Remembering Edward Seaga

THE EDITOR, Madam:

It was a touching tribute to Edward Seaga at National Heroes’ Park on his birthday. He dedicated his life to the service of the wretched of our island, and his stamp lay on nearly all the positive developments in the country.

The story began with his definition of the role of government in the famous Haves and Have-nots Debate, and the exit from a farcical federation, both happening in 1961. In the cauldron of government where many opposition talents fail, he transformed the national budget into an instrument of social policy from what had been in the past an annual statement of increased expenditure under the traditional heads. In addition to the financial infrastructure required for an independent nation, he created the social framework to lift the disadvantaged through many programmes, including those claimed by Michael Manley as “people programmes”.

The school feeding programme began in 1971, family courts, JAMAL and others were in advanced stages of preparation when the combination of electoral defeat and poor JLP public relations allowed the credit to go to others. In the deliverance administration, he returned to using the budget for social policy and not the least important of his programmes was the one with the acronym HEART. It solved the unsolvable problem of youngsters leaving primary and secondary school without sufficient training or qualifications whereby to make a living, as it trained them in short courses to enter the growth areas of the economy like construction, agriculture, commerce, tourism and beauty culture. He created organisations to protect culture through the JCDC, and brought the practice of our native religion into the circle of recognised forms of worship. He transformed the slums of Back o’ Wall into a vibrant working-class community. In his two terms, 70 different institutions werer created.

In the angry decade of the 1970s, he resisted the socialist agenda and insisted that the conduct of elections be removed from political manipulation by the establishment of the electoral commission. His advocacy on these two fronts is the only reason why we are still a democracy today. He stood firmly on the side of market economies and popular sovereignty. When the Grenadian Revolution imploded in 1983, Seaga cooperated with Caribbean and US forces to restore popular rule and then sent trained persons to assist in the restoration of their destroyed governmental edifices. He was, in fact, a champion of freedom and democracy.

ORVILLE BROWN