Dear Editor,
I write in response to the suggestion in letter to the editor in the Jamaica Observer by Barrington Bryan, published March 22, 2016, who suggested that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won the recent general election by a Michael Manley-style response to the needs of the people.
Bryan needs to understand that there is no mimickry here. Both parties are committed to the empowerment of the people; they just differ about method.
Michael Manley used socialist-style intervention in the economy and destroyed all the good he had done. The JLP believes in private sector-led growth in a prudently managed market economy and succeeded in every administration.
And, by the way, Michael Manley did not invent the “people programmes”. Many of them, JAMAL (now Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning), National Youth Service, National Minimum Wage, made their first appearance in the throne speech to the 1969 budget when Edward Seaga was finance minister, and were in advanced stages of preparation when the JLP lost the 1972 election.
Much of Michael’s handsomeness came from wearing Seaga’s clothes.
Orville Brown
Bronx, NY
storyline6000@gmail.com
I write in response to the suggestion in letter to the editor in the Jamaica Observer by Barrington Bryan, published March 22, 2016, who suggested that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won the recent general election by a Michael Manley-style response to the needs of the people.
Bryan needs to understand that there is no mimickry here. Both parties are committed to the empowerment of the people; they just differ about method.
Michael Manley used socialist-style intervention in the economy and destroyed all the good he had done. The JLP believes in private sector-led growth in a prudently managed market economy and succeeded in every administration.
And, by the way, Michael Manley did not invent the “people programmes”. Many of them, JAMAL (now Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning), National Youth Service, National Minimum Wage, made their first appearance in the throne speech to the 1969 budget when Edward Seaga was finance minister, and were in advanced stages of preparation when the JLP lost the 1972 election.
Much of Michael’s handsomeness came from wearing Seaga’s clothes.
Orville Brown
Bronx, NY
storyline6000@gmail.com