old. On Friday, April 7, 1972, the headline of Public Opinion was "Will the JLP go left?" For the 1972 election campaign, the PNP had abandoned its socialist platform to attract funding for the election.
In 1974, Hugh Shearer resigned as Opposition leader and Bustamante resigned as JLP leader. It was a certainty that Edward Seaga would become JLP leader in 1974, so the PNP went and grabbed the left before the JLP did. Indeed, word was out that the JLP planned to call themselves "Social Democrats" so the PNP called themselves "Democratic Socialists".
Similarly, because Eastern Europe changed from left to right by the late 1980s, the PNP had to shelve its socialistic plans. State banks of capitalist countries do not like to lend money to build highways, for example, if they feel that the payback will be delayed because of a great amount of spending on social programmes. The JLP government is in a different position now because such negotiations have already taken place.
In the Jamaica Observer, exactly five years ago today, I wrote that a good quiz question for Roman Catholic youngsters could be: "Which priest was born in Jamaica on the same day and in the same year as PJ Patterson? I did not mention his name because I did not know if he would have wanted me to, but afterwards he told me that it would have been OK. Happy Birthday, PJ Patterson. Happy Birthday, Father Kenneth Kong.
ekrubm765@yahoo.com
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