Robert Buddan, Conributor
MICHAEL MANLEY would have been 80 on December 10. When he died in 1997, a Gleaner poll found that 68 per cent of Jamaicans thought he should be made a national hero.
In 2000, a Weekend Observer poll found that 54 per cent of Jamaicans thought he was the Prime Minister who had done the most to improve the lot of the people. No one else was close. A few weeks ago a local TV quiz show asked contestants to match the names of the five most important Jamaican personalities given by 100 persons interviewed.
Manley and Marley tied as the most popular, followed by 'Butch' Stewart, Marcus Garvey and Beenie Man. Manley's continued popularity is undeniable and his legacy is indubitable. Probably his most significant insight into the experiment with Democratic Socialism in the 1970s was that Jamaica had underestimated the power of transnational capital and overestimated the power of the state to transform the society. In that one statement, the path was established for the changes that took place in the party's strategy in opposition in the 1980s, and the politics that has evolved during and since his government of 1989-92.
Sometimes our leaders are criticised for not having vision. Manley cannot be so criticised. He changed his outlook of the 1970s to adjust to the changing world of local and international politics before many did. He re-branded the PNP before many socialist parties did, including Tony Blair's New Labour.
In so doing, Manley anticipated much of what has unfolded in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. He would have been pleased by some of the progress achieved since he left politics to another generation.
MANLEY AND THE WORLD ECONOMY
Rather than confronting transnational capital, Manley believed that Jamaica should adjust to it, and the era of globalization has confirmed that this was the correct thing to do.
The election of the PNP in 1989 coincided with the increasing trend towards globalization. Globalization has set the agenda for the changes that have preoccupied us since - a reformed labour market that is more flexible and adaptable, a more knowledgeable and trainable workforce, increased use of advanced technology, a new emphasis on the private sector to increase the quantity and quality of goods and services, and a role for government in promoting an industrial strategy, a social policy and environmental policy, and macro-economic stability. Globalization continues to spawn great inequality, the very problem Mr. Manley faced when he was leader of a movement for a New International Economic Order.
Thirty years after that movement collapsed one billion people in the most developed countries consume 80 per cent of the world's income and five billion people live off the other 20 per cent.
The struggle in the periphery, as Manley referred to it, must be to humanise globalization, and even the World Bank has come around to the view that globalization must put people before profits.
In fact, the World Bank has also come to realise, as Manley did, that the state has an important role to play in development, everything cannot wisely be left up to the private sector, and the Bank's policy prescriptions cannot work in the same way for every country. The IMF too, with which Manley had so many struggles, eventually admitted that its prescriptions were responsible for some of the failures in the developing countries.
Jamaica's strategy is to get more of the pie of this irreversible globalization. We have been doing this. The number of US companies operating in Jamaica has increased by 193 per cent since 1988.
The World Investment Report said that Jamaica had improved its position as an investment destination from 79 to 20 by 2003. Jamaica achieved a record year for foreign investments in 2003. Jamaica's world competitiveness also improved in 2003.
The country enjoys confidence on the international capital markets and we are reaping the benefits of heavy investments in tourism and bauxite, both of which are in a period of record returns.
MANLEY AND REGIONALISM
Michael Manley would have been especially pleased with the progress made in regional integration. Manley and three other Caribbean Heads of Government signed the Treaty of Chaguaramas that established CARICOM in 1973. Then in 1974, Manley, Eric Williams (Trinidad), and Forbes Burnham (Guyana) agreed to develop an Aluminium Smelter Facility as a regional project with alumina to be supplied by Jamaica and Guyana to smelters in Trinidad and Guyana.
Thirty years after these developments, Jamaica just this past week, signed off on legislation to implement the Single Market and Economy on January 5, 2005. A few weeks ago in November, Manley's vision of a bauxite/energy deal with regional partners took greater shape in the form of the MoU by which Trinidad and Tobago will supply natural gas to Jamaica.
Trinidad will also build an aluminum smelter which will be supplied with alumina from Jamaica's Alcoa plant. Natural gas will ensure a stable, long term supply of cheaper and cleaner energy that will allow Alcoa to expand its production, for which it has already announced massive investments, and will generate huge gains for the Jamaican economy in general.
As for the aluminium smelter, Patrick Manning of Trinidad said, "The project has implications for the expansion of intra-Caribbean business activity as it is anticipated that it will generate trade in the order of US$200 million a year.
Michael Manley would of course be in the clouds over the regional hosting of the Cricket World Cup in 2007. Not only will that be the biggest ever Caribbean event but it will be a huge economic and cultural bonanza for the region and regionalism.
MANLEY AND SOCIAL PARTNERSHIPS
Manley was a strong believer in social partnerships. This idea goes back to the 1970s at the height of adversarial relations between government, private sector and trade unions.
The idea was resurrected in the 1990s. In 2000, the government and the PSOJ signed an MoU to remove certain administrative and other obstacles to the private sector. Since then we have a Partnership for Progress with the Private Sector and an MoU between the public sector and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions.
The latter, for instance, recognises that it was in Jamaica's national interest to chart a new course for cooperation in order to achieve growth and development through social dialogue. This MoU makes it possible to promote a form of worker participation through consultation with labour representatives on macro-economic policies.
Manley, the trade unionist, would be happy that the JCTU has overcome trade union tribalism and would have been proud of Hugh Shearer, Dwight Nelson, Danny Roberts, Trevor Munroe, Lloyd Goodleigh, Ruddy Spencer, and Danny Buchanan for their work towards establishing a new industrial climate in Jamaica.
GOVERNANCE AND DEMOCRACY
Michael Manley had concluded that the Jamaican state was too bureaucratic, indebted and lacking competent personnel to carry out the necessary tasks of transformation. It had to be reformed.
The UWI and MIND (Management Institute for National Development) play important roles in providing better educated and trained personnel for the state. Executive Agencies have introduced new and modern management techniques to the public sector.
The rise of new managers of state agencies Kingsley Thomas, Pat Francis, Robert Gregory, Raymond Wright, Paul Pennycooke, Vin Lawrence have produced individuals as important as any set of private sector leaders who have given the state a guiding (if not sometimes a leading) role in development.
The ultimate confirmation of state reforms lies in Jamaica's rank among the top 10 countries in the world for doing business. Manley was a part of the process of renewing Jamaican democracy. He championed constitutional reform, started the process of electoral reform by establishing the Electoral Advisory Committee, was a vibrant supporter of local government and its reformation, and was a steadfast supporter of community participation as a way to realise self-reliance.
All of these have become commonplace ideas now. Michael Manley would have been pleased by the solid unity that the PNP has sustained in government over four terms, and by the fact that many who learned politics under him are now worthwhile candidates to succeed to the leadership of the PNP.
He was, as D.K Duncan has said at different times, keen on intra-party debate, always interested in refreshing the party's ranks with new generations, and passionately committed to the democratic process. He was a great leader because he was more than just a charismatic.
He was an intellectual and his ideas form the basis for greater political, economic and social transformation to come.
At the heart of this is his central idea to reduce the great levels of social inequality in the society.
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. You can send your comments to Robert.Buddan@ uwimona.edu.jm or infocus@gleanerjm.com
