Arnold Bertram
IT WAS on the verandahs of Drumblair in 1937 that the ideas for the publication of the Public Opinion took shape. This weekly newspaper which first appeared in February 1937, consciously set out to express Jamaica's cultural nationalism and the views of an increasing number of Jamaicans who wanted to understand the social, economic and political challenges which faced the country and to find progressive solutions.
That same year, Norman Manley, then a private citizen, launched Jamaica Welfare, a rural community development process which became a prototype for the developing world. To drive this process, he inspired a remarkable group of pioneers, including Leila Tomlinson, Edie Burke, Jimmy Kirlew, Reggie Fletcher, Sybil Francis, Eddie Fagan, Pansy Hart, Ted Hanson, Arthur Carney, Cecil Harriott, Leopold Pinnock and Stella Gregory.
SUCCESS OF JAMAICA WELFARE
For the post of executive director, he recruited a 36-year-old businessman, D.T.M. Girvan. One indicator of the success of Jamaica Welfare is that by 1948, after just 11 years of existence, "it had activities in 236 villages, with 77 village communities, 51 community councils and 346 groups. There were 1,180 organised groups in all, including 57 handicraft groups and 261 cooperatives; 185 savings unions, 30 buying clubs, 42 poultry groups and 185 self-help groups were also functioning."
It was to Drumblair that O.T. Fairclough came with the request that Manley provide leadership for a political party, and it was out of these initial discussions that the process began which culminated in the launching of the People's National Party (PNP) in 1938. Earlier that year the labour rebellion had swept the island and it was after a night's deep meditation at Drumblair that Norman Manley with his wife Edna's insistence unreservedly committed himself to the task of nation building.
The Drumblair movement was only a part of Manley's life; the other part was spent in the courtroom as Jamaica's legal luminary who appeared in every important case until he took the case of the people in 1955.
Unbelievably, there are those inside the PNP who now find it fashionable to denigrate the Drumblair movement as a negative interlude in Jamaica's cultural and political development.
MASTER BUILDER
The granting of Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944 and the new constitution which accompanied it were due in no small way to Manley's efforts. After 17 years in opposition the PNP won its first general elections and Norman Manley finally got the opportunity to preside over the development of a new Jamaica.
For this task he set out to recruit the finest expertise available. He made N.N. Nethersole his Minister of Finance and Planning, a man of unquestioned capacity and a colleague of unshakable courage and loyalty. To head the newly formed Central Planning Unit, he
recruited George Cadbury who was then acting director general of the Technical Assistance Administration at the United Nations.
For the reorganisation of the bauxite industry, he enlisted Samuel Moment, a marketing economist who was working as a consultant to numerous multi-national corporations. Manley reviewed the 1950 Bauxite Agreement and negotiated an escalator clause whereby one-half of the total income tax and royalty would vary with the price of aluminium itself. In addition, the profit and tax payment would be computed in U.S. dollars, which, at the time was a stronger currency than the British pound.
INCREASED ASSUMED PROFIT
The new agreement also increased the assumed rate of profit from 60c a ton to $3.85 for income tax, while the old royalty of 10c was increased to 40c. These new inflows wiped out Jamaica's trade deficit overnight. It was a proud Manley who informed the House of Representatives that, "the present gap between imports and exports is of the order of £18m...will be wiped out entirely as bauxite and alumina became the largest by far in our export returns."
No government before had actively promoted tourism in Jamaica, despite the indefatigable efforts of Abe Issa. In 1955, the Tourism Board Law and the antiquated Jamaican Tourist Trade Development Board was renamed the Jamaica Tourist Board with Issa as chairman. In a radio broadcast on November 10 1957, Manley was able to assert, "The Jamaican economy is expanding at a rate faster than that of most countries in the world.
Actually at a faster rate than any other West Indian island, at a faster rate than Puerto Rico or England, or the United States or even Canada."
It was in this period that firm foundations for a first world education system were laid. Secondary school enrolment moved from three per cent to 11 per cent while maintaining a quality product delivered by quality teachers with the support of enthusiastic parents.
The curriculum for technical schools was upgraded islandwide and the College of Arts Science and Technology was established to provide technical capacity that was badly needed in the labour force to cope with the demands of an expanding bauxite industry.
In the seven legislative years of the Manley administration some 450 bills were passed into law creating guidelines and corridors of progress for every administration that followed and facilitating the restructuring of the society.
IRONCLAD INTEGRITY
The circumstances in which Norman and Edna Manley lived their last years provide the most complete evidence of his ironclad integrity. In 1961, the curtains came down on Drumblair as it was taken over by creditors to discharge debts that had been accumulated largely on behalf of the PNP.
Edna had kept a lot of land where she built a house in which they spent their last years together which they called Regardless. To earn a living he went back to law and thought of writing editorials for Public Opinion.
In 1969, the party bought him a motor car. Finally on September 2, 1969, Norman Manley passed away.
Who remembers Norman Manley? He has been made a national hero and monuments have been raised in his honour. There is the Norman Manley Foundation which continues to do much that is good. However, since the generation of Vic Reid and Rex Nettleford, the intelligentsia has hardly taken note of him, and it requires a conscious process of public education which only the PNP can lead.
What is certain is that the party cannot be indifferent to the memory of its founding president without eroding the basis of its own existence. As in all processes much depends on the membership, much more depends on the leadership.
