Delroy ChuckDelroy Chuck
SOME 10 years ago, on March 1, 1995 (before becoming a member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) or working with Edward Seaga), I wrote a critical column on Seaga's leadership style.
Since then, I have had the privilege and pleasure to work closely with Edward Seaga, and have developed a better appreciation of his humane, patriotic and leadership qualities.
He is definitely a misunderstood and misinterpreted human being.
On his retirement from active politics, this column hopes that for his many years of unselfish and dedicated service, he will be given his just reward appropriate encomiums, glowing tributes and a fitting and lasting legacy.
UNMATCHED CONTRIBUTIONS
Seaga's unmatched contribution and commitment to Jamaica's social, economic and development landscapes deserve documentation and reverence. To be sure, his detractors will attempt to deny him his place in history. but they will fail.
When we survey the development on the Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Kingston waterfronts, his contributions to music and culture, his management of the economy, his plans for a just and educated society, it is easy to see the vision and hopes that Seaga had/has for the creation and development of Jamaica as a First World country.
His major contribution to save Jamaica from its downward slide and economic perils in the eighties needs a fulsome assessment by scholars and historians, which is not possible here.
FAILURE TO ACHIEVE
In the first half of the 1980s, Edward Seaga's government struggled to stabilise the economy and to recover from the disaster of the seventies.
In the second half of the 1980s, Jamaica started to move forward again; hope replaced despair; investment and development restarted, and jobs and opportunities slowly emerged.
By 1988, Jamaica was on the right path; the sense of hope was at its highest since the sixties, and the country was on the verge of a social and economic take-off. At that time, I feared that Seaga would not get the third term to continue the progress and development, and sadly, my fears were realised.
By the early 1990s, I wanted to help Seaga and the JLP to return to government, to complete his mission and develop the Jamaican economy.
Yet, Seaga's failure to achieve political acceptance and victories at the polls leaves a gaping hole in his political legacy. In spite of his creativity and vision for a better Jamaica, without political success, Seaga's plans could not bear fruit and pull Jamaica from its precarious state.
GREAT WEAKNESS
Perhaps, his greatest weakness was his inability to communicate and persuade the Jamaican people of his sincerity and commitment to lift them from their persistent poverty, illiteracy and injustice.
Admittedly, his ardent detractors succeeded in demonising him, and his leadership style was not easily sold to the Jamaican populace. Jamaica wanted a saviour, a leader to weave a magic wand and bring instant benefit.
In a country that values talk more than action, enjoys lofty announcements rather than meaningful achievements, and loves charismatic leadership, Seaga's pragmatic and decisive leadership was detested.
In the eighties, his government did very little political work to persuade the electorate that he was deserving of a third term.
Somehow, Seaga misread the Jamaican people and probably believed that in politics, action speaks louder than words.
However, as experience has shown, especially with the present government, perception, public relations and communication are the main tools of politics.
As Seaga goes off into the political sunset, he is undoubtedly a disappointed and broken man.
So many plans remain unfulfilled. His vision of a better Jamaica unrealised. His work, at his political retirement, is still incomplete. He certainly did not want to retire from Opposition and must have prayed that he could have passed on the mantle of leadership from Jamaica House, as Michael Manley did and PJ Patterson will.
ENSURING HIS LEGACY
Appropriately, Seaga will have the time and opportunity from the quiet solitude of the University of the West Indies to continue his contribution to Jamaica's development and preserve his place in history.
Yet, those of us who have worked closely with him and know his patriotic fervour can ensure that his legacy is preserved and known, and his mission and vision of a just, kind, educated and gentle society become a reality.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition member of Parliament. He can be
contacted by email at Delchuck@Hotmail.Com.
