Martin HenryAPPROACHING HIS 79th birthday two years ago, I wrote a tribute to Hugh Shearer with some questions attached and the following week published some of his sayings as Prime Minister. A big reward from those two pieces was the warm, appreciative thank you of a young, highly-placed professional.
The flags are now flying at half mast. The media are awash with tributes. Now those questions will never be answered by him.
A NATIONAL TREASURE
I have to write in the past tense now: Mr. Shearer was a national treasure, a man who has been at the forefront of the emergence of an independent Jamaican nation for half a century, a man who made his contributions with great dignity and great peacefulness. I and the nation longed to hear his measured, frank reflections on the past, present and future.
I know of no biography on this great labour leader and Prime Minister. But why not "Shearer in his own words" as a legacy to this young nation to which he has given his entire life in public service? Mr. Shearer was among the Founding Fathers of the nation. The wisdom of the Founders, never perfect but forged by hard experience from the beginning, should be available as a beacon of light to guide us.
Shearer was a close confidante of the Chief, "like a son" Lady B said in her tribute. He wrote an extensive, glowing tribute to Sir Alexander at his passing which has been published. But Hugh Lawson never committed a word to paper or to public utterance about his own considerable influence on Sir Alexander and on policy and governance in the Independence Government when Chief ruled but his advisers crafted government. The inside story of those heady first days of Independence needs to be told. Only a few persons, like Edward Seaga, are left to do so. Shearer was our first voice at the United Nations as Minister of External Affairs at 39. He placed Jamaica firmly and articulately on the world stage, a position from which we have never retreated. Mr. Shearer proposed an International Year of Human Rights and 1968 was so designated. Ironically it was the same year in which he had to deal with the Walter Rodney Riots at home which many including then Opposition Leader Norman Manley considered to be heavy-handed and abusive of human rights.
When Hugh Shearer was Prime Minister of the young nation, full of bright hope and actually registering unquestionable economic growth, the JIS published a booklet of quotes from his speeches. The caption under his photograph reads: "I will rely on the self-respect and alertness, the courage and self-discipline of my people, to face and tackle the problems of our country".
Those quotes reveal a sharp, disciplined and alert mind, a broad and bold statesmanship, and something which always fascinates me in others, a fine command of language. "Manna fell on earth once in the history of the world", the Prime Minister pronounced, "and it did not fall on Jamaica. This means, among other things, that our children must from now become aware of their responsibilities to the nation, and not be Sleeping Beauties waiting for Handsome Princes to kiss them awake, so that they may live happily ever after."
THREE ALTERNATIVES
"I have three alternatives from which to select in running the country," the new PM said. "The first is to allow Jamaica's development to stagnate. The second is to go on bended knees to some foreign country and beg for economic assistance. The third is to call on my nation of people to accept our challenges and tackle our problems with self-respect and self-discipline.
"I do not propose to resort to the first alternative and preside over stagnation of development I cannot and could not be Prime Minister under those circumstances.
"I do not propose to go hat in hand with the problems of Jamaica to some other country begging for grants and hand-outs. I will never be Prime Minister under those circumstances - somebody else, not me! "I propose to succeed or fail on the third alternative."
I have never heard Hugh Shearer's name mentioned with political tribalism or violence. He himself was victim. Mr. Shearer completed the campaign of that momentous 1980 general election with a big bandage over one of his brows from a fish gun injury sustained at the hand of an antagonist on the campaign trail. This is my favourite image of Hugh Lawson, and I have often wondered how that bandage, a powerful political symbol, affected margins on October 30. Mr. Shearer spoke glowingly of the "marriage between trade unions and political parties in Jamaica with no hint of a divorce."
"My own union makes no pretense of its belief, that, having as its sole purpose the interest of the working class, it must ensure that its philosophy and its ideals are wedded into the programme of the Government of the country," he declared.
DESTROYING OUR NATION
As political violence reared its ugly head, the Prime Minister said, "Jamaica did not achieve nationhood through the use of bullets, and we do not intend to destroy our young nation by bullets, by bombs and by barbarism.
"Our National Anthem," the PM said, "is in itself our prayer to the Almighty to the One who is greater than all things and all people. We believe that above and beyond all things, there is a Creator who watches over us and cares for us, in times of plenty and in times of trouble."
"Jamaica has a great future. I believe this, sincerely and passionately. Let us therefore make the national resolution to mobilize these qualities [of courage, determination, ambition and self-respect] to build the future Jamaica that is our desire."
Martin Henry is a communication specialist.
