THE JAMAICA Labour Party, under the leadership of Edward Seaga, has scored a resounding victory in the Local Government elections, a dramatic result not predicted by the pollsters and the first electoral win for the JLP in 20 years. There are many who will claim that the election results were not so much a victory for the JLP but a disenchantment with government's performance.
Be that as it may, it would be churlish not to recognise the important part still being played by Mr. Seaga in guiding the destiny of the JLP; and we have tried to take the measure of the man who seems in the public mind to be defined in three main categories of age, arrogance and ideas.
Mr. Seaga is 73 and many in his own party believe that he is too old any longer to bear the burdens of office. But on the stage of world leadership, Mr. Seaga's age would be no disqualification, for many Heads of State are governing effectively in their seventies. Youthful vitality has always to be balanced with tested experience.
To many, Mr. Seaga comes across as arrogant and less than warm in his persona, but there are those who point out that he is really basically shy, thoughtful and humorous to those who have come to know him. This is certainly the overwhelming judgement of persons in his West Kingston constituency who seem to recognise that the manner in which he bestows patronage is subtly different and more human than the run of the mill politician.
Perhaps Mr. Seaga can be faulted for having too much the courage of his convictions but there are signs that in recent years he has developed a more democratic style of leadership which can accommodate old party stalwarts as well as some bright new talent emerging from Young Jamaica and, lately, the G2K.
It is in the area of ideas that Mr. Seaga will likely command the most respect because he has over the years come up with more important plans, projects and imaginative institutional innovations than any other single political personality. Other administrations have generated great ideas in their turn but they have been collectively conceived and in many cases born out of an international matrix. Most of Mr. Seaga's ideas have been his own.
We conclude with two undeniable facts. Mr. Seaga is a man of destiny who cannot be ignored and, as the Jamaican song goes, "lik him down, him get up back, hard man fe dead".
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
