Tweet
In our feature segment, we turn the spotlight on why Edward Seaga has to stay off the campaign trail.
Mounting fascination has greeted former JLP Leader Edward Seaga's silence in the political arena, as the party he led for 23 years feverishly tries to wrest power from the People's National Party.
This is in comparison to former PNP President P.J. Patterson's lyrical stance and active presence on the campaign trail.
In his hey day, the sharp-witted Seaga's ascerbic tongue was well-known for its biting quips.
“One of the reasons for this smear campaign that they are carrying on is to try to silence my voice as Leader of the Opposition. But they haven’t learnt yet that my voice can’t be silenced and I can’t be bought,” said Seaga.
“Stand firm for a third term and eat worm. You know what the people call pigs tail? Buy me vote,” he also said.
Patterson, known for his more laid back stance could hold his own, but his style was very different from Seaga.
“I hear the little man been running up and down the country side say him launch campaign. And I just decide to call a little meeting tonight I say to him ‘Eddie, hug dat’. I hear some people say they want a debate, and all I have to say is let him not boast that puteth his armour on but him that taketh it off,” said Patterson.
It’s the first time in about 50 years that Mr. Seaga has been off a political campaign trail in Jamaica.
And it’s the first in 31 years that he has not been in the driver's seat of the JLP campaign machinery.
The fascination, which Seaga's silence has triggered, seems understandable given his stormy love affair with, and involvement in local politics.
Mr. Seaga's absence from the campaign trail is also a diversion from the norm as leaders of both political parties have traditionally publicly endorsed their successors over the years.
Michael Manley's predecessor, Norman Manley was dead when the campaign of 1972 got under way.
Norman Manley's counterpart the charismatic Alexander Bustamante was too feeble for the trail.
But when Seaga took the mantle from Hugh Shearer in 1974, the latter stayed with the party for another 19 years until 1993 when he lost his South East Clarendon seat to Peter Bunting.
In 1992, Michael Manley retired from politics.
Manley publicly gave Patterson his blessings on the campaign platform a year later.
Patterson has done the same for Portia Simpson Miller with even more fervour.
But to take you back to Seaga and the campaigns of the 1970s.
The General Election of 1976 magnified the ideological divide - with the paths of capitalism and democratic socialism clashing frequently.
Seaga waxed lyrical in those days when the campaign was marred by a State of Emergency.
“I don’t have to call anybody communist…if they are not a communist. But if you talk like a duck…and you walk like a duck…and you quack like a duck…you can’t be anything else but a duck,” he said.
The mercurial Seaga was even hotter in 1980 as the campaign got fierce.
“You and I know that the day PNP get their hand on the distribution of food, the single intention is to starve every Labourite and fatten up every Comrade. It nah go work!” he said.
With the colourfully charismatic Michael Manley on the other side, the signs were clear that it was no time for the faint of heart.
Fast forward to 2007; the campaign trail is noisy, but Seaga's voice is nowhere to be heard.
There is good reason for Mr. Seaga's seemingly deafening silence.
Under the terms of his contract with the University of the West Indies, Mr. Seaga has to steer clear of all direct political activities.
The campaign trail is therefore a no-no for the former Prime Minister.
Mounting fascination has greeted former JLP Leader Edward Seaga's silence in the political arena, as the party he led for 23 years feverishly tries to wrest power from the People's National Party.
This is in comparison to former PNP President P.J. Patterson's lyrical stance and active presence on the campaign trail.
In his hey day, the sharp-witted Seaga's ascerbic tongue was well-known for its biting quips.
“One of the reasons for this smear campaign that they are carrying on is to try to silence my voice as Leader of the Opposition. But they haven’t learnt yet that my voice can’t be silenced and I can’t be bought,” said Seaga.
“Stand firm for a third term and eat worm. You know what the people call pigs tail? Buy me vote,” he also said.
Patterson, known for his more laid back stance could hold his own, but his style was very different from Seaga.
“I hear the little man been running up and down the country side say him launch campaign. And I just decide to call a little meeting tonight I say to him ‘Eddie, hug dat’. I hear some people say they want a debate, and all I have to say is let him not boast that puteth his armour on but him that taketh it off,” said Patterson.
It’s the first time in about 50 years that Mr. Seaga has been off a political campaign trail in Jamaica.
And it’s the first in 31 years that he has not been in the driver's seat of the JLP campaign machinery.
The fascination, which Seaga's silence has triggered, seems understandable given his stormy love affair with, and involvement in local politics.
Mr. Seaga's absence from the campaign trail is also a diversion from the norm as leaders of both political parties have traditionally publicly endorsed their successors over the years.
Michael Manley's predecessor, Norman Manley was dead when the campaign of 1972 got under way.
Norman Manley's counterpart the charismatic Alexander Bustamante was too feeble for the trail.
But when Seaga took the mantle from Hugh Shearer in 1974, the latter stayed with the party for another 19 years until 1993 when he lost his South East Clarendon seat to Peter Bunting.
In 1992, Michael Manley retired from politics.
Manley publicly gave Patterson his blessings on the campaign platform a year later.
Patterson has done the same for Portia Simpson Miller with even more fervour.
But to take you back to Seaga and the campaigns of the 1970s.
The General Election of 1976 magnified the ideological divide - with the paths of capitalism and democratic socialism clashing frequently.
Seaga waxed lyrical in those days when the campaign was marred by a State of Emergency.
“I don’t have to call anybody communist…if they are not a communist. But if you talk like a duck…and you walk like a duck…and you quack like a duck…you can’t be anything else but a duck,” he said.
The mercurial Seaga was even hotter in 1980 as the campaign got fierce.
“You and I know that the day PNP get their hand on the distribution of food, the single intention is to starve every Labourite and fatten up every Comrade. It nah go work!” he said.
With the colourfully charismatic Michael Manley on the other side, the signs were clear that it was no time for the faint of heart.
Fast forward to 2007; the campaign trail is noisy, but Seaga's voice is nowhere to be heard.
There is good reason for Mr. Seaga's seemingly deafening silence.
Under the terms of his contract with the University of the West Indies, Mr. Seaga has to steer clear of all direct political activities.
The campaign trail is therefore a no-no for the former Prime Minister.
Comment