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Bush jackets next?
MIchael Burke
Thursday, September 27, 2007
It was Fidel Castro who wrote the book History will absolve me. It does appear that history is also absolving Michael Manley via Bruce Golding. The term Marxist-Leninism means the ideas of Karl Marx as implemented by Vladimir Lenin.
What is now taking place is "Manleyist- Goldingism". Free education, free health care, and even the refusal of honours are concepts of Norman Manley and his son Michael Manley.
National hero Norman Manley, by his own account, refused British honours three times. He did, however, have the military medal for bravery in World War I and he was in fact a King's Counsel (changed to Queen's Counsel when Elizabeth II became queen). Michael Manley had initially refused the title of "Right Honourable" given to members of the Privy Council. He, however, took the title when he returned to power in 1989.
The world was changing, and to get international funding he had to shed the bush jacket, which reminded people of Castro and take conventional and conservative titles of "Right Honourable" for the British Privy Council. The Manleys refused British honours because in their opinion it was a throwback to colonialism.
But on what basis does Prime Minister Bruce Golding refuse the Order of the Nation, which is a Jamaican honour for governors general and prime ministers? He might have a personal disdain for titles, but it gives the appearance of "dissing" Jamaica. Our Jamaican people need to have our self-esteem lifted by seeing that our prime minister is just as important as any other prime minister or president in the world.
In my column of August 16, "The art of political posturing", I wrote. "... as one party moves from one ideological position, another might move into that position to capture the voters alienated by the shift of ideology. In a real way, this strategy has been used in Jamaica over the last six decades and is still being used".
Sir Alexander Bustamante was initially against self-government and independence. But by 1961, the year of the referendum, he was promoting independence and confusing the electorate by stating that federation was the opposite of independence. By voting in the referendum to leave the federation, Jamaica abandoned the plan to become an independent federal nation along with nine other English-speaking islands. So Norman Manley as premier and Bustamante as Opposition leader went to England in February 1962 to sign the document to make Jamaica into a single and separate independent nation.
While Norman Manley quietly arrived from England at the Palisadoes airport in Kingston (re-named Norman Manley airport in 1972), Bustamante did the opposite. He arrived at the Montego Bay airport (renamed Sangster International Airport in 1967), and had a motorcade from Montego Bay to Kingston. He was hailed as the father of independence, a title that really belonged to Norman Manley. Bustamante went on to win the April 1962 general election.
Before the February 29, 1972 election, the PNP downplayed its socialist ideology from an earlier era. I suspect it was a strategy to attract funding, which is necessary in elections. By April 7, 1972, the weekly newspaper Public Opinion (now defunct) was asking: "Will the JLP go left?" Rumour was that the 24-year-old Bruce Golding who had been elected to the House less than two months earlier, was part of a group within the JLP that wanted to shift its ideological position. Apparently, part of the plan was to have the JLP known as "social democrats".
One of the reasons the story was credible is that while head boy of Jamaica College, Bruce Golding wrote an article "Socialism vs capitalism" in the Jamaica College magazine of 1966. From what I understood, it was promoting socialism. Incidentally, in the same magazine, there were photographs of the visit of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia to Jamaica College. He made a stop at JC on his way to the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies, where he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
So the PNP shifted back to its democratic socialism of the 1940s to upstage any attempt by the JLP to capture the left. It was definitely a certainty that Edward Seaga would succeed Hugh Shearer as JLP parliamentary leader. Such a plan had to wait until 2002 when Bruce Golding returned to the JLP and promised free education. This plan was first announced by Michael Manley on May 2, 1973.
The JLP then shifted to an ultra-right position, perhaps to attract funding. The PNP went down to a massive defeat in 1980 at a time when the world began to shift to capitalism. The PNP was then forced to change its ideological position for the sake of foreign investment and loans. And they also had to appear to have changed by going back to wearing conservative suits. Now Bruce is sounding like Michael Manley of the 1970s. The only thing missing are the bush jackets. Will that be the next thing?
MIchael Burke
Thursday, September 27, 2007
It was Fidel Castro who wrote the book History will absolve me. It does appear that history is also absolving Michael Manley via Bruce Golding. The term Marxist-Leninism means the ideas of Karl Marx as implemented by Vladimir Lenin.
What is now taking place is "Manleyist- Goldingism". Free education, free health care, and even the refusal of honours are concepts of Norman Manley and his son Michael Manley.
National hero Norman Manley, by his own account, refused British honours three times. He did, however, have the military medal for bravery in World War I and he was in fact a King's Counsel (changed to Queen's Counsel when Elizabeth II became queen). Michael Manley had initially refused the title of "Right Honourable" given to members of the Privy Council. He, however, took the title when he returned to power in 1989.
The world was changing, and to get international funding he had to shed the bush jacket, which reminded people of Castro and take conventional and conservative titles of "Right Honourable" for the British Privy Council. The Manleys refused British honours because in their opinion it was a throwback to colonialism.
But on what basis does Prime Minister Bruce Golding refuse the Order of the Nation, which is a Jamaican honour for governors general and prime ministers? He might have a personal disdain for titles, but it gives the appearance of "dissing" Jamaica. Our Jamaican people need to have our self-esteem lifted by seeing that our prime minister is just as important as any other prime minister or president in the world.
In my column of August 16, "The art of political posturing", I wrote. "... as one party moves from one ideological position, another might move into that position to capture the voters alienated by the shift of ideology. In a real way, this strategy has been used in Jamaica over the last six decades and is still being used".
Sir Alexander Bustamante was initially against self-government and independence. But by 1961, the year of the referendum, he was promoting independence and confusing the electorate by stating that federation was the opposite of independence. By voting in the referendum to leave the federation, Jamaica abandoned the plan to become an independent federal nation along with nine other English-speaking islands. So Norman Manley as premier and Bustamante as Opposition leader went to England in February 1962 to sign the document to make Jamaica into a single and separate independent nation.
While Norman Manley quietly arrived from England at the Palisadoes airport in Kingston (re-named Norman Manley airport in 1972), Bustamante did the opposite. He arrived at the Montego Bay airport (renamed Sangster International Airport in 1967), and had a motorcade from Montego Bay to Kingston. He was hailed as the father of independence, a title that really belonged to Norman Manley. Bustamante went on to win the April 1962 general election.
Before the February 29, 1972 election, the PNP downplayed its socialist ideology from an earlier era. I suspect it was a strategy to attract funding, which is necessary in elections. By April 7, 1972, the weekly newspaper Public Opinion (now defunct) was asking: "Will the JLP go left?" Rumour was that the 24-year-old Bruce Golding who had been elected to the House less than two months earlier, was part of a group within the JLP that wanted to shift its ideological position. Apparently, part of the plan was to have the JLP known as "social democrats".
One of the reasons the story was credible is that while head boy of Jamaica College, Bruce Golding wrote an article "Socialism vs capitalism" in the Jamaica College magazine of 1966. From what I understood, it was promoting socialism. Incidentally, in the same magazine, there were photographs of the visit of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia to Jamaica College. He made a stop at JC on his way to the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies, where he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
So the PNP shifted back to its democratic socialism of the 1940s to upstage any attempt by the JLP to capture the left. It was definitely a certainty that Edward Seaga would succeed Hugh Shearer as JLP parliamentary leader. Such a plan had to wait until 2002 when Bruce Golding returned to the JLP and promised free education. This plan was first announced by Michael Manley on May 2, 1973.
The JLP then shifted to an ultra-right position, perhaps to attract funding. The PNP went down to a massive defeat in 1980 at a time when the world began to shift to capitalism. The PNP was then forced to change its ideological position for the sake of foreign investment and loans. And they also had to appear to have changed by going back to wearing conservative suits. Now Bruce is sounding like Michael Manley of the 1970s. The only thing missing are the bush jackets. Will that be the next thing?
I have often thought the same thing. Him rope een Hyacinth and anedda one di odda day fi di Senate!
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