Martin Henry THE GLEANER began just 43 days after the Emanci-pation Act came into effect in 1834. The capacity of the paper to reinvent itself has made it one of the oldest, most important and most trusted institutions in the country.
The famous 'Sealy Years' marked a major transition. The paper became the print voice of an independent Jamaica Out of many, One people right down to the sponsored skin-type beauty contests. Sealy himself had been a leader on committees for planning Indep-endence celebrations. Tributes are now pouring in for the man hand-picked to succeed the legendary Theodore Sealy.
In Hector Wynter's own words in The Story of The Gleaner: Memoirs and Reminiscences, "Mr. Sealy asked me to join The Gleaner as a trainee editor to succeed him. So I joined in January 1974 although the editor's salary would be half of what I was getting."
Wynter was an outsider, and he left unanswered in his reminiscences the intriguing question, why him. Sealy's own education had been with the paper where he grew up professionally from a youngster. Hector Wynter was bi-lingual Rhodes Scholar, academic, educator, politician as JLP Senator and Minister of Government, and diplomat, a controversial mixed bag for the role of editor of one of the major newspapers in the English-speaking world. The tight media fraternity itself has been hardly particularly welcoming of 'outsiders.'
Mr. Wynter came to the editor's chair at The Gleaner in January 1975, 'having been trained' by Sealy, at a time when the ideological divide in Jamaican politics was running to peak. Issues of class, race, economy, and of the state came to a head. The People's National Party in Government had declared for democratic socialism as the policy of governance. The Jamaica Labour Party in Opposition opposed. The incipient violence in Jamaican politics mushroomed, with charges and counter-charges of CIA and Cuban involvement.
The Gleaner was caught in the middle of the struggle. The role of the media in a free and democratic society, the subject of nice academic debates in less divided times, was starkly played out on a day to day basis in The Gleaner's editorial room at 7 North Street. And Hector Wynter was the man to call the shots.
According to him Sealy had taught him "principles that were most helpful. The first was responsibility for editorials. This could not be shared with anyone, including the managing director. Therefore, care, accuracy, excellence in English, as Gleaner principles established over the years including humour, understanding of democratic principles in government, should be used always."
Wynter led The Gleaner in an unrelenting defence of 'democratic principles in government' and of free enterprise, a free society and a free press against perceived attacks. According to him he had resigned from the JLP in 1972 and PNP Prime Minister Michael Manley had been consulted about his appointment to The Gleaner and had raised no objection.
I have not yet seen any independent verification of this consultation of which Mr. Wynter himself only 'learned' secondhand. But the idea of consultation with state and political leadership for the appointment of an Editor for The Gleaner is certainly not far-fetched. Despite the irreconcilable tension between media on the one hand and politics and government on the other in their respective functions, there is also a necessary collaboration for the democratic enterprise. The Gleaner was a major national institution like the political parties themselves, and far older.
Wynter and The Gleaner came under intense attack as enemies of the revolution. In his reminiscences he noted, "we had to endure severe attacks by leftist propagandists, some of whom claimed that the managing director (Oliver Clarke) and I were hateful conservatives in league with the Central Intelligence Agency."
Clarke, who joined The Gleaner in 1976 as MD at age 32, says in his own reminiscences, "In the middle 1970s The Gleaner was a major advocate of private enterprise and democracy in Jamaica. As a result, it came into fairly sharp conflict with the Michael Manley-led government of the time." On 24 September, 1979, the Prime Minister, in protest against editorial content, led a mob march to the gates of the newspaper, the marchers shouting "Next time! Next time!"
During the State of Emergency, 1976/1977, the Emergency Powers Act allowed the "competent authorities," the Commis-sioner of Police and the army Chief-of-Staff to request media houses to submit copy to them for vetting prior to publication.
A young Clarke called Gleaner chairman Leslie Ashenheim, who was away in England, to report the State of Emergency and to seek advice on how to proceed. "Across the Atlantic on the telephone line came the words, 'Tell them to kiss my arse'!"
But it was Editor Hector
Wynter who had the lonely task of deciding editorial content. And Wynter to the end of his life was not short of courage and dogged determination. Though small of stature, his aquiline nose on a strong face, his shiny bald head, and his strong, sonorous voice gave him the air of a commander into old age. Hector Wynter has been a large public man, and would have been even if he had not gone to The Gleaner. He was a citizen in the fullest sense of the word.
This country owes Hector Wynter a particular debt of gratitude for his Gleaner years: man and moment in fortuitous meeting.
Martin Henry is a communication specialist.
