Word: seaga
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...social democrat Michael Manley last week. He said it with a nice touch of humility, but with forgivable satisfaction as well, for he had just been given exactly that. His People's National Party (PNP), which he led as Prime Minister from 1972 to 1980, thrashed Prime Minister Edward Seaga's Jamaica Labor Party by winning at least 44 of 60 parliamentary seats. In a remarkable show of conciliation, the charismatic and often feisty Manley called on party members to "take this victory with dignity and humility," and paid tribute to the nation's security forces for maintaining relative order...
Manley's return was a resounding rejection of the conservative, free- enterprise philosophy that had kept Seaga in power for eight years and made him Ronald Reagan's closest ally in the Caribbean. Seaga, who consistently trailed Manley in the polls, had hoped to win back voters by promising to expand social welfare programs and build upon Jamaica's economic stability. He warned that a Manley victory would plunge the country back into socialist chaos...
...Seaga's heavy cuts in health and education spending had angered the poor. There was a growing consensus among Jamaicans that the recovery had benefited mainly businessmen and the wealthy. Under the party slogan of "We put people first," Manley succeeded in portraying Seaga as a callous, autocratic Prime Minister obsessed with computer figures and uninterested in his constituents...
That attitude is echoed by many Jamaicans. Says a prominent pro-Seaga business leader: "We are realists. This is a pluralistic society, and change after two terms is healthy...
Recent polls indicate that the charismatic, crowd-pleasing Manley, who stole Seaga's thunder by purging his party's left wing and improving his relations with the business establishment, would handily win any early election. Some analysts believe the hurricane's devastation may now present Seaga with a dramatic opportunity to rally the country behind him in a reconstruction effort. Manley was quick to recognize that the political climate had changed radically overnight. Said he, after rushing to Kingston last week: "All politics are being put aside. There is not time to deal in partisan issues in this emergency...