Michael Manley – Did he protect our Rights?

Did Michael Manley trample our Constitutional Rights in Jamaica?

One of the enduring memories of my childhood was an impromptu visit made by Michael Manley’s mother, the Hon. Edna Manley, O.M. (Order of Merit) to my father, the Hon. Ira D. Rowe, in the late l960s.

It must have been shortly before my father’s appointment as a High Court Judge, when he was Solicitor General of Jamaica. I got the impression that the interview was tense and that it had something to do with her son, Michael Manley and his socialization; he was hanging around with certain people, that his mother, Edna Manley did not approve of and she was concerned about where the socialization might lead.

I never saw Mrs. Manley at close quarters again but, as a youngster growing up, I saw quite a bit of Michael Manley. He seemed to be everywhere ... on the TV, on the golf course, at the Stadium, in Parliament.

Manley was a powerful Parliamentarian always and my first impression of a Budget Debate was one that was dominated by Michael Manley. It was in this very Parliament that the Gun Court Act was passed.

Michael Manley’s father may have been the greatest Jamaican ever. He was a brilliant barrister. Michael significantly was not a lawyer. He thought that laws should promote a social end only; this was part of his London School of Economics training.

Michael Manley had a conflict with lawyers early in his career as an N.W.U. organizer. Hugh Small, a brilliant young barrister, accused him of mis-managing Union funds. Small's allegations were meritorious and were never disproved. Small was concerned that the workers' rights were not as important to Manley as they ought to be.

When Michael Manley was elected President of the P.N.P. ahead of Vivian Blake, Q.C., another brilliant lawyer, many thought his quick ascent to influence too fast. Even the left wing Abeng newspaper criticized the selection of one Manley to replace another as being nepotistic. However, Michael Manley's popularity and charisma 'stole' the political 'show'.

Did Michael Manley trample on anybody's rights once he achieved high office? Did the Fabianism of the London School of Economics accommodate individual rights and constitutional freedoms?

Shortly after Manley’s election in 1972, the ‘pork barrel’ started and Jamaicans were treated to the ‘Special Employment’ or ‘crash’ program, an unfortunate blatant reward for party supporters, for voting the right way in the l972 elections.

The Special Employment Program was legally valid but probably mis-managed as the participants were the targets of political pressure.

Crash program workers were seen receiving large cheques for what appeared to be almost no work and the impression given was that if you were from 'downtown', you were a ‘sufferer’ and had the right to 'free' money. The crash program money gave way to national ideology.

As early as 1972, Jamaica was redefining terrorism in international Courts stressing that it did not apply to the 'freedom fighter' of South Africa.

We all applauded as Prime Minister Manley called for a "universal moral foundation" for the conduct of world affairs at the 27^th Session of the United Nations General Assembly but, local cynics asked, “Did the Moral Foundation apply to the Crash Program at home as well?"

A National Youth Service was introduced into Jamaica, which bore too close a similarity to the Cuban Brigadistas for most American observers at that time.

The Brigadistas may have exceeded their authority since they sometimes participated in traffic stops with the police. These incidents promoted a lack of confidence in the Manley Administration, its orientation and the consistency of its policies.

Was the National Youth Service a violation of the rights of prospective students who had to spend time working for Government agencies rather than going to school?

Jamaica’s foreign policy underwent a sea change as Manley, Forbes Burnham and Castro flew together from Trinidad to Algeria for the non-aligned conference in Algiers in 1973. These foreign policy changes were never debated in Parliament and were never tabled there for discussion or debate.

One of the strengths of the Westminster system is the enduring check and balance between the Legislature and Executive but, if the Executive acts without reference to the Legislature, then the system will be put under pressure and might suffer constitutional cracks.

Some of these cracks, which appeared under the Manley Administration, included the suspension of Habeas Corpus and the politicization of the police. Habeas Corpus is the ancient foundation of constitutional liberty.

As a result of Algiers, Jamaica was now non-aligned and promised to send troops to South Africa. More than 100,000 met him in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in a State Visit shortly thereafter. With the adrenalin of Algiers pumping, Manley turned finally to local issues.

Mr. Manley decided to acquire the Jamaica Public Service and the Jamaica Omnibus Service as the Government sought to take over the ‘commanding heights’ of the Jamaican economy.

We are still facing the negative impact of these decisions today. The Jamaica Omnibus Service owners did not receive a fair compensation for the takeover. The Right to Property is protected in the Jamaican Constitution.

Two critical pieces of legislation were passed. The Suppression of Crimes Act, allowing Police and Soldiers to patrol together and the Gun Court Act, specifying draconian penalties for gun offenses.

Laws flowed from the 1974 parliament like the great Rio Cobre of Jamaica. There was a Family Court Law, a National Minimum Wage Law and laws providing prime land to sugar workers in collectives or cooperatives.

The sugar workers quickly exercised their Right to Strike against themselves and literally destroyed Jamaica’s first attempt to legislate Fabian type laws.

So, for the historian, so far Manley was exciting but not coherent. Michael Manley who had a Trade Union background, decided to levy the companies in Jamaica who owned bauxite; namely, Alpart, Kaiser Bauxite Company, Reynolds and Alcoa.

This levy increased Jamaica’s revenue from the Mining sector enormously and Manley considered it the landmark achievement of his administration; however, it may have destroyed the growth of the sector forever.

Manley then launched into the outer space of ideology. His feet never quite touched the ground again. JAMAL, the literacy program, did well but was never completed as Jamaicans began to define themselves along the ideological divide.

Manley certainly embraced black Jamaicans. Did Jamaicans love him because he had ‘nice’ hair and several women?

‘Politics of Change’ became ‘Democratic Socialism’. Manley invited those who wanted to become millionaires to take one of the "five flights to Miami".

Cubans began to construct Micro Dams in Jamaica and Leslie Ashenheim, a Director of a Jamaican newspaper, ‘The Daily Gleaner’, wrote to Manley accusing him of introducing Communism to Jamaica.

The 1976 elections were crucial and the political violence of the period, July to December 1976, were blamed on both political parties, although Michael Manley’s constituency was not the worst.

The PNP won the election but, in 1977, Jamaica was racked with sectarian violence.

As Mr. Manley advised at a speech at PNP headquarters, that the first objective of the socialist is to unite the masses not to divide them.

Mr. Manley never united the Jamaican masses. Did he fail his own test?

Does the IMF stands for ‘Is Manley’s Fault’? Did Jamaica need to borrow to keep herself afloat? After their victory in the 1976 elections, why was the PNP split in half?

Mr. Manley decided not to go to the IMF and then changed his mind.

A State of Emergency, which had been imposed, was lifted in mid-1977; however, members of the politically influenced Jamaica Defense Force killed five young men at the Green Bay firing range.

A Coroner’s Inquest determined that the killings were murder. Somehow, military officers had committed state-sponsored murder. Could this be related to the original disregard for law, which started in the administration in 1972 with the Special Employment Program?

The Manley Administration had reached its low point and it was Manley’s disregard for the law that placed it there. The Manley Administration had forgotten that every citizen had the right to life.

These murders shocked the nation and brought an end to Manley’s political Camelot. By the following year, Manley’s friend, John Hearne, started referring to him as ‘Snoopy’ the dog that could bark but did not know his way home.

Rastafarians in Papine, Jamaica, referred to Mr. Manley as “man kill menlie’ because of the death of Norman ‘Gutto’ Thompson at Green Bay. Thompson was Rastafarian.

On August 26, 1978, John Hearne, a prominent Jamaican Journalist and Author, accused Manley of officially ordering and approving torture at Green Bay.

The Green Bay massacre, a great civil rights violation, seemed to rob Manley of popularity and the party lost power in l980.

Mr. Manley returned a sadder, wiser man in 1989 but, by this time, the efforts were spent and the ideas were gone.

I do not believe history will put Michael Manley in the same category as his father Norman Manley, ‘The Father of our Nation’.

At times, Michael Manley was more important to the Third World generally than to Jamaica specifically. He was an icon for the liberation of Africa and he wrote to Bishop Tutu, which helped secure the release of Nelson Mandela.

Manley was extremely popular, but not for the upliftment of the Constitutional Rights of poor people.